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.
PleasePLEASEPlease DON’T cancel this terrific show!!! Instead, give it a good time slot. People need to find this to know what they’ve been missing
One of the most entertaining shows you people have had for a long time. I can understand why you are losing ground statisically in the total share of viewiers you have overall. Fire the person who made the decision, Hit the right time slot. You have a winner don`t lose it
Love “The Defenders” any other network would give this great show a chance not shuffle it all over the place. 8:00 on Friday probably is the worst time slot for an adult show that should be on at 9:00 earliest. Why are they saving the boring “Blue Blood” and dumping a truly entertaining show like “The Defenders.”
Please D O N O T cancel “The Defenders”.
I agree with DAVE please stop changing the times of shows….
This is my favourite program Get agrip!!!!!
We love this show. Jack especially likes it and he is particular about the shows he watches. So, please do not cancel this show. It is a breath of fresh air – and we watch a lot of CBS prime time – in fact it is the best, but don’t take off a good show like The Defenders!!!
PLEASE don’t cancel this show!! One of the best in long time!
I love this show!!!! I would be horribly disappointed if it were cancelled! In my personal opinion it is the only show CBS airs worth watching – my roommate would agree. I don’t have a preference to which night it airs since we dvr everything anyways, but I’d say it deserves a Thursday night slot. The cast is incredible, Belushi & O’Connell have a natural, believable chemistry and Tanya Fishers character works so well!!! Its awesome, by far my favorite legal series – please keep this show alive!!!
The Defenders is an excellent show, can’t imagine why you would want to cancel it!!
The Defenders is one of my favorite shows and I always look forward to watching it. CBS should NOT cancel it. It is a great show that deserves to stay on the air
The Defenders is great. Do not cancel. Love it.
my friend and I love the defenders and want it back,—————-p l e a s e!
This is a good show and needs to be given more time to acquire a following. You have many shows on that I wouldn’t give air time to. Try again. Perhaps a different time slot would help…..like Wednesdays.
The Defenders does NOT need to be canceled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is a GREAT show! I absolutely LOVE it! It’s got the perfect amount of drama and comedy the way a show should! I HATE that it has been moved to Fridays.. theres no wonder it does worse on fridays.. most of the shows on friday do bad.. people ARENT HOME!! I always record the shows.. but I am really bad about forgetting to set the friday shows up to record.. it’s just a busy day for people.. not a good day for a good show to be on tv. This show… Read more »
The Defenders is an incredible show and should not be canceled. With that said fridays are terrible nights for any television show, especially when you move it there mid-season. When you switch the day something is being played people then have to go out of their way for television and that simply does not happen most of the time. I just hope the also include all the people recording and watching online in their polls.
Do not cancel this Show!!! You need to put it back on Wednesday Night or any night other than Friday
The Defenders is one of the best new shows out this year. Both guys seem to work well together and my wife and I are already hooked. It was very confusing when they kept switching the time and days around. I am sure that is why it has lost a lot of people. No one knew when it was going to be on. Put the show on after Chaos or move it to Wednesday.