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.
CBS has sucked for years while ABC has walked all over them and still continues to do so. The defenders is the only show I watch on their network and it’s really great. I guess they should try another network and let CBS continue swimming in the cesspool they call TV.
OOPs my mistake! I misspelled Jerry O’Connells name on my previous comment. (spelled it McConnell). My apologies to Jerry. Don’t know what I was thinking.
Do NOT cancel the show!!!!! We love it!!!!!!!
The Defenders is a perfect combination of humor and drama!!!!! Do NOT cancel the show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We love it!!!!!! Balushi and Akroid together again was fantastic, too!!!!
I love The Defenders. Why, why, why are you taking the show off? I work in the mental health field and look forward to waking up or coming home from work to watch TV that entertains and insterests me. The Defenders was very entertaining and funny. I looked forward to watching it on Wednesday nights and when it was moved, I looked forward to Friday nights. The stupid basketball games were on (great stuff (NOT)) and when that is over, no Defenders. Come on CBS, I just switched to you due to NBC getting rid of great people on the… Read more »
NO NO NO do not cancel this show! I love this show and Jim Belushi & Jerry McConnell. It is the best attorney show (along with Harry’s Law) that I have seen on TV! I agree that CBS needs to stop changing time slots. Pick a good week night when the competition sucks on the other networks and let it find its audience. CBS has the best programming on right now. They should not screw it up. Don’t cancel it!
You can’t be serious! We really enjoy “The Defenders” and don’t want to see it canceled! The actors are great as is the writing. Please, Please, Please, keep the Defenders on the air!!!!
I love this show and it seems everytime they put on something I like they cancel it.
The shows they should get rid of are some of those stupid reality shows. They put
on more and more of them and they just get dumber and dumber. KEEP THE DEFENDERS!!
I was so disappointed to learn that The Defenders might be cancelled. This is one of my favorites … and I try really hard to watch it every week, even though Friday at 8 is a really hard time slot. Please do not cancel this show. Give it another try … at a better time slot. LPD
It’s been hard watching this show because CBS Idiots have moved it all over the schedule so I never knew which night it was going to air. I think Blue Bloods is the worst show Tom has ever done.
Please don’t cancel that show, I also love it like the others, but put it wednesday not friday, people have parties, dates, movies to go to on fridays and when the season started , you saw the ratings beeing good so there you go!!!
This is one of the best shows on CBS –it cannot be cancelled! What else will I watch, other than “Blue Bloods”?
I absolutely loved this show! It was the only show this year that I looked forward to viewing except for Men of a Certain Age. Love that show too. I thought The Defenders was a sure fire hit. Both of the leads are talented and very funny. It had an interesting premise. Was shot in Vegas! Lots of great story lines could come out of the situation. I do not understand why it was not more popular. Very upset that it may not be back. Only new show of the season that I liked!
Really like the show. Followed it to Friday’s even though we didn’t previously watch much TV on Fridays.
i liked the show and i’m sorry to see it go, but i guess ratings will probably rule