Kathy Bates awaits your verdict (Jordin Althaus/NBC)
David E. Kelley’s latest legal drama Harry’s Law got off to a fine start Monday night in the ratings.
“I object!” you say. “Granted, the show drew a healthy 11 million viewers, but it earned a mere 2.1 adults 18-49 rating. How can you say that’s ‘a fine start’?”
Allow me to present some evidence: NBC’s previous show in this time slot, Chase, averaged only a 1.5 rating. Harry’s Law grew from its The Cape (6.2 million, 1.8; recap here) lead-in and ranked in second place at 10 p.m. Plus, it gave NBC its biggest non-Olympics audience in this slot in more than a year. Therefore, given the context (and ratings are all about context), ladies and gentlemen of the EW.com jury, I would say Harry’s Law had a fine start.
“But,” you counter, opening a briefcase and pulling out a ratings chart. “This shows that Harry’s Law was, in fact, NBC’s lowest-rated in-season premiere ever in this time period.”
[Murmurs in the courtroom. Judge calls for quiet, bangs gavel.]
All right. I move we hold off on rendering a verdict on Harry’s Law ratings for another week or two until more evidence presents itself. As for The Cape, this week’s data is worrisome. The drama dropped 31 percent from last Sunday’s debut. Chuck was steady, however (2.0).
Otherwise, CBS won the night with its comedy block that was close to its recent numbers in the adult demo, though hit season highs among total viewers: How I Met Your Mother (3.9) with its putting-the-fun-in-funeral episode, Rules of Engagement (3.2), Two and a Half Men (4.6), and Mike & Molly (3.8). A steady Hawaii Five-0 (2.9) won 10 p.m.
Fox was second with House (3.6) featuring Candice Bergen as guest and rising slightly, followed by Lie to Me (1.8), which jumped 20 percent.
The Bachelor (2.7), recap here, was mostly stable followed by a repeat.
Get Kathy Bates’ Emmy ready.
I loved the show.I really was anticipating a great program because of Ms. acting and was not disappointed!!!!!! Loved it.
thought this would be a bomb and it is the kind that keeps you wide awake.
The group of family and friends I was watching TV with last night actually decided to DVR Castle and Hawaii 5-0 in favor of watching Harry’s Law and I have to say we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. If DVR hadn’t been an option it wouldn’t have been seen in my household and that would be a sad thing. I look forward to seeing more!
Just a mere presence of Kathy Bates is making watching “Harry’s law” worthwhile. She is hugely overlooked and underused extremely talented dramatic actress.
I guess the days of having Candice on your show to boost ratings is over
I think ratings for “Harry’s Law” were decent because folks wanted to check out Kathy Bates’ new show. But I’ll be shocked if that trend continue. Bates and Nate Corddry WERE really good. And I even loved Paul McCrane’s repetitive DA. But the cases were laughable. The entire community comes to court to defend the guy who’s been running a shake-down protection racket on them? Really? And I can’t imagine the city of Cincinnati is very happy to see its police force CONSTANTLY referred to as incompetent and unresponsive. The writing on “Harry’s Law” was ATROCIOUS. The only silver lining I saw was that “Harry’s Law” makes me appreciate quality legal dramas like “Law & Order” and “The Good Wife” that much more. (NBC, please tell me again – why did you cancel “Law & Order”?)
I really hope Kathy Bates and Brittany Snow get a hit show. But the
writing will need to get much better.
i don’t understand the 1.8, 2.0, 2.7 ratings. can someone help me out? also hooray for chuck being back!
Using Harry’s Law numbers, 11 million viewers means exactly that, 11 million people saw the program. 2.1 adults 18-49 means that in their target demographic of viewers in that age range, 2.1% of those people were watching the show.
I absolutely, positively, love this show. Kathy Bates is brillant.
This isn’t meant to be Law and Order. It’s “Harry’s Law and Fine Shoes.” Original and fun, I loved it.
I don’t expect “Harry’s Law” to be like “Law & Order” in TONE. I’m all for original and fun. But I DO expect the writing to be credible. When I’m distracted from the good acting and the whimsy of a “law & shoe store” by cases that make me go “Huh?” and stories that reek of laziness, that’s not a good thing. And definitely not what someone of Kathy Bates’ talent deserves.
Miss Bates, thank you! Monday-night now has meaning in it.
Well, more meaning. Have you missed out on RuPaul’s Drag Race?
I watched HLaw…Bates was good – I think the BSnow character will get tiring and overdone very quickly…the writing definitely needs to improve…but it was nice to see Kathy Bates on tv…I may give it a couple more views before reaching a verdict….
David Kelly could do better, although, I think they were just introducing the premise first. If it goes on as great as his previous shows, I will definitly be there every week! All in all I realloy liked it.
I watched and somewhat enjoyed but Castle is back with a new episode next week (repeat last night) so that’s what I’ll be watching.
Ken Tucker, you’d better do a column on this show – and soon. If there’s one thing we learned last night, it’s that you mess around with Kathy Bates at YOUR OWN PERIL! (Spoiler alert: the woman is indestructible!)
As a practicing attorney, I thought the “legal” aspects were weak. However, overall I found the show entertaining and funny. Bates absolutely makes the show. I know too many women lawyers of her age who are striking similar to her character — smart, rumpled, somewhat caustic, but deep down very caring people.
To me, the show is somewhat of a comedy with some dramatic overtones. I give it a B+. It’s not Law and Order — and I don’t think it was meant to be. I will tune in next week for another episode.