Starring Mehcad Brooks, Matt Long, Tina Majorino, Clancy Brown, and Billy Zane, the show follows five first-year associate attorneys from diverse backgrounds as they learn how to cope with the challenges of working at one of the most prestigious law firms in Los Angeles.

To cut production costs, the show was filmed in Las Colinas, a real estate development in Irving, Texas; ABC scheduled a six-episode run, and the series premiered as a midseason replacement on January 21, 2010.

The "Prince of Darkness", Cliff Huddle, is initially their boss, but things start to change when firm partner Hart Sterling returns after a long hiatus spent taking care of his sick wife.

[18] The show premiered on January 21, 2010 as a 2009–2010 midseason replacement for FlashForward,[19] attracting 7 million viewers and receiving a low 1.7 rating in the category of Adults 18-49.

[3] Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine said that even though The Deep End received a great deal of publicity,[23] the show "sank in its first outing".

[28] The show was also criticized for its depiction of young associates performing tedious legal research with hard copy books in a law library; a firm the size and caliber of Sterling, Huddle, Oppenheim, & Craft would have a subscription to online databases like Westlaw or LexisNexis.