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?
My family and I are so cross. We have watched every episode and were really enjoying it…we can’t believe something so interesting and well written has been ditched in favour of reality tv rubbish. Major mistake by the tv company!
Alcatraz was cancelled because the vast majority of people watch reality TV and competition programs and not sci-fi programs. The bottom line is people are no longer interested in thinking to any depth, they just want to shut off there brain and watch programs where very little thinking is involved. Just look at the ratings, they don’t lie. It’s a shame that we are headed in this direction. There have already been numerous excellent programs canceled because they basically can’t compete with mindless ones. It will be a very long time before I will invest my time to watch a… Read more »
There are more sci-fi series than enough now that have gone no further than the first series, i live in the UK and tv here isn’t that goods for sci-fi fans. Someone needs to bring back something or like this and the Event, V and with ending the final series of Fringe what are we gonna do?? Yes I agree that the tv networks and perhaps the fact that far too many of the networks are owned by so few, subscribers just don’t mean anything anymore, but without them they wouldn’t need to make shows because nobody will subscribe anymore… Read more »
No!!!! Bad mistake.. I dont think the officials understand that people work and they dont always watch the episodes at the exact time when they are showing…. So they pre record with there DVRs and watch them later. The following is more than enough… they will grow.. !!! the art work , the acting and the actors, are absolutly fantastic and not CHEESY!!!! I made the viewers feel thwey were part of the show… Again Bad mistake.
Problem with these mid-story cancellations is that viewers remember the treatment and are hesitant to invest next time in a complicated story line. This seems the curse of sf series. Invasion, the Event and V were all cut off without plot resolutions, along with a couple of others in recent years. This behavior by the networks is a declaration of contempt for viewers.
How could they cancel, this has been the first show that I’ve come bk to week after week since LOST. It’s mysterious ness is captivating and like LOST each week had me holding on for what and who’s next. Ok maybe some people don’t get it but that’s the point! Nobody knew about the passengers of LOST until the very end! I’m really shocked that it will not continue, especially with so many questions still to be answered.
Unbelievable, what were they thinking when cancelling this show! How can you let us hang like that? This was my replacement for the OLD Charlie Harper. So disappointed in not giving this class “A” show a chance. Alcatraz deserves better than this!!!!
‘Alcatraz’ was different, complex and subtle, and clearly intended to have long story arc with intricate characterisation. As such it fell into the same trap as Firefly from Joss Whedon – the American public-at-large doesn’t like those attributes and lacks the attention span necessary to appreciate work like this. I’m not saying all Americans have this issue, but the Fox executives have a very simple-minded approach and don’t have the patience to grow a long-term winner.
As a Sci Fi buff I thought Alcatrez had an excellent theme, to me it was like a mixture of Fringe and the X-Files. There was plenty of room for the writers to keep this series going for years without writing themselves into a corner. Good actors, good acting, good scripts and good stories but like so many good SF shows it will never be. This will join the SF graves with Surface, Invasion, Space Above & Beyond, The Nowhere Man, to name just a few SF series that made it only one season.
Unbelievable that the shows been cancelled. Got straight into it with Ep one. Good cast line up and loads of potential. As always not given a chance ! Fans brought Star Trek back 40+ years ago perhaps we should do the same for Alcatraz so we have our questions answered.
Alcatraz is the one show that should not be cancelled. I watched that show with my family all the time. We would never miss an episode. I honestly think cancelling this show is a huge mistake. Alcatraz was the only show I would watch on fox and will be the only show I watch. So many questions were unanswered in the first series it would be crazy not to continue it.
I just saw “Grimm” being mentioned in one of the comments, and I just had a horrible thought: I hope the suits don’t do away with that show as well as I’m currently hooked on that! It helps aleviates the pain of “Alcatraz” being axed. Don’t these people realise there’s a huge fanbase over here in the UK for these shows!? How do this ratings system work? We watch online as well!! Damn Fox! 🙁
Gutted they cancelled, a bit like ‘V’, they can’t leave things hanging. What’s the point of putting out a new series if not prepared to see it through to the end.
[…] cancelled Alcatraz TV series is coming to DVD and Blu-ray on October 16th. Unfortunately, it doesn’t […]
Ridiculous!!!! Alcatraz was a great show and really The Voice and Dancing With the Stars, who cares about those shows!! Dancing With the Stars is just a show for a 2nd or 10th chance for such D celebrities like Kate Gosselin and Jaleel White. Fox has failed as a network and I will not watch anymore unless we get Alcatraz back!!!