Benched: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Benched is a single-camera comedy about a high-powered corporate lawyer's fall from grace into the rough-and-tumble world of the public defenders. From ABC Signature Studio, it stars Coupe as Nina Whitley, a distinguished corporate lawyer who has given up everything in her climb to the top. However, when she's hit with her ex-fiancé's engagement announcement and learns that she hasn't made partner at her high power firm, Nina snaps -- breaking vases and burning bridges.

Now that Nina is shunned from the corporate world, the only place she can get a job is at the Public Defender's office: home to the underfunded, understaffed, overworked, "if you can't afford a lawyer, one will be provided... " lawyers. In addition to her new clients, Nina must learn to connect with her co-workers, including the roguish Phil, the idealistic Carlos, the useless empathetic Cheryl and the dedicated intern Micah. If that didn't sound tough enough for Nina, she'll also be going head-to-head with her ex-fiancé, Trent, the rising star of the District Attorney's office.

Series details

• Title: Benched
• Format: Scripted
• Language: English
• Genres: Comedy, Legal
• Premiere date: 2014-10-28
• Final broadcast date listed: 2014-12-30
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: USA Network
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 30 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 7.2/10
• TVMaze ID: 241

Cast and credited roles

• Eliza Coupe — Nina Whitley
• Carter MacIntyre — Trent Barber
• Jay Harrington — Phil Quinlan
• Oscar Nuñez — Carlos
• Maria Bamford — Cheryl
• Jolene Purdy — Micah

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2014-10-28; final listed air date 2014-12-30; episode order: 12.

Source and licence

Adapted from Benched on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.