Eliza Coupe just can’t catch a break. Following her leading role in Happy Endings, a show which ardent fans felt ended too soon, the actress nabbed a role in USA’s Benched. That seems like good news, right? Unfortunately, today the network has decided to cancel Bench after just one season. Talk about ending too soon.
The USA comedy starred Coupe and Jay Harrington as two lawyers working for Los Angeles County as public defenders. Early on in the series, Coupe’s character, Nina, is actually a high-end corporate attorney. Unfortunately, she pulls an Enlightened and has a freak out in her workplace, calling her workplace an “ass carnival. The whole thing looks like this:
This leads to Nina signing on as a public defender. During its first season, the workplace comedy deals with such topics as fundraising to keep the office running, reworking trial tactics to fit the clients she is helping, and dealing with public defender politics, including public defender of the year campaigns. Unfortunately, the show never nabbed the audience such wacky topics likely deserved.
According to THR, Benched only premiered to 870,000 viewers when it hit the schedule in October. The show averaged under a million total viewers per episode until its Season 1 run ended at the end of December. The show wasn’t really competing compared to the numbers other USA originals, including White Collar and Suits, bring in.
Benched isn’t the first show USA has canceled this season. Just a few days ago, the network also canceled long-running drama Covert Affairs. In that show’s case, the story ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, so it definitely could be worse for fans of Benched. USA already has plenty of replacement fodder in the works. New dramas Dig and Complications are expected to hit the schedule soon, plus the network also signed on for new series Mr. Robot, starring Christian Slater and Rami Malek.
Obviously, Benched has been benched before Season 2 could happen, but if you want to know when some of your other favorite shows are returning, check out our 2015 midseason TV schedule.
