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, keep it! Just because some shows are extremely loud and obnoxious, it does not mean that they should replace this program’
Because most people think that loud and obnoxious ir good.
One of the most entertaining programs on T.V. and there are others that should be cancelled before. I believe people are in for “Light and Airy” and not a series that complements the negative things going on today. Big thumbs up for The Defenders.
Don’t cancel it. CBS tried to kill it by moving it to Fridays. It’s a good show.”Don’t be stupid”!
Love this show. Please don’t cancel. why do they always take a good show and move it to Friday’s. This always drops the ratings and kills a great series.
do not cancel this show–give it a chance– the chemistry of the actors is great
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don’t cancel The Defenders. I loved the show. It had great actors, story lines, humor, everything. I hated it when Medium was cancelled, but if it had to go, I was very pleased to have The Defenders take its slot. Friday night had a really good line-up and now with The Defenders gone, they brought in Chaos. I watched the first episode and thought, “is this a joke?” Oh my gosh, talk about a dumb show. I will watch one more episode just because there is nothing else in that time slot, but if it isn’t even… Read more »
The show was refreshing and different from most shows. My husband and I and my son love the show; please do not cancel it.
I love this show with Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell. They are a perfect team. Perhaps you didn’t give it enough time and especially moving to different slots made it worse. I’ve seen this happen over and over again – many great shows have been removed that weren’t given a chance. Please bring them back. I really looked forward to this show when I discovered it by accident.
M.C. Sparks
I love the defenders and will watch it over other shows. Please do not cancel The Defenders.
My husband & I really enjoyed the show. We don’t want it cancelled and miss watching it.
it’s different! drama+comedie+romance..receipt for the best show! i do lik it very much! Please continue..
love zoe bring it back
Loved the show – WANT IT BACK!
Please don’t cancel the show. It was very entertaining and we would miss it. Noone asked us! It was one of the best shows on TV.