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Prime Suspect: NBC Airs Last Episodes of Cancelled Series

Published:January 23, 2012

Prime Suspect canceledLast night, NBC burned off the final two episodes of Prime Suspect. The TV series has been ratings-challenged right from the start and, in November, NBC acknowledged that they wouldn’t be ordering any installments beyond the initial 13 episode order. The official word was that they would re-evaluate once all of the episodes had aired but everyone knew that it was really being cancelled.

If there was even a glimmer of hope that Prime Suspect might see a second season, the ratings for the final episodes didn’t help. Prime Suspect’s numbers continued to dwindle in the latter part of 2011. Last night, following a month hiatus, the finale registered a new series low.

Prime Suspect has been all but officially cancelled by NBC and its replacement, The Firm, is doing even worse. Last Thursday’s episode registered a 0.9 rating for its fourth episode. It took Prime Suspect 10 weeks to drop that low. Fortunately for fans of The Firm, NBC purchased 22 episodes up front. It remains to be seen if they’ll all air.

At the recent TCA press tour, NBC execs noted that, had Prime Suspect been on a premium cable channel like Showtime, it would have been declared a hit and would have been quickly renewed. Maybe but we’ll never know.

What do you think? Are you sorry that this was the end of Prime Suspect? Why do you think it didn’t catch on? Would it have been a hit on HBO or Showtime or even on a basic cable station like TNT?


Image courtesy NBC.

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{ 222 comments… read them below or add one }

Lori February 20, 2012 at 4:03 pm

Was a great show, nice too see a women playing a cop and kicking ass. Great comadree between the cast and believable. Never gave it a fair chance. Keep it on tv for people to find it and watch. Nothing on tv any good. When they do have something good they cancel it. what is wrong with people we want good television shows like Prime Suspect on.

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Mary February 20, 2012 at 7:38 pm

I cant believe that NBC has cancelled this show. Prime Suspect was one of my favorites that I would not miss. Really NBC what are you thinking! sorry, but youre not helping your ratings any by cancelling the good shows you have/had. maybe another network will get smart and pick it up–Ill be switching channels anyway to watch something better than the Firm–really don’t care for Grim either. think you need to thing twice before cancelling some shows

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jude February 20, 2012 at 7:51 pm

I just watched the last episode that I had on the DVR. This is a great show -not as good as the BBC version, but Maria Bello is really good and I certainly hope another network picks it up.

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Martin February 20, 2012 at 8:27 pm

Good series, too real for primetime, no support to build a fan base.

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Jenna McCall February 21, 2012 at 7:04 am

NBC just totally messes up their shows; moving them around without prior notices and we love this show, maybe if they sent it to BBC America it would be a hit, because I love this show & hate that didn’t even advertise that it would be shown on a Saturday, good thing I had series recording set up so it caught it. NBC Order another season & put it on on Sundays at 8pm. Maybe you should give me a Nielsen box & see how much better your shows would do. NBC did the same with L & O; L& O SVU; cancelling one before it’s 20th season & moving the other around and not renewing contract of the best detective team on TV. GET your act together

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Laura February 21, 2012 at 3:05 pm

If women had a chance to find this show, I think they would like Jane. Likeable with real skills and relationships—not a mom role for a change. Very smart, lots of texture.
There’s got to be a place for this kind of show….how many times can the public watch weeks of weight loss?

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