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?
This really sucks! We loved this show and really looked forward to the new season starting back up. Major stupid move FOX!!!!!
How bad ive wasted 12hours off my life
thanks for nothing
I love this show your so stupid t cancel it.
What a load off crap
Yes, they made a big mistake. I do not do reality TV. This drama/mystery made me want to see it every week to see what would happen. I certainly do NOT like the way the last episode ended. I really hope FOX will at least print the writers ideas for season 2 or review their cancellation of it. Bring it back in Jan. It began in the the middle of prime season anyway. PLEASE, PLEASE
Maybe in future when tv channels advertise a new series it should come with a warning..Enjoy it while it lasts cos its gonna get cancelled!..believe it or not some of us actually did enjoy Alcatraz cos it was different..enough with relentless reality shows.
How can FOX ignore the people who want to see more of Alcatraz???? The show just needs to quicken the pace a bit, it was labourious but can be fixed, the central characters are okay but lets see a little more of their personalities so we can form favourites, personally I already love “Soto” his part could be expanded. So many possibilities unexplored by lazy executives, give the show a chance, and stop putting it up against shows that NEED audience participation – that’s just plain stupid!
I think Alcatraz went down because the series writers got stale. Lack of better story lines. Even at that, it was still better than most of the other T.V. offerings. The only show better was “The Good Wife”. You should bring back “Alcatraz” with better
stories, and better writing.
well thanks very much FOX here in the UK it has a great following just watched the final episode but guess what we didn’t know that at the time. you have left a lot of fans very disappointed once again thank you very much
I loved the show, I didn’t like the time slot as I go to bed early !! Watched most of the episodes online because of that reason !! Sorry to hear that it is gone !! Found this site while searching for season 1 on DVD, or the release date for said DVDs !! Very disapointed !!!
I think it sucks that Alcatraz was canceled. I for one think television stations cancel good shows for more reality crap. We live reality ,when we want to get away we watch television.
are you joking we got to know want happed next you got to make more are you nuts i loved the show
after this call, does FOX still wonder why it has a bad name?
I’m absolutely gutted to have just found out that Alcatraz has been axed!! I loved it – it was brilliant – can’t stand the majority of reality shows – I’m expecting the next good series to be axed will be Grimm! Please, please, bring Alcatraz back, even if only on DVD or something, I’d be happy to buy the lot!
I agree with you 100% !!!
Total waste of time!!
A good series but again I waste time to watch with no ending. Will DVR all series in future and if they are cancelled I will delete. This type of soap opera tatics suck. Like selling first chapters of a book without an ending. I have yet again learned my lesson not to waste precious time.