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 am very dissappointed!
CBS proves once again they are idiots.
This was a great program. CBS you are really a bunch of fools – I agree with “Monica” – hopefully another network will pick it up. The rest of your “lineups” are pathetic at best.
I’m so upset with these dumb networks! I love this program! They are so hilarious and make such a great comedic team! I hope another network picks this one up….
The Defenders was great. CBS must be crazy. I loved that show, never missed it.
Once again the people in power show how stupid they are!
Season Two!!! The coolest law show on TV.
We loved The Defenders – can’t believe it was cancelled. I think they should have given it some more time. It was a really good show and Jim Belushi was great!
Don’t usually leave comments but had to on this one. The Defenders is the best off the wall legal series since Boston Legal and there is nothing like it on air at the moment. Does CBS think that a steady diet of cop shows and legal soaps is what the great American public want. What about some verity. This show was entertaining without taking itself too seriously. Great acting and good story lines. I would make one criticism though and that the minor story line is sometimes hard to follow and a little disjointed but apart from that CBS should… Read more »
I am from Mexico and my boyfriend and I love so much The Defenders. We don’t understand what american swant on TV. The cast was awesome, the script, everything. It was original, funny and different from the others lawyers series.
We are still watching the season because it’s on TV recently but after hearing the news of cancellation we were devastated. It was one of our favorites.
I can’t believe CBS cancelled the Defenders, and renewed some of the junk.
I loved the defenders. Booooo! To the network
The Defenders was a quirky mixture of drama and humor. I am truly sorry that it was cancelled. The best part of the series is that it didn’t take itself too seriously, such as Law and Order etc. The show has a good tongue in cheek balance. The bottom line is that it was entertaining.
We are really sorry that CBS cancelled The Defenders. The show was really great,
There are so many realty shows that it was nice to watch a weekly series. The show
was really great and we really enjoyed it. I guess if it not a realty show the viewing
is poor. We thought the Wednesday night was a better time but we followed it to
the Friday night time.
It is inevitable that if my sister and I like a show, it is sure to be cancelled after one season. I hope it isn’t us causing the problem. We loved Firefly–cancelled. I can’t even remember the names of the other shows, but I assure you it happens a lot.