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.
WHAT?! CANCEL THE DEFENDERS ? NO WAY! A GREAT SHOW AND WITH
A PERMANENT TIME SPOT THE AUDIENCE SHOULD GROW IMMENSELY…
PLEASE…. DO NOT CANCEL THIS SHOW!!
The Defenders is one of the Best shows on TV. It would be surely missed by more then the 6 million viewers your Neilsen Ratings claim! The right time slot is the trick. Friday is a bad TV day for most of us but I always catch the show on demand or the NET
FOX pick up this show now it’s a winner! You can take that to the bank!
I can’t believe it! It was the ONLY show on tv that I made a point of watching.
If I really enjoy a tv show then it’s sure to be canceled.
I think my IQ is above 100 so that means I’m out of touch with America.
defenders –no dont cancel–it had revelance to todays importances –humor –great characters— when it switched nights i had just become used to having a certain type of evening with them at the uual time—switching made me wonder where it went then i bumped into it on friday–the mentalist did the same thing to me—just when i was settled in—it got lost to a diff night—it takes a while to develop a show and its personality– it took about a year for me to finally relate to the new ncis show—now i find it fabulous !
I love this show please don’t take it off. The show is enjoyable. This is my favorite show. “DO NOT CANCEL THIS SHOW”! Why would you guys remove a perfectly good show?
Please do not cancel this show. Jim Belushi is a national treasure.
Dont CANCEL this show! Give it another season! Love it!
The Defenders is superb! PLEASE DO NOT CANCEL. It s my favorite show and never failed to entertain. The Wednesday night time slot was perfect as a mid week delight.
I love THE DEFENDERS and its cast. Please do not cancel. I will watch whatever night they would air.
Best show its fun they have chemistry,CBS well the loser along with the viewers
I love this show and I followed it from Wednesday to Friday night. I will follow it to what ever night it goes to, if it is conflict with another of my favorites, I will record one or the other. Please do not cancel this show.
I like “The Defenders”. Don’t cancel it. Give it a chance. Put it on another day.
It seems that they want it to fail when they move it to Friday.
Please do not cancel this show. It is an excellent drama and comedy combined. Chaos is crap!!!
We LOVE this show…….Do Not Cancel the Defenders!!!!!! We always looked forward to
watching this show, we had it scheduled on our Wed night list to watch. CBS needs to put it on any other night than Friday! The reason the ratings went down so on Fridays is
because NO ONE is home on Friday nights. Do Not Cancel this show we Love this new series, its a nice change to all the ‘reality shows’!!!
Great show. Stop messing with the day and time slots. My preference 8 or 9pm on Wednesdays.