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?
And I see ABC has cancelled Missing, too!
I hate television networks…
Hope Scifi channel picks it up.
I was reading the list of cancelled shows for next season, and see that SCIFI cancelled one of their long-running series. So maybe they’ll have room, although the reason for the SCIFI cancellation was cost, and Alcatraz doesn’t look all that cheap to produce.
The bane of television for classic television watchers has been reality and live talent shows. Cheap to produce, but boring, boring, BORING. There isn’t one I watch. And to have reality shows kill a really good show like Alcatraz is just sickening. The producers of that show even cared enough to have some fun doing a nice little homage to Bullitt’s famous car chase–including that damn little green VW! Anyone remember Invasion? Arrested Development? Firefly? All good series that were killed off long before their time. And what do we have left? Dime-a-dozen singers and amateur hoofers clogging up Prime… Read more »
firefly was an amazing show!
This is crap!!!! Alcatraz was a great show, I thought the opposite of what the ratings showed & was drawn more into the show as it went along. All I can say is I’m so glad Fringe ( best show on tv) was renewed. At the very least they could have ended the show better if they, which they did, knew it was going to be cancelled.
I will miss Sarah Jones’ Breasts
Loved this show, what a shame. Good shows always get cancelled, but the reality shows seem to go on forever. It would be nice if another network would pick up a show like this.
I’m really starting to hate Fox!…You keep some silly frilly dancing show like Glee and get rid of an on-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller like Alcatraz?!?!
I love mysteries and shows that challenge perceptions and require brainpower, but Alcatraz was poorly written, poorly acted, and poorly executed. It had no sense of pace, never made its mystery particularly compelling, and relied on cookie cutter police procedural plots to provide minimal drama. Good concept, but I’m not at all shocked to see it get the ax.
really you can’t just cancel an awesome show. If people just stop looking on facebook and other things and watch the show they would like it. You have no right to cancel it
I’m glad that I wasted my time watching another series that had a cliff hanger that will never be explained. I felt the same way when I watched the show The Event last year. It’s time for me to start waiting to see what shows are going to be picked up before I invest my time in them. Shame on Fox…
Oh what a shame they got rid of Alcatraz. SO tired of singing and dancing crap that’s all the same and boring!
This younger generation doesn’t understand the concept of mysteries and critical thinking. They are all about instant gratification from reality shows.
WAAAAY Bummer. I loved this show and the storyline it took. I agree with “disapointed by Fox” that this show would have excelled back to back with Fringe. Doubt it will be picked up by cable or anyone else. Bring back shows like the X-files, problem is nobody wants them anymore…tooooo much reality is right!
The hell?! I have been waiting for a good show to come about again!!! This show does not deserve to be cancelled!!! FOX always dumps the good shows!!! Seriously, next to Fringe or Supernatural this show would have done so much better!!!
They could have done much better. After two episodes the only character I liked was the big smart guy. The show was over cooked dramatic. It didn’t feel right and it moved too slow.