FOX has thrown away the key on Alcatraz. The J.J. Abrams thriller has been cancelled after one season and 13 episodes.
Alcatraz follows the investigations of police detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones) and Doctor Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia). They work to uncover how 340 inmates and guards disappeared from the infamous prison in 1963 and why they’re now reappearing looking just the same. The show also features the talents of Jonny Coyne, Parminder Nagra, Jason Butler Harner, and Sam Neill.
Fueled by a lot of promotion, the TV series was launched in January and drew good reviews and strong numbers. The two-hour premiere attracted a 3.3 rating in the all-important 18-49 demographic with 10.05 million total viewers. Opposite some tough competition from CBS, Alcatraz was in second place in its timeslots.
In week two, the demo slipped 9% to a still respectable 3.0 rating with 9.03 million. Week three dropped another 7%. That wasn’t positive but not horrible either but the ratings just kept falling.
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In February, NBC launched season two of The Voice and Alcaraz’s ratings took a big dive. They ropped 18% on February 6th and then another 17% on the 13th. The numbers just kept falling after that.
The two-hour season (now series) finale was in fourth place in the timeslots and averaged a disappointing 1.6 demo rating with 4.76 million total viewers.
The first season of Alcatraz ended up averaging a 2.2 demo rating with 6.74 million viewers — and those numbers would have dropped lower had there been more episodes.
On our FOX report card — which ranks the network’s shows based on demo averages — Alcatraz has a “C” and that just wasn’t good enough to get a renewal.
FOX chose to keep Touch instead but the network stays in business with producer J.J. Abrams via the network’s Fringe renewal.
What happened? It would seem that Alcatraz just wasn’t compelling enough to keep viewers returning week after week. Plus, for the first time in quite awhile, all three of the major networks had really strong programming on Monday nights. Two of the competing shows — The Voice and Dancing with the Stars — are reality competitions and many viewers feel compelled to watch them “live” rather than catch them online or via DVR recordings.
All 13 episodes of Alcatraz have aired and the last episode left viewers wondering what would happen next. Unless the producers decide to share what they had in mind for season two, we’ll never know the answers to the show’s mysteries.
What do you think? Why do you think Alcatraz failed to hold onto a bigger audience? Did FOX make a mistake by cancelling the series? What will you miss about it?
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This show has so much to offer–please bring it back—we know its hard to compete with the stupid reality shows and music competitions but there are a large number of us out here who don’t enjoy those shows and are looking for an entertaining alternative. Bring it back!
Love The show . Bring it back !!!! Let us finish the story !!!!!
Please bring Alcatraz back, not everybody wants reality shows!!! Alcatraz was interesting.
Good grief, reality shows have nothing to do with reality…. Whereas Alcatraz was an excellent fiction!
I really loved the show, I’m upset it was cancelled. I hope fox may consider bringing it back
Bs good show put the show on a different day
People would rather watch dancing than Alcatraz??!! No taste I guess. It was in my timer list for DVR, and still is. How could this happen? I’ve been waiting for it so long, imagine my shock to see it has been canceled! Bad decision guys, bring it back!
I can’t believe it was cancelled I loved it!!!! I still do.
They must bring it BACK!!!!!!!!!
We love ALCATRAZ please brig it back we want to know who set them free!!
please bring it back. loved the show and so did all five of my grown children. My husband and I worked in corrections and enjoyed the whole idea of inmates disappearing from Alcatraz. Everyone at worked talked about it. what were you thinking?Any night any time, sell it to another station.
Im truly disappointed. I thought it was by far the best new show out there and was looking
Forward to season 2. Fox bring it back PLEASE!
We can’t believe this show is cancelled! It was so good and left so many questions to be answered in consecutive seasons. What are those of us that like a great story to do? We don’t watch the ‘reality’ shows… And don’t think they should be our only option. Put Alcatraz in any time slot and we’ll tune in – along with everyone we know. I don’t know how this shows ratings weren’t high enough, everyone was talking about it!
We can’t believe this show is cancelled! It was so good and left so many questions to be answered in consecutive seasons. What are those of us that like a great story to do? We don’t watch the ‘reality’ shows… And don’t think we should have to.
Pissed 2!! At least bring it back to finish the story!
We too really enjoyed this show. Didn’t realize it was cancelled until i went to look for the season premiere and couldn’t find it! So sad how all these reality shows have taken over.
Truly pathetic. The dumbing down of America!!
We loved the series PLEASE bring it back!!! Put it in another time slot where it will work best for the network. There are a lot of reality or talent, music shows now competing in same time slots put it up against another series where it can do better. It’s a great TV series, great cast, story line, San Francisco, Alcatraz ….. It’s all there! Marketing and time slot is key. Fox don’t let this one die you have a winner here! From my age of 47 to my kids ages of 18, 20 & 25…..the whole family weighed in on loving it! Please bring it back!!
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