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?
My entire family (which is a rather large one) and I were really disappointed to find that Alcatraz was dropped. There’s a saying “Adapt and overcome”, FOX could have moved the airing of the show to another day that was not conflicting with this show’s competition. But FOX should know that a lot of today’s cable services have DVR’s where a lot of people have the DVR set up to record the series. I’m sure that is not going to show up on their ratings. That show was very popular in my town and I live in a small town.… Read more »
I see Alcatraz as THE perfect series! It has it all, drama, action, plot, in-depth characters, etc. The time jump allows for a brilliant cocktail of modern-day crime show and classic prison drama Shawshank Redemption style. Add to that the compelling, agonizingly slow-revealed mystery of the time lapse, the rebuilt, sterile Alcatraz interior filling up with the old inmates, and you wind up with a “WHAT? THEY ACTUALLY CANCELLED IT? CAN THEY DO THAT?”
I’m from Denmark, and I didn’t watch the show until 2013. But after the first episode I needed to see more. After the last episode, I searched for most of a day to find a season two. I saw the articles about there being no season two, but I wouldn’t belive them!!!!
I showed my mum the show, and she loved it too!! There has to be a season two, or at least some answers to the obvious questions!!!!
Me and my mum need answers!!!!!
FOX you Suck for tossing this series…..
My family loves to watch past and present tv series on dvd. I bought Alcatraz with hesitation due to there only being one season. We have now watched season one and very that we will never know if Rebecca comes back to life? Story line about her Grandfather? How they all disappeared and reappeared many years later? Who or what was behind their disappearance? Where is the warden? He is bad, good, young or old? Will Lucy and Emerson reconnect? I hate when networks cancel a show and leave viewers hanging(just like CSI Miami, and Hero’s). They really should put… Read more »
My family loves to watch past and present tv series on dvd. I bought Alcatraz with hesitation due to there only being one season. We have now watched season one and very that we will never know if Rebecca comes back to life? Story line about her Grandfather? How they all disappeared and reappeared many years later? Who or what was behind their disappearance? Where is the warden? He is bad, good, young or old? Will Lucy and Emerson reconnect? I hate when networks cancel a show and leave viewers hanging(just like CSI Miami, and Hero’s). They really should put… Read more »
love it
very good story !!! This is not happening
loved the show
I really want to know where the prisoners and guards went to during those years and what was bring them back. I think it is a good science fiction story. It beats the hell out of scriped reality shows and dancing with the stars. America’s population is really dumming down.
its a big mistake to cancel it! its a great really great show i enjoyed every episode of it, i wish i know what did happen next!!! i’ll miss you alcatraz so saaaad
they can’t just cancel it it’s cruel
i just wanna know what happened it can’t end like this << panic
No No No No this can’t be the end. i want the next, i am writting this from Sudan by this you should know that how the series is very nice and need to continue.
I liked the season 1 so i hope there will be a season 2
Yes, i will miss it. i enjoyed S1 and would like to have S2