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 really can’t see how other stations are promoting shows about lawyers when the Defenders was a hip, funny and well written show. Bring Back The Defenders!!
I LOVE The Defenders! I could never watch when it aired but ALWAYS watched onDemand. I hope they bring this back! Awesome show!
The defenders is an awesome show.. all in this house just love it.
We think that OConnel and Belushi are good together. Stop changing the time slot and let people now when its on. Big Big Big mistake to cancel it. PLEASE BRING IT BACK …..
Fantastic show!!! Ditto on all of the above! What happened to good taste.
I loved this show. Please return it to televison. Pick another time slot. Perhaps a Tuesday or Wednesday. Move it around like ou do other shows and then decide if it will stay or not. The rapport between Jerry OConnel and Jim Belushi, was great. Theywere real people defending real people.
I really can’t believe these networks….the shows you need to cancel…. you keep forcing on the viewers week after week…and the ones that REALLY ROCK you cancel….BRING BACK THE DEFENDERS….
Bring back “The Defenders”!!! I’m tired of the reality shows.
The show was creative and funny. If they cancel it, they will be making a mistake.
Bring back the Defenders, easy going enjoyable show. As others have commented, allocate a time slot and don’t keep changing it and running repeats in short order.
The original defenders lasted a long time, this one is more hip and should certainly stay the course.
These two guys are smart,intense and very funny…Bring back a great show!!!!!!!
The comments from Sandy above pretty well summarizes the case for the show. It was well written with a very good case and provided a pleasant change from the other network trash like the reality shows. Put it in a favorable time slot and leave it the Hell alone. It’ll draw an audience and pay off for the sponsors and network. Wise up execs!!
The Defenders was the highlight of my week. I watch only three shows and that was one of them.
I would make sure I wouldn’t have anything planned during that time slot. I would watch it with my daughter and friends, everyone that watched it loved it.
The problem was you kept changing the time slot. Kiss of death.
Please give it another chance for all its’ faithful viewers.
Renata
Please bring back! I loverd this show!
This show was great, and I can’t believe you are going to cancel it! Have you ever thought that it got “poor ratings” because 1-you started it late in the season, 2-started showing “reruns” after only 3 episodes, 3-moved it to Fri. nights when less people stay at home and watch t.v., or 4-took a couple months off during the holidays and didn’t even advertise it coming back for the 2 or 3 episodes that you finally showed when it did come back? You should have left it where it was when it “took off,” and you should have shown… Read more »
Kim, EXACTLY. This is why YouTube TV on Demand, iTunes On Demand and cable on demand are going to KILL these networks. The same thing will happen to them as what happened to the RIAA. People will stop watching altogether due to the contempt and carelessness they treat their quality shows. Everyone with an intelligence will be watching intelligent shows elsewhere… advertisers will be left appealing to the hicks watching season 12 reruns of some cooking show. Free to air TV is dead!
I LOVED this show. I really hope they bring it back.