The Deep End: Mixed Review Debut; Cancel or Keep It?

ABC unveiled their new legal drama, The Deep End, last night. The promos say that it’s like a cross between Grey’s Anatomy and L.A. Law. Can it get the same kind of big ratings?

The Deep End follows the lives of five eager and young first-year associates in a top Los Angeles law firm. It features the talents of Matt Long, Ben Lawson, Tina Majorino, Norbert Leo Butz, Leah Pipes, Billy Zane, Sherri Saum, Clancy Brown, Mehcad Brooks, and Rachelle Lefevre.

Interestingly, this is ABC’s second attempt at doing this show. There was another pilot that was shot in 2008 with some different actors in some of the roles. Zane replaced Roger Bart, Pipes filled Morena Baccarin’s role, and Saum replaced Gail O’Grady. Based on the mixed (at best) reviews the current version has received, the network might have been better off sticking with the original pilot.

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The young legal drama got off to a disappointing start last night with just 7.07 million viewers and a horrible 1.8/5 rating/share in the 18-49 demographic. That put the show in third place in total viewers and in fourth place for the target demographic. That is not a good start, especially compared to FlashForward’s debut in the same timeslot.

On top of that, new shows typically lose about at least 10% of the viewership in week two. Deep End will get even tougher competition when Survivor returns in early February.

ABC has six more episodes of Deep End waiting to be aired. If the ratings don’t improve, it’s very unlikely we’ll be seeing any more.

If the numbers fall, they could pull the series before all of the episodes have aired or they might just keep it on to fill space until the Winter Olympics are over and FlashForward returns on March 18th.

What do you think? Is this series on too early? Is this legal show worth watching or is it a crime against the audience? Cancel or keep it?