Of the new courtroom and/or cop dramas that premiered this year, there's some good news - and more bad news - for four of these shows: Law & Order: LA, The Defenders, The Whole Truth and Outlaw.
Let's start with Outlaw, the new show starring TV staple Jimmy Smits. When it was scheduled for Friday nights, I don't think a lot of people held out hope for its future. At the present time, production has been halted on the low-rated NBC drama. At this point eight episodes had been filmed and five more new episodes to run. If the ratings increase then production will resume. The most recent episode brought in 4.7 million viewers, according to Hollywood Reporter.
The Defenders, CBS' new dramedy starring Jerry O'Connell and Jim Belushi, dropped 16% this week in the ratings to 9.4 million. 9.4 million is still good, but Hollywood Reporter says that's the lowest rating in that time period that CBS has had since 2003.
The Whole Truth, the struggling new legal drama on ABC (which recently canceled new show My Generation), improved by 8% over its previous 4.4 million viewers last week. That may not be enough to get a full season order for the since as those ratings are low for one of the big networks, but it may buy it a bit more time.
Finally, the newest Law & Order spin-off, LOLA, slipped to 8.3 million and lost viewers who had tuned in for its lead-in, Law & Order: SVU. Despite that, it was still the highest-rated show at 10:00 p.m.
The outlook for Outlaw and The Whole Truth doesn't look good, but LOLA and Defenders will probably hang on.
The Whole Truth is a great show. Maura Tierney and Rob Morrow are wonderful actors and have terrific chemistry. The idea that a show like this could be on the bubble and a GARBAGE show like Undercovers is still on is disgusting.
I think that out of all the new shows listed above, "The Whole Truth" is definitely my favorite. I hope it can manage to keep its spot on the schedule.
I love Outlaw and the other shows. Now all we have to do is figure out how to get 10 million more people to watch!!