Court will soon be adjourned for the Mark-Paul Gosselaar drama, Raising the Bar. TNT has decided to cancel the series after two seasons but, there may still be more to come.
From executive producer Steven Bochco, Raising the Bar revolves around a group of law school classmates who work on opposite sides of the courtroom. The drama’s cast includes Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben, Currie Graham, Melissa Sagemiller, J. August Richards, Jonathan Scarfe, Teddy Sears, Jane Kaczmarek, Stacy Hall, Natalia Cigliuti, Paul Joyner, Wayne Lopez, Jon Polito, and Angel Oguendo.
Back on September 1, 2008, the series premiere attracted 7.7 million viewers. That set a record for TNT as the biggest audience for a new series launch on regular cable. Unfortunately, much of the audience didn’t return for later episodes which averaged 5.5 million. Despite an early decline, TNT renewed the series for a second season.
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On June 8th, season two of Raising the Bar attracted just 3.6 million and shed half of the audience of its lead-in, The Closer.
As a result of the low ratings, the cable channel has cancelled the legal drama. Via a statement, a TNT representative said, “Everyone at TNT had a great experience working on Raising the Bar with Steven Bochco and the rest of the show’s terrific cast and crew. We’re proud of the series and appreciate the efforts of all of the creative people who were involved. Unfortunately, ratings for Raising the Bar’s second season did not reach the levels required for TNT to renew the series.”
TNT had opted to split the second season into two parts. The first dozen episodes finished airing on August 24th. That leaves three episodes on the shelf. It was expected that they would air in early 2010 but they haven’t been given airdates yet.
What do you think? Are you upset that the series has been cancelled? Why do you think that Raising the Bar failed — acting, storylines, or something else?
Image courtesy TNT.
Totally bummed series was cancelled. Loved the characters, and loved the judges. My husband and I looked forward to finding out who Charlie would work for this spring.
It seems that anytime a show of substance about good people doing good things comes along, the television viewers of America prefer something that is dumbed down and requires no mental or emotional commitment. I was totally committed to this series, watched every episode (and repeats) and looked forward to it coming back. I’m very disappointed when the quality shows don’t make it. This one was a winner, not with the majority, but with those that like their TV programs to stimulate their mind.
So disappointed that this show has been cancelled. Great cast & story line. I hope that somehow TNT will reconsider & try airing it again even in re-runs to spark interest in viewership.
One of my favorite shows on tv. PUT IT BACK ON THE AIR!!
I really enjoyed the show. I thought the stories were creative and the characters were developing. Best Law show on TV. I will miss it…
I really enjoyed Raising the Bar – it seems that TNT Network did not give it much of a Chance .
Every time I enjoy a program it gets canceled !!— BOO to TNT !!
I tried to get into the show, but there were to many characters and I didn’t seem to care about any of them. It also seemed to be perdictable. You knew when they were going to win and if something good was going to happen to someone. No imagination and souless characters.
I disagree I thought they were very great characters and I really hope they bring it back!
I liked the show, even though it had some bad points. After the rocky start (the actors needed polish) it really did get better. I just recently noticed that we hadn’t had any recordings to watch, so I googled the show to find out what happened. Guess I will have more time to read now.
I kept checking TNT to see when it was going to start the new season, but as others have noted, the advertising was poor, and it was hard to keep track. I loved the actors and the stories, with the exception of the Judge’s that came off as simply loony and unbelievable. Really good show, and it is hard to find a good show these day’s~
That was the best show ever, including the cast. There could have been a spin off on just about ab\ny characters. Every show that has substance and not stupid are usually cancel. Why is that?
Especially, when the chararaters have opinions,depth, thoughts inwhich a person can think along with the cast. Please bring it back.
The show was great and the writing was good. Please bring the show back.
I loved that show, it seems like everytime I start to like a show it gets cancelled… Whats going on tnt, that show was one of the best shows on tnt… If any show should get cancelled it should that corny hawthorne!!! Not RAISING THE BAR, I agree that the show was poorly advertised…
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@Sheila: It means that comments are read before they’re posted to the site. It’s to weed out spam and vulgar language/comments.
I really enjoyed the show but the advertising for its restart was poor and there were too many characters and substory lines. The silliest was the Jane Kasmarek character and her law clerk and his closeted sexuality. She wan not reallistic at all…having done all those jobs in my life it was a bit too familiar to be real. Give it a redo, some advertising and put it back on. Great cast and good stories.
Plus I notice that when the lead cuts their hair the shoe gets the ax. There’s precedence.
I, as well really enjoyed this show, but like so many others when the second season came on I didn’t know until 3 show in, and that’s just because I ran into it one night. I think this show had a great idea, it reminded me of Al Pacino’s great “…And Justice For All”. Lets hope it finds a new home on a network that gives it a good time-slot and better advertising or that TNT gets their act together.
Raising the Bar will be missed. I agree that with better advertisement the show would have had a larger audience. The story lines were interesting and the characters were well developed. The actors became complex personalities that were believable. I have a large family including 9 children that are all married with families. My entire family looked forward to watching this show. It is unfortunate that had this show been handled differently it would have remained profitable, and we could have had the pleasure of watching this show evolve.