Back in the 1960’s, CBS had a successful courtroom series starring E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed. Now, CBS has premiered a very different legal TV show with the same name, The Defenders. The first one ran for four seasons. Will the new version outlast it or be quickly cancelled?
The Defenders follows a pair of lawyers operating out of Las Vegas. They’ll do just about anything for their Sin City clients, often taking on cases no one else will touch, and try to keep their sanity while doing it. The new TV show stars Jerry O’Connell, Jim Belushi, Jurnee Smollett, Tanya Fischer, and Gillian Vigman.
In its first week on the air, The Defenders dominated its timeslot with a 2.9 in the coveted 18-49 demographic and 12.2 million total viewers. That put the new show in first place in both categories and essentially doubled the performance of ABC’s new law show, The Whole Truth.
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On the downside, Defenders did lose 27% of the demo audience from lead-in Criminal Minds. It also lost viewers during the hour but that wasn’t huge. In the same timeslot, last year’s CSI: NY scored a much better 4.0 and 15.06 million.
Ultimately though, The Defenders had a solid premiere (especially if you compare it to Whole Truth). If they can retain or grow the audience, CBS should be quite happy with this new drama. They certainly can use it since some of their returning dramas have been around for quite some time and have been showing audience declines.
But, what do you think? Did you tune in? Is The Defenders a show that you’d watch week after week or would you rather see it cancelled?
Image courtesy CBS.
I love the show. It is fun to watch and the characters have good chemistry.
Do not cancel.
keep the show
With the defenders on in the early time slot, it makes Friday evening the best veiwing on TV. Keep it on>
Love the show Look forward to watching it each week why would they think of taking it off the air.
We LOVE this show!! Please bring it back. The stories, the humor, the moral points just made one feel good. Jim and Jerry play off each other beautifully.
Time slot changes and pre-emptions do not help develop a following.
Keep the Defenders, we all loved watching The Defenders than Blue Bloods what happened?? Who gets to vote for these shows? I wish they would call people I know to vote for a change, they would all vote for the Defenders and Blue Blood’s!
i loved this show. why was it canceled? Jim is such a funny person.
Please don’t cancel this show. I look forward to it coming on every week. It is one of the best shows I’ve seen on regular television in a very long time. I loved the Wednesday time slot better than the Friday time slot. People are most likely to be home on a Wednesday evening to watch this fantastic show. No one really watches anything on Friday nights. Usually out starting their weekends. It is a KEEPER!!!!!
Keep it. Best new show on TV. Fun to watch!!
Love the show…. I watch it every week.
Keep the show!!!!!!!! We love the show. When will the show be on again we are missing it.
Keep it!!! It’s a my husband and I watch every Friday ! I was so disappointed cuz it wasn’t showing today.:-(
Please keep it. We both love to watch it. What happened for this season? Do you plan to bring it back again?
Please keep it, my wife and I enjoy watching each week.
Do not cancel this show. It is a great great show with great actors. LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!