Prior to the end of The Closer and the launch of Major Crimes, TNT President and Head of Programming discussed the passing of the torch between the shows. Here is an excerpt. You can read the entire article here. 

JH: ‘The Closer’ is such an important part of TNT’s history and I feel like, if The Closer hadn’t been so huge we might not be talking about all the stuff we’re talking about today. What are the expectations for ‘Major Crimes?’ Are you seeing it at something that will fill the role of ‘The Closer’ or just continue that success?

MW: No. Nothing can ever replace the commercial success of ‘The Closer.’ I would point out, and this is a really happy thing to point out, that last year ‘The Closer’ is actually the third highest rated show. I don’t think people had really noticed that or reported it. ‘Rizzoli & Isles’ and ‘Falling Skies’ were both higher rated shows than ‘The Closer’ in 2011. Kyra’s decision to leave and the collective decision to move on to ‘Major Crimes’ happened at exactly the right time. The show has already shown a ratings decline. Other shows in the network were actually drawing slightly larger audiences. And you know what? ‘The Closer’ is ‘The Closer.’ I always joke and say, ‘I have a nice house because of that show.’ I am forever grateful to James Duff, Michael Robin, Greer Shephard and Kyra Sedgwick and everybody else involved in that show because that was our first crack at this and, holy moly, we got a lot lucky and a little bit smart, but I think we had the common sense to learn from what works about that show and try to apply it to what’s come after.

So for ‘Major Crimes,’ no, I don’t expect it to be as commercially big as ‘The Closer.’ I didn’t expect ‘The Closer’ to be as big as it was. I remember when that show premiered I said to Steve Koonin the night before I said, ‘God, I’d just love to see a three in front of that rating,’ then, oh my goodness, it was a five. So my expectation for ‘Major Crimes’ is, I expect it to succeed. But my expectation is based on the fact that it has a lot of the same DNA of ‘The Closer.’ A lot of the production style. The writing… it’s still James Duff, who is a gifted, gifted writer who knows how to take a procedural and turn it into a character drama, which is what he did with ‘The Closer’ and what he’s done here. You have the benefit of the characters that have been involved over seven seasons. For the fans, there are some that just won’t come back because they watched it for Kyra and bless them but I think there are a great number of viewers beyond them who will come back because they love the world of ‘The Closer’ and Mary McDonnell [Captain Raydor] is a world-class actress. James Duff and Mike and the team are very, very clear about what this show is and that also helps.

It had a lot of the DNA of ‘The Closer’ but where ‘The Closer’ was about getting the confession, this show is about getting the conviction. So they’ve applied it in a slightly different storytelling paradigm to it that gives them a really clear road map. They’re not laundering in the storytelling wilderness; they know what they’re making here. Raydor’s character is all about fixing some of the mistakes frankly that Brenda made. As we’ve said, if Brenda was your sort of crazy older sister who takes you on adventures and gets you in trouble, Raydor is mama. She’s like my Irish ma. She’s sharp. She’s experienced. If you work for her, she will have your back six ways to Sunday and nobody gets to wrap your knuckles, oh yeah, except for her because if you screw up, she’s going to fix you. So she’s different from Brenda. She is her own authoritative, very knowledgeable boss and where Brenda was a genius in getting the confession, Raydor knows the system. She’s actually more experienced than Brenda and one of the reveals in the show is that a lot of the confessions that the Major Crimes unit got with Brenda Lee have been thrown out because they didn’t hold up. Raydor’s all about, ‘we are going to get convictions. We’re going to do this right’. So it’s the same world lumped in character, mostly the same character, however it’s slightly different but consistent storytelling paradigm, so I’m very thrilled about it.