Court will soon be adjourned for ABC’s new legal drama. The Whole Truth has been cancelled.
Airing on Wednesday nights, The Whole Truth stars TV veterans Rob Morrow and Maura Tierney. He plays a powerful defense attorney who was raised on the wrong side of the tracks. Tierney is on the opposite side as a Senior Trial Assistant District Attorney whose father was a sheriff. Viewers are shown how each side builds their case, using their own version of “the truth.” The rest of the cast includes Eamonn Walker, Sean Wing, Anthony Ruivivar, and Christine Adams.
For whatever reason, most viewers haven’t been willing to even give the series a try. The legal drama got off to a very poor start right out of the gate. Whole Truth debuted on September 22th to a poor 1. 5 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 4.85 million viewers. The news got even worse in week two and the rating dropped by 20%. The last two episodes seem to have evened off, registering a 1.3 rating and about 4.4 million total viewers.
The Whole Truth’s been ABC’s lowest rated show, attracting an even lower rating than My Generation; another freshman drama that was pulled after just two episodes. Likely because of the caliber of the show’s cast and because it’s being co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer’s company, ABC has been more patient with it. That doesn’t mean however that they’re going to order any more episodes. ABC has now cancelled The Whole Truth.
Via Twitter, co-executive producer KristieAnne Reed confirmed that the cast and crew will complete the initial 13 episode order but that will be the end. At this point, it’s unclear how many of those will actually air.
Whole Truth remains on the schedule this week but will be preempted next week for the In the Spotlight with Robin Roberts: All Access Nashville interview special. On November 10th, ABC airs the Country Music Awards. Whole Truth is tentatively scheduled to return after that but those plans could certainly change.
Though Whole Truth has been cancelled, there is some positive news for fans of the show. With the news of the cancellation coming this far in advance, producers have time to give the series some closure. The cast and crew are still shooting and are scheduled to continue until mid-December.
What do you think? Should The Whole Truth have been cancelled? Why do you think it didn’t catch on?
Get our free email alerts on TV shows in this article:
Image courtesy ABC.
Sorry the network gave up on the Whole Truth. I hate all the reality shows and this one was different from the other courtroom shows. It was interesting to see both sides of the case unfold from their perspective. Loved finding out at the end if they truly were innocent or quilty.
Canceling “The Whole Truth” is a mistake. I’m not an avid watcher of prime time television, outside of sports. However, this show had me at the opening credits. The unbias of showing both sides of the case was awesome. Cast is great, and the storylines so far were realistic enough to take seriously. No gimics, or punchlines. Just alltogether great drama. BRING IT BACK! Oh yeah, and bring back “Flash Forward” too. Mark Benford Rocks!
i am extremely disappointed that this show was pulled at the last moment. Never had the opportunity to watch it, however, the episode that was pulled guest-starred my favorite actor, Erik Palladino and now don’t know if I’ll ever get a chance to see it. As it is with most shows, I don’t watch them unless I like a cast member or guest, so maybe if they do air that episode, I will learn to like the show and help push for its revival. please air that episode, i’m dying to see it.
I don’t think the network gave it a chance. Frankly this time of the year there are several new shows out at the same time and with the invention of DVR each viewer has the ability to catch everthing to see what they like and don’t like. The Whole Truth is a great show but because the network gave up on it so fast, it was hard to get others involved in it. After watching the first few episodes, it was hard to find another to tell a friend or co-worker to watch. I really wish this network would re-consider… Read more »
I really wish they would keep ‘The Whole Truth’ on tv. I love that show, why take it off the air; take some of those reallity shows off.
Bring Back, The Whole Truth! – – I like the fact that you got to know the truth at the end that is something new the way they would let you know the whole truth.
Very disappointed that the show was cancelled. It had a great cast and an interesting way of looking at the cases. I don’t understand how shows get cancelled when they only just began. It’s like some books – they don’t always start off great but end up being fantastic. Truly a shame!!!!
LOVED “THE WHOLE TRUTH”. I HAVE A FEELING PEOPLE DIDN’T UNDERSTAND THAT THE ENDING SHOWED IF THE DEFENDANT DID IT OR NOT!
Very disappointed this show was cancelled. I’m so sick of hearing all of these new series coming out called CSI NY, CSI LA and so on. They are not new. They are all the same. This show finally gave a different look into the court room and both sides. It kept my ADD mind interested.
I loved this show! I don’t think it was in the right time slot, because the actors, the plot, and the writing were excellent.
I loved this show,they gave me false hope when they played one more episode a couple weeks after they said it was canceled.I got so excited thinking it was back on.I’ll have to admit i think i would have liked it more if they went into more detail at the end,like how and why they did or didn’t do it.and if they didn’t who did?now they just put reruns of other shows on which i do not want to watch!!!!!that’s when i goto bed cause there’s nothing to watch then.
I really liked this show. Disappointed to see it cancelled. Showing both sides then showing the truth at the end kept you thinking. Better advertising or timeslot.
I absolutely love this show, not typical, makes you think. Not mindless tv. I loved all of the characters.
This was an excellent show that kept you interested the whole time. In the advertising and previews I think they would have drawn more audience if they played up the truth comes at the end and the whole premise of switching back and forth throughout the show. The casting was great, too. I am sooooo disappointed this is cancelled–certainly not the writers or actors fault on this one!
“The Whole Truth”, was a very good show. I liked it’s unique perspective of trial law. It should not have been cancelled, i.e., should be re-instated. It is the only legal series which has not gone over the top as rediculously unrealistic drama.
I kept looking for it and was isappointed to see it canceled–such a good cast-really like
the actors and the plot and that it takees pllace in NY-finding out the real truth at the end and doing some scenes over from different perspectives was very interesting. They should have tried it out at a different time slot and given it more of a chance. Will they air any more of them?