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.
I love the Defenders, hope it comes back next season. Its hard to watch good shows because they are usually against other good shows or they are switching the times or days on them. Most shows I watch are at 9 pm, and against other shows I want to watch and have to record. I think that affects the rating of all the shows. And yet at earlier time slots there is nothing to watch. It’s a same.
I thought The Defenders was a great show and I looked foward to seeing it every Wednesday night. But, I am a huge Smallville fan. So, when they moved the show to Friday nights at the same time that Smallville was on….well it was no contest. They should keep it in the Wednesday night time slot.
We love this show, please do not cancel it. We watch most of our shows recorded through the DVR and catch up on the weekends!
Great show, the chemistry between Jim and JErry is amazing, kind of like the one you saw for “Allan Shore and Denny Crane” give it a chance, put it in a better air time and you will be surprised.
GREAT SHOW! DIDN’T GET A CHANCE BEFORE RE-RUNS STARTED AND NIGHTS CHANGED. JIM & JERRY A GOOD TEAM, SUTTLE HUMOR, REFRESHING FOR A CHANGE. NOTHING BEATS A GOOD COURT ROOM DRAMA.
GREAT SHOW!!! Shouldn’t be cancelled, it didn’t get a chance. Re-runs started then nights changed, NOT FAIR. Entertaining, low on violence & gore. Jim Belushi & Jerry O’Connel had good chemistry and that suttle humor that was refressing for a change. No More Cop Shows! Nothing Beats a good Court Room Drama!
Please bring it back on Wednesdays. Belushi and O’Connell are great entertainment.
Love the show, don’t cancel!
LOVE LOVE that show!!!! Please don’t cancel it!!!!!!!!
Love the show – has a combination of humor and detective with courtroom hijinx (kinda like Perry Mason always pulling off something in court) — sure hope it doesn’t get cancelled. Needs to move from Friday and find a show to lead it — or give it another chance on USA (like Monk found his home)
LOVE the show! Please bring it back in the Fall! Thanks
Love this show. Very entertaining, and while some things (i.e. the timeline and progression of a case) are inaccurate, which is expected in a show with a 1 hr timeslot, for the most part it is a very real show that portrays the runnings of a small office and the interactions of a small firm. The actors are great (really!), and the show itself is entertaining, and I love it, as do my partners. The reason I think the show may have not-so-great ratings is because it has been very poorly advertised. Everyone that I have suggested this show to,… Read more »
My husband and I also loved the show…..DO NOT CANCEL!!!
love that show, don’t cancel it
I think it should come back on a Wednesday or Thursday slot. Me and my wife watched it, but we have two shows in it’s time slot that we record so we watched it on the on demand channel. You have a ton of competion on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Many of use record our shows and you can only record two at one time and can’t watch anything, but whats recording or whats record. The show was great and I hope it comes back.