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?
SAD! Air it on a different night! Please bring it back
Im really disapointed theres not going to be a series 2 me and my partner watched it every week we enjoyed it please bring it back
I was one that started watching the series and got sucked into it bad. I ended up having other commitments away from the house for that time slot. So by the time I was able to return to the series, I ended up missing to many of the shows to pick up where I could make sense of it. I then quit watching it, thinking that I could get caught up by getting the DVD, and then start watching the second season. I was very disappointed when I heard after they said they would renew it, that they actually dropped… Read more »
I abolutely loved Alcatraz! We need more shows like this that actually make us think about whats going on instead of reality trash and drama. and people wonder whats wrong with the world today! Just look at all the junk allowed on tv but decent shows are the ones removed!
I will miss everything about this show. Great storyline, wonderful cast. Some days I turn on TV and still can not believe it is not there. I hope you will be back Alcatraz.
I agree it was a good show , But i can also see where it did not keep a audience captivated . I am very disappointed that it was cancelled and if anybody thinks for 1 second that I would waste a minuet of my time watching those stupid ridiculous so called reality shows no I would watch paint dry first
Definitely should have been renewed. I’m tired of all these reality shows that are on. It’s terrible that they didn’t give it another time slot if all that was really beating it were those useless reality shows. It’s why I’ve been watching more and more of the cable networks at least they are willing to tryout some shows and give them a chance at succeeding.
Even though the show wasn’t what I was expecting for when I first watched it, it sure was a good show and I don’t understand why other people didn’t liked it the only reason I can think of is the fact that our community is full with reality shows lover even though its the fault and loss of those who didn’t liked it we got effected by it
Huge dissapointment to let the show die, it was Epic!! reconsider please, let the show back on air!
This was a huge let down for those of us who are NOT reality t.v. nuts! Alcatraz was such a breath of fresh air. It was so different from anything else on t.v.! That was the best part of all. My husband & I were thrilled to see SOMETHING differnet for a cahnge. It was captivating and held my interest without a bunch of cussing, sex, blood & guts. It was fantastic!! Stupid Move!
Alcatraz was a great show and it should not have been cancelled its quite pathetic really You get into a show then it goes and cancel
You should really re think this and bring it back the show. The voice is rubbish alcatraz is miles better than that will ever be. i for one would love it to come back
Alcatraz was a great show and it should not have been cancelled its quite pathetic really You get into a show then it goes and cancel
You should really re think this and bring it back the show. The voice is rubbish alcatraz is miles better than that will ever be
If you need to think, sheep will not like it and FOX will cancel it. See “Firefly”
I have just stumbled across thsis ill-fated program via Amazon’s ‘Love Film’ service (similar to Netflix) in the UK.
To put it bluntly, there was nothing ‘wrong’ with this show that replacing Jorge Garcia wouldn’t have fixed. Terrible mis-casting.
The story-line had merit, Sarah Jones was great, Sam Neil was over-acting as usual, but not terminally so.
If Mr Garcia had been replaced, it would have had significantly better chances of survival.
I too am annoyed that they decided to cancel the second series! How can they say it wasn’t compelling viewing, it’s beyond me. They finished it with so many questions to be answered. I think they should rethink again especially with the amount of unhappy viewers from all around the world!