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?
I only watch 3 hrs of tv per week. Mad Men, American Idol and Alcatraz. What a story line they had going. Really disappointing to learn its been cancelled. It had the great combination of retro, mystery and the unknown. They should have switched it to another night or time. Looks like i will have to make up the rest of the story on my own.
When Alcatraz came out this one peaked my interest as I have taken the tour to the island so really wondered what this show would be like. Love it. Cancelling this show is not a good idea. Made my Monday and left me wanting more.
My grandson and I love this show, very interesting to go back in time for him to see how times were like then. Great characters, really like Doc. Please please bring this one back. I have watched Touch once or twice but we taped all the episodes of Alcatraz as we wanted to watch them over again.
Can not believe it was canceled. Very disappointed it was a great show.
Wow. BRING IT BACK! Amazing show. 🙁
Seriously?! Man, I don’t even want to watch Touch, and FOX chose Touch instead?!
I can not believe that you cancelled one of the best shows of the season and just leave us hanging. But then you renew shows that have worse ratings, I don’t get it. Bring Alcratraz back!!!!
As I was saying, big mistake with canceling the show!!! It had a great story line and left us eager for the next episode. We had no idea it was cancelled until we came looking to find out why it hadn’t been back on. Bring back Alcatraz!!!
Are you serious???? Like really!!!! You cancel the show after such a cliff hanger last episode!!! Alcatraz was an AWESOME show with a fantastic storyline. I was truly looking forward to season 2 after such a great climax in the season 1 final episode. I am extremely disappointed as I am sure many other fans are out there. If you guys actually cared about us and not just politics. You would bring it back. Now
It was a great show. Mistake.
This was one of the better shows that came out of the 2011/12 season. The story line was amazing you actually wanted the next episode to air rightnaway so you knew what was happening. Being a woman of 49 I’m tired of reality tv.
This is B S, I love this show it was like a great move everyone I know love it !!
I am not sure how this could be cancelled over reality shows which are so boring. Are people and Fox so lost that reality shows take over their lives, who really cares. Many of us looked forward to the excitement this show brought for an hour a week. I am disappointed as well, and the shows we are given a choice to watch other than sports are just plain HORRIBLE now days sorry. Fox you should lose your audience for giving up a great show.
Canceling Alcatraz was one of the worst mistakes Fox ever made… The show was great, compelling, and fun to watch. It’s a real shame that crappy reality shows have taken center stage, people don’t want the inconvenience of imagination, suspense or mystery when they watch tv anymore. They just want to watch a bunch of morons dance around, get drunk, act like idiots and scream at each other and then do it all again the next day. No plot, no storyline, just dumb people watching dumb people do dumb things.
what a bad idea it was to cancel the show. Alcatraz was a pretty damn good show and kept me interested. The problem with people these days is that they have no imagination. They much rather watch other peoples drama and nonsense with lame reality shows. This is why corny ass shows like Jersey shore and basketball wives wont ever get canceled.