Tonight marks the final episode of The Defenders for the season. How likely is the CBS freshman series to be back next fall with season two?
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 TV show stars veterans Jerry O’Connell and Jim Belushi as well as Jurnee Smollett, Tanya Fischer, and Gillian Vigman.
For its premiere, the series 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 now-cancelled, The Whole Truth.
Unfortunately, The Defenders’ audience slowly eroded over the course of the season and by January had hit a new low of a 1.5 rating in the demo and 6.81 million viewers. CBS switched the series to Fridays in February and, not surprisingly, the ratings got worse. On Fridays, Defenders has averaged a 1.3 demo rating and that’s worse than what now-cancelled Medium was getting in the same timeslot.
If you look at the season averages, The Defenders is one of CBS’ worst performers. Though the network has not officially cancelled it yet, it is hard to imagine that CBS execs would consider renewing it for a second season.
What do you think? Should The Defenders be cancelled? Why do you think the series hasn’t attracted a bigger audience?
Image courtesy CBS.
please please please please please… dont cancel this program… its one of the best on tv !!
The Defenders is highly entertaining and enjoyable. I come from the legal field and really appreciate this series.
PLEAAAASSSSSE DON’T CANCEL IT.
I love defenders! its funny, serious and keeps me watching! love the actors and story lines. Its different and I love that its based on real lawyers out of Las Vegas. I am an avided tv watcher and very picky about what I watch and this show kept my attention from the first 5 minutes I watched it and belieive me thats hard to do! please dont cancel it….find it a home! If not in a time slot I can watch it, I will tape it!!!!
Please renew this show. I have the same feelings as mention by all above. I would love reruns during the summer…..LOVE this show. Moving to Friday nights was not the best move,thankgoodness for DVR’s. Renew, renew, renew
CBS execs. have got to be idiots to loose this show “The Defenders”. I have thouroughly enjoyed every episode. I like the actors, the charactors and the story lines. And I was dvr- ing it to boot. They should show it in reruns in the off season and then find it a good home for a second season, much like seinfeld did. They are making some bad choices and decisions those folks. Like quietly removing the CBS morning show crew and replacing them with who knows who these characters are. I don’t watch that show anymore.
Leave the Defenders on. The show is a lot better than some of the CSI’s, like how many times can one group figure out the same crime?
show was great, The Defenders should not be canceled
Great show, please don’t cancel it. I miss it!
They should give ita shot. They have a new feel to the show, which is hard to find now a days and I like the way they work together. I was wary when I first heard about it, lawyers……yeah. I ended up watchn the first one thinking it wasnt half but and sat through every other one of them only to find out they might cancel after the first season? You have all this low budget crab being forced down americas throats and able to run 5 years before they final go away, assuming they dont keep going just to… Read more »
CBS should keep shows like CSI Miami, The Good Wife and the Defenders on their line up.
They are acdtion packed, entertaining and keep listener’s interest.
Please keep me as an avid CBS listener.
Keep The Defenders on – it’s at least not a carbon copy of all other legal shows. It is refreshing legal show and not a “dark” show, but fun to watch. I’m sad you are even thinking of cancelling it. :o(
Please don’t cancel the Defenders. Part of the problem was that CBS moved it around, it wasn’t on for a couple of weeks when Blue Bloods took it’s spot and it’s on too early – it should be in the 9:00PM (central time) slot not 7:00PM. I liked Medium too but it was hard to see it at 7:00PM on a Friday nite. It’s like a death sentence putting it at that time. Even 8:00PM would be better.
Don’t cancel the Defenders, I love it. James Belushi is awesome !!!!
Please don’t cancel The Defenders. This is a really good show and apparently you have other fans that like it also. If you want to cancel a show move the defenders to another time slot…cancel Survivor!!! That show has run it’s course.
Please don’t cancel The Defenders. I DVR it every week. Great story lines for light entertainment.