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?
REALLY – leave us hanging in the middle of a good mystery. It’s like selling only half a book. If nothing more at least turn it into a mini series so the story line can be finished.
If competition on the same night (I question catagorizing the shows on the other networks as competition!) was the problem then move it. If inventors had stopped trying at their first unsuccessful attempt we wouldn’t have much in this world. TRY AGAIN!!!!!
Finally something on TV that I was looking forward to every week and it gets cancelled! Insanely sick of all these dancing and singing show!!!!
wait… what? Cancelling Alcatraz? NO!!!!!!! It’s the one TV show ive never failed to miss, and the only TV show this year to pull me away from my books to read. damn you FOX! We need series 2!
We really loved Alcatraz! I am very disappointed and hope someone picks it up!
Once again FOX has shown it’s braindead mentality. We get a show that requires a little thought and it gets cancelled. Too many good shows are getting cancelled for the lousy reality ones. Most of TV today is junk and repetitive reruns.
Really!! Finally a good show instead of the garbage, instead of cancellling why not try another day or time! Nothing on friday saturday day or night!
Yet another good show cancelled. Just don’t air good shows anywhere near reality stuf!! Isn’t that obvious?? Is she alive? Is she dead? Will we ever see her in a swimsuit??
Alcratraz catered to intelligent viewers who liked using brains and imagination rather than “reality” shows that uses nothing. Hope they reconsider. Did they think to move it to a different night?
I’m done with new shows on network tv!! The trend of cancelling shows is out of control. We’re going to start watching old tv shows from the 70’s and 80’s agina.
I loved Alcatraz!
All my fav shows, except Once upon a Time, have been cancelled 🙁
So year after year we get rubbish like big brother and xfactor we finally get a show i look forward to each week and they cancel it.thanks for nothing…idiots
I really hope a cable channel will pick it up! I loved this show..I need to know the secrets to Alcatraz!
it wasnt perfect, but we kept watching each week. It was the weakest of the 3 I watch. The other two are Missing (cancelled) and Person of Interest (hopefully still on). Hopefully, they will do a conclusion one to tie up story.
Another network: pick up this show! Loved it! 🙁
Alcatraz was better than any reality tv show and with all the singing shows that are on already it should not have to compete with the voice. not to mention touch sucks!
bring back Alcatraz, it’s a great show and people are going to be seriously pissed off. don’t screw your network over fox. reality tv is only do entertaining, people WILL get bored with the same old crap.