Continuing our hour by hour coverage of the fall schedule, we move to Wednesday nights at 10pm. The hour brings a trio of new legal-themed scripted series The Defenders, Law & Order: Los Angeles and The Whole Truth.
Wednesday Nights 10pm-11pm:
| Wednesday | 10:00p | 10:30p |
 |
The Whole Truth New | |
 |
The Defenders New | |
 |
Law & Order: Los Angeles New |
-
Who'll Win? Usually I don't mind using a limited amount of data to prognosticate for the fun of it. But I haven't watched any of the pilots and we've never seen any ratings data for these shows. About all I have is the previous hour's predictions. In that hour I have the ABC 9pm comedy block with a slight edge over CBS. ABC didn't fare well last year with scripted content at 10pm and I don't see them breaking through on Wednesday nights at 10pm this year with The Whole Truth.
I'm sure there are far more people curious about Law & Order: Los Angeles than The Defenders, but will the curious stick around? Could a show starring According to Jim's Jim Belushi win the hour when the dust settles?
We're not quite done with our hour-by-hour coverage, look for the last of the coverage in the coming week . You can find all the previous hour-by-hour coverage here.
I have no horse in this race, ratings wise. But I’m sure there is a very happy devil somewhere in the Nine Hells. How else to explain how Jerry O’Connell keeps getting roles in broadcast primetime?
I’d pick Law & Order: Los Angeles.
I’d pick Law & Order: Los Angeles.
I’d pick Law & Order: Los Angeles.
I think it will be a rat race to see who will survive and all of them interchangeable week to week. Out of the 3 The Defenders will probably be the one to get canned. All The Whole Truth need to do is put up better numbers in that timeslot compared to last year (Eastwick and Happy Town should make that easy enough) and L&O’s usually survive a while.
They alle are similar shows. I am into these kind of shows, so for me its gonna be hard. I am a big law and order svu fan. I think i will like LOLA. On the other hand the whole truth does look good too. But nobody is really talking about this show. Am I missing something or are a lot of people not really into THT.
I’m rooting for The Whole Truth, one of the few new shows this season I’m curious about.
This one is tough, Law & Order LA is the only show out of the 3 that really has a lot of awareness attached to it, but it’s on NBC. If I had to venture a guess, LOLA will settle into the same rating SVU was getting in the same timeslot. The Whole Truth will see an increase for the timeslot vs last year for ABC (not that that’s a huge task to accomplish!) I really think The Defenders will be another The Good Wife (Spring ratings) where it tops in total viewers but comes in last in the demo. This will be a horse race for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.
Predictions:
Law and Order LA (Premiere 2.7-3.3) Settling in around 2.3 – 2.8
The Whole Truth (Premiere 2.7-3.4) Settling in around 2.2-2.8
The Defenders (Premiere 2.8-3.2) Settling in around 2.1-2.6
I will be watching LOLA and DVRing The Whole Truth. The Defenders doesn’t look good at all and I don’t see a law drama co-starring Jim Belushi getting halfway down the runway before crashing and burning.
This is probably the hardest timeslot to predict, seeing how all three shows here are new. If I had to guess, I’d say LOLA will probably make it through the season, but I don’t see it pulling in more than 2.3 (maybe a little higher for the premiere). As for the two legal dramas, I expect The Whole Truth to best The Defenders (even though the Defenders will have a better lead-in and this timeslot has been horrible for ABC for years), simply because no one wants to see Belushi and O’Connell on TV anymore.
NBC – LOLA – 2.3
The Whole Truth – 2.2 in the fall, probably canceled after season 1 (I still think they would have fared better with Joely Richardson)
The Defenders – 2.0 (cancellation territory for CBS)
This hour is a complete toss-up for me. LOLA has the L&O name and the SVU lead-in, which could help. On the other hand, even SVU hasn’t been doing great so I’m not sure people are really clamoring for a new L&O. The reviews for The Defenders are better than expected and it’s on CBS, so it will end up with a decent sampling, but ist’s a show starring Jim Belushi…. The Whole Truth has likeable stars and ABC is really good at premiering shows (not so much on keeping viewers after the first couple of weeks), but it’s a departure for ABC and while their comedy hour might best CM, it will be on the strength of MF, not WT’s immediate lead-in Cougar Town.
