Pete Kaczmarek and Nick Morelli consistently get themselves and their clients out of some pretty big jams. Unfortunately, there’s one that they can’t escape. Their TV series, The Defenders, has been cancelled by CBS after one season.
The Defenders follows a pair of Las Vegas lawyers who will do just about anything for their Sin City clients. They often take on cases no one else will touch and try to keep their sanity while doing it. The TV show stars Jerry O’Connell, Jim Belushi, Jurnee Smollett, Tanya Fischer, and Gillian Vigman.
The TV series got off to a decent start with a 2.9 rating in the all-important 18-49 demographic and 12.17 million viewers. In weeks two and three, those numbers started to tumble however with the demo falling 14% and then another 12% in weeks two and three. Airing on Wednesday nights, the ratings kept falling and hit a low of a 1.5 in the demo and 6.8 million.
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Because The Defenders was already registering poor numbers, CBS decided to try it on Friday nights, an evening with fewer viewers. If most fans followed and the show could sustain the Wednesday numbers, CBS would likely have been satisfied.
That didn’t happen and the remaining six installments fell even lower, hitting a 1.1 in the demo. That was a much worse performance than the timeslot’s previous occupant, already-cancelled Medium.
While The Defenders was supposedly still in contention for a second season until recently, most knew it was a long shot at best.
Word is that CBS has now cancelled The Defenders. All 18 produced episodes have aired. The series finale ran on March 11th.
What do you think? Are you sorry that there won’t be a second season for The Defenders?
Wondering where the rest of your shows stand? Check our CBS cancel/renew page.
Image courtesy CBS.
I loved The Defender’s. It was a great show and I had been looking forward to it’s return. They should bring it back. I have two small children and I work full time and this is one of the shows that I actually went out of my way to watch!
Sorry to hear that the show was cancelled, seems it always happens to the one I really like.
I like all the stars and thought they all worked well together.
great show..love james and jerry together…dont know what cbs was thinking…someone else please pick up this show..i truely miss watching them…
I am watching it on Netflix now and think it is a great show. They should bring this back.
I love this show. I cant remember a show i liked more since moonlighting. The chemistry between the two leads was very funny and the cases were very interesting. This is a big disappointment.
I just watched this entire series on Netflix. The commercials that I saw talking about the show when it originally aired were few and they made the actors look like slimy 2 bit shysters. But low and behold, it was actually a very well done, impeccably acted and well written gem. Unlike so many of the law dramas out there, they didn’t win every case. They were fully fleshed and developed characters from episode one on. What CBS didn’t figure was, Friday has a lineup on other networks that people prefer to watch. Once they screwed up and moved the… Read more »
I just watched the entire season on Netflix, loved the show and all the characters and now find out it’s been cancelled. I am very disappointed.
I was looking forward for season 2. I cant’ believe they get a good show and than they cancel it!! Not fair. Jim Belushi and the rest of the cast are just very entertaining.
i’m from belgium and i watched it too. i’m disappointed it doesnt go on for a 2nd season. i don’t get it in the us with all those big networks. here we have 2 big tv stations and they air shows for 10 years, all new seasons. ok sometimes the ratings drop, but they always get up again. give the shows a chance to evolve
Agree. Pitch to another network. Great story lines along with interesting humor. Aweome cast. Bring it back
I watch the entire season of The Defender on netflix and really love the show. I am very disapointed that they decided not to renew the series. I just thought that the charaters was so great i would have loved to seen more of them.
I just finished watching the entire first season on netflix and loved it. Maybe if cbs would do a better job of marketing a progam, I would have found it during the season. No season 2? That sucks.
I really loved ths show and was not pleased to hear it is not coming back. Where do they poll their info from?
Im thinking they need to pitch it to another network. CBS does not know what they had. It is a great show. They need to get rid of all the stupid reality shows. Where is the talent their! Lets boycot CBS for their brainless choice to cancel the Defenders!
I’m very disappointed that the Defenders got cancelled. It was one of my favorite shows. I guess all I can look foward to is buying the series on DVD.I can’t believe that it got cancelled and yet the “SIMPSONS” is still on,figure that one out!!!!