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.
this show should definitely stay on the air– with some of the junk out there – it had a plot and some defense and some humor . Look at what the fans write!! Give it another chance.
I WANT THE DEFENDERS! LOVE O’CONNEL AND BELUSHI!
Lose the Defenders and maintain some dignity for CBS.
Keep this show. IT is the best on tv. I love it and james is awesome.
Love the Show “The DEfenders. Keep it on the air.
Love the show. Please don’t cancel.
KEEP IT! IT’S A WONDERFUL SERIES WITH GREAT CHARACTERS! CBS would be crazy to drop this. Unbelievable. Much better than Bluebloods for sure. Don’t need yet another cop show!
Bring Back The Defenders!!!
Please don’t cancel The Defenders. Love the show and was disappointed it was replaced on Wed nights. I like it better than Blue Bloods by far. Like both of the stars and has good story lines. Keep more go0d dramss on and get rid of the reality shows.
I was very disappointed to see the blue bloods in the slot the defenders had. I like blue bloods but I really enjoyed the defenders. Hope to see it back soon. I will be searching for it in the lineups. It is very entertaining and funny. Love the cast.
I was so disappointed to find Blue Blood on instead of The Defenders. Jim Bulushi and Jerry O’ Connell are a great team! It is my favorite Wed. night weekly TV show to watch.
I will miss The Defenders. The last episode they moved for some dance competition show, but didn’t update my cable provider’s grid, so I missed it. Now, this week it’s gone, and not reschedulted in the next two weeks. The show has good scripts, showing good people caught in a jam, with creative legal work getting them a break. It is fun to watch, with good flawed characters we came to care about. I’d be sorry to know that the numbers slipped too much to keep it on the air.
Just to clarify: The Defenders was NOT pre-empted for “some dance competition.” That was CBS’s Live To Dance. All of CBS’s lineup for that night was pushed back because of President Obama’s speech on the Tucson shooting.
Please KEEP The Defenders! I find that there is very little on TV that actually holds my interest. I enjoy the actors, their chemistry, the humor, and their human side. I’m up 5:00 A.M. every morning, but I haved stayed up late on Wednesdays to watch the Defenders. Even if I try to stay up for Blue Bloods, I’m sure I would end up dozing off…..boring!
Leave the show on. It is funny and the show has class.
My husband and I really enjoy the show and were beginning to get worried when
we couldn’t find. Great characters and stories Love Bulushi