I’m going to go with LOLA. I hope the acting abilities of Alfred Molina and Terrence Howard can make up for Skeet Ulrich. lol
Certainly agree about Jerry O’Connell. He looks like Alfred E Neuman (well, to be fair, so does George Bush, but whatever other faults Bush has, he looks a lot better than Jerry O’Connell) and his acting is so bad that his face could be used in Public Service ads, with the caption “This is your brain on meth.”
Certainly agree about Jerry O’Connell. He looks like Alfred E Neuman (well, to be fair, so does George Bush, but whatever other faults Bush has, he looks a lot better than Jerry O’Connell) and his acting is so bad that his face could be used in Public Service ads, with the caption “This is your brain on meth.”
Sorry to hear you’re not backing “The Whole Truth,” which seems like one of the very very few interesting shows in the fall lineup. What could be bad with Maura Tierney AND Rob Morrow? Also–it may not be wise to be against either one. They haven’t failed yet (on tv.)
Sorry to hear you’re not backing “The Whole Truth,” which seems like one of the very very few interesting shows in the fall lineup. What could be bad with Maura Tierney AND Rob Morrow? Also–it may not be wise to be against either one. They haven’t failed yet (on tv.)
Wednesday is the weirdest night of the week. Last season both Human Target and CSI:NY won their respective timeslots 8pm and 10pm but with numbers so low that if they had aired on any other night, except Fri/Sat, they couldn’t compete. This season their nets have rewarded them by moving them to Fridays. Outside of the 9pm hour, Wednesday night doesn’t make any sense ratings wise. Strange.
By the way, Ram510, Eastwick and Happy Town weren’t the only shows to fail on ABC in that 10pm Wednesday hour. Dirty Sexy Money, The Unusuals, Life On Mars died there too. It was also Ugly Betty’s final resting place. Oddly enough UB did better on Fridays.
I honestly don’t know which of the new shows will do better. It’s hump-day so it could go any direction.
Wednesday is the weirdest night of the week. Last season both Human Target and CSI:NY won their respective timeslots 8pm and 10pm but with numbers so low that if they had aired on any other night, except Fri/Sat, they couldn’t compete. This season their nets have rewarded them by moving them to Fridays. Outside of the 9pm hour, Wednesday night doesn’t make any sense ratings wise. Strange.
By the way, Ram510, Eastwick and Happy Town weren’t the only shows to fail on ABC in that 10pm Wednesday hour. Dirty Sexy Money, The Unusuals, Life On Mars died there too. It was also Ugly Betty’s final resting place. Oddly enough UB did better on Fridays.
I honestly don’t know which of the new shows will do better. It’s hump-day so it could go any direction.
I have a hard time imagining a CBS procedural skewing older and more female than The Good Wife. To me, that guarantees Defenders gets at least 2.5 and easily wins the hour.
L&Os at 10pm are a mystery to me. We’ve had Original Recipe get sub 2s while SVU gets a full demo point higher two days later. Is it the cast? The subject matter? The timeslot competition? While I think its the subject matter (Original Recipe got their best ratings during the “ripped from the headlines” era), I just don’t know, and as such have to go with a safe guess of low 2s.
And the whole truth is I have no faith in The Whole Truth. ABC, 10pm, occasionally the bad guys win? I suspect it flops badly (how many people quit forever when the first innocent goes to jail?) but ABC props it up, the forgotten-style, while they work on development for next year. So high 1s?
To Summarize:
Defenders 2.7
LOLA 2.2
Whole Truth 1.9
Disclaimer: I had such a crush on Maura Tierney during the Newsradio days, think LOLA’s casting is largely great, and pretty much hate every single actor working on The Defenders. Still doesn’t alter my opinion on their chances.
I’m always interested in a new L&O, but I don’t think there will be a lot of interest from the 18 – 49 group. It will probably win total viewers.
I can’t believe CBS trashed the name of one of the greatest lawyer shows in history. To me this is like taking the movie title Citizen Cane for an Adam Sandler comedy. Oh well.
Overall I think this is a rather weak group. I would be surprised if any of these shows do a 3.0+ consistently.