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 sucks!! I was disappointed when i heard season 2 wasn’t gonna happen. I was really into this show. Now u leave us hanging on what happen 2 the other prisoners. Good casting people too. I loved the girl & hr helper forget their names lol. Bring it back even if it’s next year. Fox needs 2 fit this show back in.
Fox is crazy not to bring this show back! !!!!!!!!
WHAT!? That was a great show! Not fair Fox!!! You didn’t give it a chance. Why not try a different time slot/time? I agree with Nicole….you don’t start a story like that and not finish it. Please rethink this….I was looking forward to watching another season!
I began wundering why alcatraz didn’t come back whit season 2, so I startet searching and found this! :O
I’m from Denmark and we loved the Series!! Bring it back now! It’s a great storyline and much more prisoners to explore! You cannot end it!
Darn shame, FOX had another winner and they failed to see it. They should have at least tried for another half season/mid season replacement. Great cast, good story line, so much more to explore….. sad.
This was a great show It should be brought back been lookin forward too seeing more of it if ratings was the problem move it to an diff slot an day but don’t jus take it away one of the better police shows on it was nice new fresh an exciting whatwatch now boo fox
bring it back this only just finshed airing in new zealand this week it had a great story line with good casting way better than another singing or cooking show
Really…I was so looking forward to the next season. To be left hanging like this is wrong. I loved the first season! Please bring it back!
This series is awesome, I can’t believe it’s been cancelled without finishing the story. Bring it back!!!!!
Bring back this series!
I hadn’t heard of the series until I saw it in the library, I rented it and watched the whole season in less than two days and now it’s over?!?! Not fair, Fox! Imagine how pissed the Twilighters would be if they never made part 2 of the final movie! We can’t be left clueless 🙁
Bring it back FOX!!!!
Pleeeaaase bring it back
very disappointed. they bring back the client list, but not alcatraz. It doesn’t make sense.
I am also disappointed Alcatraz was cancelled. It had a great story line and could also be easily considered as ‘freestanding episodes’ as usually there was a new “63” every week to follow his/her story.