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?
ok gonna play devils advocate here, but its been 4 years, so if they did bring it back, would it really have the same hold on us as it did back then? I would love to see this show to come back, be picked up by another station but then does J.J still have a hand in it? will those names come back after all Jorge not a regular on Hawaii 5 ‘O’ some of the actors have moved onto new projects, would they take a step back in time?, I hope am wrong I hope it is picked up,… Read more »
Yes I do belive that peolpe would pick up tge show after this long I still watch the first season all the time and at the end I always ask myself Why?? Why did fox cancel this show over Pritty little bimbo’s tgat show gave me the *****… anyway I think this show was very imaginative and very well thourght out.
Ok now is time to continue the series. Who else thinks so. Come on let’s let them all know how we feel.
BRING IT BACK. Why cancel a damn good show with unlimited potential?
Gareth
Today 9:08 am
September 2016 – Does anyone know of a follow-up to Series 1 of Alcatraz ?
Someone must have written a pitch to sell the project – where is it ?
Who owns the rights or the story
Was upset as the last 20 minutes of episode 13 was cut off. What a bols up. Now i will never know what happened.
September 2016 – Does anyone know of a follow-up to Series 1 of Alcatraz ?
Someone must have written a pitch to sell the project – where is it ?
I loved this show and have been waiting for it to return but still hasn’t. I don’t understand why they didn’t give it a chance to air a season 2 or give it to someone else to try. Need this show to come back
It needs to come back the mind boggling season 1 put us all in the question of Alcatraz and the secrets it actually held. Not to mention the ending was rather how do I put this.. Not apart of it you could tell it was last minute. So bring it back
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I just watched the complete series and I want more! Must finish. Bring it back!
Please Fox should renew Alcatraz and make the season 2 and more.. We love the show here in Nigeria.
Please make a new season, its a great show and the cliffhanger needs to be followed by a new season to answer the question will she come back to life and most of all to make the plot clear with all the people entangled in to a bigger scheme…. Who’s in it, what’s their goal? Is Tommy good or bad?…. please provide us of the answers in a new season!!!
Fox needs to make a new season, it’s a good show!!!!!!!!
i liked the serie, ended last week in the netherlands, i think that fox maked a mistake of end the serie, you can’t compeet with the voice AND dancing with the stars, the serie was good, but maybe the wrong day and time….
Best show ever so good just so bad it chanced wrong mistake. At least do another Swanson to finish things up it was just left and that wrong.
A good show, not a great one. But it certainly deserved (or deserves) a second season. Sam Neill and Jorge Garcia are big enough names – and I can’t help but have a soft spot for the wonderful Sarah Jones. Like Lost, this series has too many JJ Abrams’ open-ended plots. It makes it hard on brainless reality TV-lovers that cannot think outside an hour of watching someone dancing or singing badly. Perhaps another TV producer will pick a second season up after all the comments on here. The series needs to be resolved – at least partially. Let’s just… Read more »
Wake up CBS, you can’t possibly find 63 people in one season. If you need time and space just drop some of these other douchebag shows like trhe voice, touch and DWTS, they all suck. They are simply for those mindless goons out there. They don’t make you think, so therefore don’t entertain you.
Ah come on, are you kidding me, I watched all these eposodes for nothing, this is bull ****, this show is awesome, bring it back cbs, stop the b.s. already, love this show, I need to know what happened! !!!