The Defenders Information

The Defenders is a 2010 American legal comedy-drama that was ordered to series by CBS for the 2010"11 television season. The series originally ran from September 22, 2010 to March 11, 2011. Set in Las Vegas, Nevada, the show involves a pair of defense attorneys who go all out to help their clients while keeping their personal lives in order. The show is loosely based on real-life Vegas lawyers Michael Cristalli and Marc Saggese.

In October 2010, CBS announced that the show had been picked up for a 19-episode season with the option to produce a full 22-episode season. In January 2011, CBS announced that The Defenders was moving from its Wednesday timeslot to the Friday timeslot vacated by Medium, with Blue Bloods temporarily moving to the timeslot The Defenders vacated. Blue Bloods returned to its Friday timeslot in February 2011 owing to the series premiere of Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior. The Defenders aired the last six episodes of its season on Fridays at 8:00 pm Eastern/7:00 pm Central. Jim Belushi and Jerry O'Connell star as the defense attorneys of the show's title.

On May 15, 2011, The Defenders was canceled by CBS. On August 22, 2011, the show was picked up by the Netflix "Watch Instantly" streaming service in the U.S.

Cast

Main characters

• Jerry O'Connell as Pete Kaczmarek, a freewheeling playboy lawyer
• James Belushi as Nick Morelli, Pete's partner, who is very passionate about his work and the clients he helps
• Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Lisa Tyler, a young lawyer who worked her way through law school as a stripper
• Tanya Fischer as Zoey Waters, Pete and Nick's assistant

Supporting cast

• Gillian Vigman as Jessica, Nick's estranged wife
• Teddy Sears as Thomas Cole, a prosecuting attorney
• Glynn Turman as Judge Bob Owens
• Dan Aykroyd as Judge Maximus Hunter

Episodes

See List of The Defenders episodes for more information

International broadcasters

In the United Kingdom, FX has acquired the rights to the series and began showing episodes on April 8, 2011. The series premiered in Australia on June 1, 2011 on the free to air station Channel Ten. In Poland, the show starts on November 15 on AXN and AXN HD Polska. Fox Portugal have also confirmed the broadcasting rights of the series. In Germany kabel eins has acquired the rights but later the network Sat 1 airs the series since March 27, 2011. January 27, has launched in Russia on channel SET. In Austria the series is shown on ORF. It began airing on Malaysia's national broadcast station RTM's channel tv2 premiering on May 18, 2011 at the midnight time slot. On September 12, 2011 network Rai 3 started broadcasting the show in Italy. In South Africa the series started airing on DSTV on November 3, 2011.