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.
Noooo! So dissapointed! WTH I hope it gets picked up by another station…
I am getting SO TIRED of the networks axing my favorite shows: Flashforward, The Event, Lie to Me, Human Target, and now Prime Suspect; and that’s just the recent list. Who decided that Prime Suspect should give way to The Firm? That show lost me with the promos! PS was one of the best written shows on ( well, OK, not as good as The Good Wife but better than most). But golly gee, we still got the Hawaii Five O rehash…
I am getting SO TIRED of the networks axing my favorite shows: Flashforward, The Event, Lie to Me, Human Target, and now Prime Suspect; and that’s just the recent list. What moron decided that Prime Suspect should give way to The Firm? That show lost me with the promos! PS was one of the best written shows on ( well, OK, not as good as The Good Wife but better than most). But golly gee, we still got the Hawaii Five O rehash…
I am so disappointed this show is cancelled. It had become my favorite show. It was not like your typical cop show. Really, really disappointed. Need to rethink this
My favorite show and the only one I watched every episode. I’m so disappointed. Of course the ratings were bad for the last two episodes – who knew to look for it? Such a shame.
This was a terrific show that had so many Producers, Executive Producers, Associate Producers, Senior Producers, Consulting Producers, Craft Services Producers, D-Bag Producers that it was bound to get run into the ground! Talk about too many cooks in the kitchen, if even one of these NBC chair warmers had put their new iPads down for one day and paid attention to the script, cast and below the line crew they would have known they had a hit on their hands. Any idiot that admits that it “would be a sure hit on cable, like Showtime” ought to lose HIS… Read more »
Damn good show! Great cast and characters. I think if NBC would have given it more of a chance and had a more regular schedule of the show it would have been a hit! Another bad decision by NBC- Cancelling the show was not vey smart!
Prime Suspect is a Great show. One of the best on tv. The Firm lost my interest in less than 5 minutes. Hopefully another network like TNT or FX will pick up Prime Suspect like Southland which is another fabulous show NBC dropped. You cant give a new show a month hiatus and expect it to bounce back. HELLO!
We both like it a lot, though we mainly watch it like all our TV online.
Darn! I loved the show – was disappointed when I couldn’t find it on thursday.
As much as I love cop shows and Maria Bello, I just couldn’t get into this show. I wanted to like it, but it never grabbed me. Much the same for “The Firm” I think it bombed after the first episode. I agree, had Prime Suspect been a Showtime show it would have succeeded. It bordered on raw, but couldn’t cross that line. Maria needed to lose that funky hat too.
This was a great show. I don’t know why it didn’t catch on. Southland also a great show moved to another station – maybe this show will also.
LOVED this show. Yes it had a slow start but the characters were just beginning to work off each other well. It didn’t have enough time to get the ‘kinks’ out of it. I loved Jane’s homage to Telly Savale’s Kojak-the hat and the occasional toothpick in the mouth(Telly sucked on lollipops to quit smoking too). I thought the last two episodes were very funny esp. the gumball machine story. You could see the actors were just getting really comfortable with one another and they were funny. PLEASE BRING IT BACK OR MOVE IT TO A CABLE STATION. How about… Read more »
NBC programing killed it. A four to five week hiatus and then bring it back. What would you expect.This was a good show, and great cast. Like “Southland” move it to cable. Under the current programing Law and Order would never have made it.
Loved the show, was sorry to see it cancelled. bounced all over the schedule though, so it seems like they didn’t give it a chance.