QUICK TAKES - June 10, 2009

TNT can still round up a big audience for its summer shows, but the season premieres of “The Closer” and “Raising the Bar” hint at the first signs of viewer fatigue.

“The Closer,” the network’s hit crime drama with Kyra Sedgwick, opened its fifth season Monday with an average of 7.1 million viewers, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research. That’s the largest audience for a scripted show on basic cable so far this year. But it’s also down 9% from the series’ Season 4 premiere last July and the worst performance for any “Closer” season opener since the year the show launched, 2005.

Meanwhile, “Raising the Bar,” the legal drama from producer Steven Bochco, looks to be in trouble. The September premiere drew 7.7 million viewers, a record for basic cable. But the Season 2 bow delivered just 3.6 million, a stunning 53% decline.

-- Scott Collins