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?
im also from the uk.cant believe they cancelled it on such a cliffe hanger.what a joke, typical out of touch power hungry yanks
So…no resolution??? Just leaving us hanging
WORST ENDING EVER
Can’t believe they cancelled Alcatraz – my husband and I watched it every Monday Night – was eagerly awaiting season 2 – Really enjoyed the show. Most reality TV as far has I’m concerned is way too dumb to watch!
bye bye fox, im done with you
I can’t believe they cancelled Alcatraz. They hook you and then they cancel the show with no closure. It makes you not even want to start watching a new show. The only thing left to watch is “reality TV”. 🙁
But I really wanted to see more of the first escaped prisoner! He really seemed like he could’ve been Jack to the main blond girl’s Kate (assuming she survived…) or at least very interesting all on his own! And I wanted to know why some prisoners were brainwashed with certain directives. Sigh.
I’m a disgruntled viewer from the UK. Yet again the execs thinks they know what’s best for us by cancelling great shows like Alcatraz, yet keeps breathing new life into crappy reality showers like X Factor. We have the same problem over here, finding intelligent programming is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I know its a tall order but we must try to save Alcatraz and not let go the way of The Event, Flashfoward, Reaper(which I thoroughly loved!) Invasion……..it goes on
I agree with you. The Event was a fabulous show and, of course, it was cancelled.
Damn you FOX!!!!! Another favorite of mine!!!! Why are you doing this????? You are leaving the finale at this??? What about her?? Is she alive or dead?? What about the other prisoners??? Are you just leaving them in limbo??? Why dont’ you just quit making films and get off TV??? Why bother? you just keep canceling them a year later.
i cant believe this was cancelled. whats wrong with you guys!!
intelligent, thought-provoking, well written/acted shows are always going to come up short as long as the IQ of the average viewer stays within the point range that is drawn to (lack of)reality TV (well south of body temperature)
I agree with all of these comments! This does not encourage people to get into these sorts of shows, it will compel people to wait until multiple seasons have been confirmed to start watching. Nothing is more frustrating then getting into a show such as this, or terra nova, or flash forward or… (I could go on) and then have them cancel it and leave you hanging! I will think twice about getting into any programs produced by Fox!
This is ridiculous. I love that show! How the hell can anyone watch the voice or dancing with the stars anyway? This Country has gone to hell.
Fox is like a 5yr old with A.D.D they don’t have the patience to let something play out. I understand that they need to make money, but one would have thought they learned that lesson when they cancelled Family Guy how many times before they realized what they had????
Hopefully Netflix will step in like they tired to do with TerraNova and take it off their hands to keep it going.
I enjoyed it and kind of wish FOX would give it a try on another night…there’s a market for this type of sci-fi stuff. Maybe Sci-Fi channel could pick it up? E-mail them and request it!!!