Last night, NBC burned off the final two episodes of Prime Suspect. The TV series has been ratings-challenged right from the start and, in November, NBC acknowledged that they wouldn’t be ordering any installments beyond the initial 13 episode order. The official word was that they would re-evaluate once all of the episodes had aired but everyone knew that it was really being cancelled.
If there was even a glimmer of hope that Prime Suspect might see a second season, the ratings for the final episodes didn’t help. Prime Suspect’s numbers continued to dwindle in the latter part of 2011. Last night, following a month hiatus, the finale registered a new series low.
Prime Suspect has been all but officially cancelled by NBC and its replacement, The Firm, is doing even worse. Last Thursday’s episode registered a 0.9 rating for its fourth episode. It took Prime Suspect 10 weeks to drop that low. Fortunately for fans of The Firm, NBC purchased 22 episodes up front. It remains to be seen if they’ll all air.
At the recent TCA press tour, NBC execs noted that, had Prime Suspect been on a premium cable channel like Showtime, it would have been declared a hit and would have been quickly renewed. Maybe but we’ll never know.
What do you think? Are you sorry that this was the end of Prime Suspect? Why do you think it didn’t catch on? Would it have been a hit on HBO or Showtime or even on a basic cable station like TNT?
Image courtesy NBC.
i started watching this show through an android app i download. i thought I’d check it out while i was on the train on the way to work and see if it was worth watching at home. i was totally hooked and couldn’t wait for the new season to start. i waited for the season premiere, when i didn’t see any previews for it i decided to look it up on the NBC website only to find out the show had been cancelled! it was one of the best new shows I’ve seen in a long time. maybe the NBC… Read more »
Loved this so didn’t miss an episode. Sad to hear its done.
🙁 I’m learning the hard way not to get into a show until I know if it’s going to be renewed or not. Seems like all the junk I hate is always getting aired again, but I actually enjoyed Prime Suspect…It would be nice if the show were renewed.