The Protector: Lifetime Cancels Ally Walker TV Series; No Season Two

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?