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?
Dear Sir,
I thought Alcatraz and Fringe where brilliantly written and acted so many quality and talented writer’s and actors out their wasted for the the sake of brain dead Reality show’s. It’s a crying sham that every thing boils down to viewer rating’s. I live in hope of them returning.
Many thanks Roger
Dear Sir,
I thought Alcatraz and Fringe where brilliantly written and acted so many quality and talented writer’s and actors out their wasted for the the sake of brain dead Reality show’s. It’s a crying sham that every thing boils down to viewer rating’s.
I’m watching alcatraz reruns this past month. I really liked the show. I can’t believe they cancelled it and left me hanging. I hope they can bring it back. I think it just was on the wrong time slot.
I love to watch ALCATRAZ season 2.
The show interesting … I loved it
Everyone wants to watch those live shows bc of the voting and messaging they do while live. My momma and I are watching the show right now that she had dvr’d. I really was lookin forward to the next season and was very let down when it didn’t come bk on!
I think the reason it was failing is because if the day they choose to air it. I loved the show and I hope that it will come back!!! Please come back!
No they should of not cancelled the series. I keep looking for them to bring it back. I loved the show. I love anything about Alcatraz.
Totally agree!!!!!
It is absolutely infuriating not no knowing what’s going to happen!! You can’t stop a series where one is dying and leave it that way and not being able to figure it out is driving me nuts if I had known it was going to stop that way then I never would have paid for the so called “complete series!”
I think they got to in depth with the show and the ******* gov. stuck their nose in it and shut them down and made them make up a bull **** story about the ratings. How typical!
This was an awesome show.I still watch it on DVD every year.I can’t believe Fox would drop this well written program for crap like dancing with the stars…lol really?This show is gay as hell.nothing but old bitties watch this crap.
I agree it was an awesome show. I was looking forward to what will happen next. Bring it back. Change the day and time.
is the best series .. 🙁
The usual Monday shows are starting to bore me. Dancing with the Stars has been around for 14 seasons. I’m done with it. This show is a breath of fresh air and FOX, you decided to ruin it. There are so many questions that will never be answered. The story is well written you have a great cast. Just change the day and boom problem solved.
yes!
This program was GREAT!!!! Why did you cancel???? You need to bring Alcatraz back! What idiot made this stupid call?
Making a hot girl leader is very cheap way and old trick
The plot is nice but not strong enough
it ought not. have been cancelled