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?
Boooo, I loved this show.
This was a great show that I (25yr old) and my grandmother (72yr old) really enjoyed watching together. We couldnt wait for the episode each week. So disappointed those questions will remain unanswered
Wow.. keep TOUCH and get rid of Alcatraz?
Touch is one of the stupidest shows going…
The story makes no sense, they just make random stuff up as they go and none of it has to follow any plot line since they can just tie it in with some random number.
Makes you wonder where they get their info on ratings. This show was great and I was looking forward to season 2. Very disappointed.
Gutted! Just found out Alcatraz was cancelled! Disappointed.com 🙁
If you’re going to cancel a show that’s premise is “how did that happen”, why couldn’t you answer that question first?!?!
totally agree. I have so many questions that will forever remain unanswered
so sick of every time i like a new show that comes out it is cancelled. tv networks suck.
Alcatraz was really good much better than Touched.
I thought it was good very disappointed it didn’t return.
I think it was an awesome show cant beleive that the corprate cancled the show after one season. the show was awesome. if not puttingit on the air go straight to dvd. or make a movie i know many other people would love to see it back on.
Have waited all year to see the show again. Thought maybe in early 2013 it would be airing again, but now see that it is cancelled. Lots of people DVR’ed the show so as not to miss it. This show was a lot better than most of the stuff that comes out of Hollywood.
Very disappointing! we were waiting for these TV series for almost 1 year and now all fell down(( I’m really sad(
it was one of the best TV series that I’ve seen
and the ending was really cliffhanger!
arrrrrrr
Why do they cancel the good shows but keep the silly ass crap..
I am about done with Television…
Fox is notorious for keeping us hanging at the akward ending of great series..
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I loved Alcatraz! I’m sooooooo sad and disappointed that it was cacelled!!!! How will we ever find out what was going on!
Loved season 1 ……. I really cant believe fox would do that im hoping maybe usa or fx or any other network may pick it up