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.
We’ve been looking all over the schedule for The Defenders. Although we’re classified as “Senior Citizens” (both of us hate the word Elderly!), we’ve enjoyed the show and hope it will be renewed. It’s been on at 8pm here but, if it’s later, we’ll record it to watch at an earlier time. We decided to “Google it” when we couldn’t find it on the current schedule. Jim Belushi is a great actor and it’s interesting to see him in a role so different from his “According to Jim.” Please keep it on!
Love Love LOVE! I’m so frustrated with great shows getting cancelled. I pray this show isn’t another casualty. Its smart, hysterically funny and very touching. Belushi actually has annoyed me in everything else he’s ever been in but this show … Love the guy! His and O’Connell’s banter is fantastic. And the storylines are original and interesting. It just needs to find the right timeslot and BOOM! it WILL get the viewers.
Please bring it back. My husband and I love the Defenders and we have even recomended to friends and family. We always DVR the show to make sure we didn’t miss it. Please don’t cancel it!!! We have been looking for it the entire week in our tv guide and smart search until we decided to google it online to find out what happen.
My wife and I love this show. Why do the best shows always get canceled? Please, don’t cancel it. Jim Belushi is awesome.
We believe you should bring it back. My wife and I both really enjoyed watching The Defenders. There are other shows that should be cancelled before you cancel The Defenders. The show you put in its place is really bad. I doubt we watch it again.
My wife and I love this show. It’s quirky characters make the story lines work. Why is it that the entertaining shows get cancelled. We look forward to the weekly episodes.
Show is the best on TV!!
Please do not cancel – I know it is not counted if you DVR a show but we are early risers so most nights we are in bed at 9:00 and DVR is the best option. Even when it went to friday at an earlier time we still DVR’d the episodes so we could watch them again (they are so funny). We LOVE this show. KEEP IT ON!!!!!
The problem is the show is in the wrong time slot. It should be on Mondays or Fridays between 7 PM and 8 PM. Try moving it to even Wednesdays right after Survivor and I KNOW the rtings will pick up. DO NOT cancel this show. The camaraderie between Morelli and Kazmareck is so funny. They are hilarious.
I loved the show. It always left me with a warm feeling. I was never a fan of Jim B. but he has won me over. The chemistry between the two men is wonderful. There is so much trash on the tube these days I found it very refreshing. I am very disappointed not to be able to look forward to The Defenders any more. Maybe it doesn’t appeal to the 30-40 year olds and that is why it never “took off” but it is criminal to cancel this show and leave us with Jersey Shores.
This is a great show. I think it failed because the TV execs kept moving the timeslot around.
We love the Defenders. Please don’t cancel one of favortie shows. We always looked forwarded each week to spending an hour with the Defenders……
I feel this is the best show on TV. It’s certainly not boring and has plenty of humor. Maybe the reason for the ratings is the time slot it’s in. I really can’t believe Two and a Half Men has such a high rating being all it is about is sex and booze, and two digenerates.
The Defenders is a clean and entertaining show like I said one of the best in a long time. Hope in stays on for many more seasons
I loved this show. In my opinion, it was one of the tjop three sitcoms on television.
I think CBS should reconsider canceling the show.
Sincerely,
Dan Tonning
Why would you cancel this show? Us baby boomers, the ones that like good TV, love this show!!!