Lifetime has decided to cancel their Sunday night drama, The Protector, after one season on the air. The decision doesn’t come as a surprise since the writing has been on the wall for awhile. While the Ally Walker series has some devoted fans, the ratings just weren’t high enough for a second season.
The Protector follows Gloria Sheppard (Walker), a single mother and detective in the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division. A recent divorcee and single mother, Gloria has to perform her duties as a homicide detective while taking care of her young sons, Nick (Sage Ryan) and Leo (Thomas Robinson). They all move in with her brother, Davey Sheppard (Chris Payne Gilbert), and he helps her raise the boys. At work, Gloria works on some of Los Angeles’ most high profile crimes with her partner, Detective Michelle Dulcett (Tisha Campbell-Martin). They work alongside officer Ramon “Romeo” Rush (Terrell Tilford), Detective Buerge (Larry Joe Campbell) and Detective Van Stone (James Hanlon), while being overseen by commanding officer Lieutenant Felix Valdez (Miguel Ferrer).
The drama debuted on Sunday June 12th to 1.89 million viewers and a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Viewership for the following episodes declined and the first six episodes averaged 1.37 million viewers and a 0.4 rating.
In August, Lifetime shifted The Protector to Monday nights at 10pm to make way for another new drama called Against the Wall. The first episode in that new Monday timeslot dropped to just 849,000 viewers with a 0.3 rating. The following week, Lifetime shifted Protector out of primetime to 11pm where the numbers (not surprisingly) dropped again to 600,000 viewers and a 0.2 rating in the demo.
Though there won’t be a second season for The Protector, Lifetime has indicated that they will air the two remaining installments, on September 12th and September 19th.
While The Protector has been cancelled, no decision has been made about the fate of Against the Wall. That freshman series has significantly improved on Protector’s ratings, despite a decline in Drop Dead Diva’s numbers.
What do you think? Will you miss The Protector? Was it worth watching? Should it have been cancelled or renewed for season two?
Image courtesy Lifetime.
I really enjoyed the Protector and wish you would bring it back for another season.
I really liked the show. Good acting, it should have been given a longer run.
I love the show and will miss it. With time shifting and a PVR I watch it every week. Soory it is cancelled. I watched Ally in Profiler too. Another show I loved.
I really liked this show. Is there any way it could be considered for another season? Put it in prime time and advertise it like other shows. I found it accidentally.
I also enjoyed the show
Sad to see it go so soon, but also not surprising. Lifetime, normally a very savvy operation, really made some bonehead decisions in running this series — from its orginal night to a different night to a different slot not even in prime time! You make these kinds of moves with an established show to boost new programming, not with a brand new show trying to build an audience. It’s like Lifetime was trying to kill it off! The irony is (and this has been borne out time after time with both broadcast and cable networks) whatever they ultimately replace… Read more »
Probably the ratings could’ve been improved by less extraneous noise and better speech. The way the actors speak these days is terrible, and sometimes almost impossible to understand!
I REALLY enjoyed this show and will miss it so much! I loved the characters. Thouht I found a show to watch between Drop Dead Diva and Army Wives. Shame on Lifetime for not giving this show, which featured a strong female lead character, the go ahead for another season.
I loved this show. I am so pi$$ed off it was cancelled. I am tired of getting involved in shows only to have them cancelled. I guess it wasn’t dirty enough. You know sometimes I want a storyline not an amateur porn show. The higher ups suck!
I really liked this show. Too bad they canceled it.
Is there any damn show that gets cancelled that you people DON’T enjoy?? Swear to geebus, you have no taste. This show dragged, was cliched and formulaic, in other words boring. Along with reality shows, we have more than enough cop tv out there. Try something original.
I loved The Protector and will miss it tons
Darn! I really enjoyed this show!!! I’m a single parent and Allty really made me feel good about myself! The characters were great! I will miss the show!!!!
I too enjoyed this show and will miss it. Should have given it another chance and 2nd season.
i too enjoyed this show and will miss it. Like Ally Walker a lot. Oh well, another good one bites the dust I guess