Bones has been a quiet hit for FOX but the same can’t be said for its spin-off, The Finder. FOX has now cancelled the low-rated series after one season.
The Finder is a procedural series that revolves around a man (Geoff Stults) with the extraordinary ability to help people find the unfindable. Other castmembers include Maddie Hasson, Mercedes Masohn, and Michael Clarke Duncan.
The spin-off debuted on January 12th to a disappointing 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 5.50 million total viewers. It was fourth in its Thursday night timeslot right out of the gate and lost nearly 30% of the all-important demo from its compatible lead-in, Bones. This was not a good start.
 Loading ... |
Things picked up a bit in the following weeks, thanks in large part to the show having FOX’s blockbuster American Idol as a lead-in. Still, the numbers weren’t as high as they should have been.
After seven weeks on the air, FOX put Finder on hiatus and then moved it to Friday nights, giving its Thursday timeslot to Touch. If The Finder could maintain a healthy percentage of its viewers after the switch, it would likely garner a renewal.
But that didn’t happen and Finder’s numbers dropped like a rock. In its first Friday airing, the freshman series attracted a 1.1 demo rating — an episode-to-episode loss of 53% — with just 4.03 million viewers. The numbers for future episodes fluctuated a bit but didn’t really get any more encouraging. The network could do just as well or better by running cheaper reality programming.
The season finale of The Finder is set to air this Friday night and there won’t be any episodes after that. Hopefully the producers saw the writing on the wall early enough and won’t leave viewers hanging with any major unresolved storylines.
What do you think? What went wrong with this show? Why do you think The Finder failed to attract a bigger audience? Was cancelling the series the right decision? How would you have fixed it?
This was a good show. But I missed the girl character we met originally on Bones. I never cared for the chemistry between the marshal and the Finder.
If it wasn’t for Family Guy there is nothing left to watch on FOX. Fringe is ending after 13 final episodes and they cancelled the remaining shows that I enjoyed. Guess the only time I will be watching the channel is for an odd NFL game.
Fox is the master of pulling shows to early…
So sad!! Please…. another network pick the Finder up!! My husband and I loved the mystery of figuring out the case with the humor and strange nature of the lead character. We have been holding our breath to see if a 2nd season would come. Networks need to realize shuffling time slots for shows like this without much production to let us know will kill it – but that must be what they want. I had a season pass on my tivo and it didn’t even catch some of the changes in scheduling. Why does Fox think American Idol can… Read more »
WTF! why are so many networks moving to shortened seasons 10-13 episodes, then mixing up the timeslots and/or putting so many empty weeks on the schedule that you can’t count on watching your favorite show when you expected it to be on? How can the networks expect us to keep watching when we don’t even know when to watch or are almost assured a short maybe 3-month season. What happened to 20+ episode seasons? Don’t tell me costs. Get new actors, there are plenty around, stop wasting production money on tired, old, expensive actors/actresses to garner viewers, Give Us a… Read more »
another great show cancelled by Fox, hopefully cable will pick it up
I’m done with Fox. House is gone and now they canceled The Finder after moving it around with not telling everyone where it was gonna be. I see FOX is promoting the hell outta Touch. I have never watched an episode of that and I never will.
After tomorrow nights series finale ,when the finder is done ..so is Fox in my house.
I hope USA or TNT picks this show up.
I wonder if H.hart will merger the actors from The Finder into Bones on a
regular basis.
The pilot episode was weak but after they made changes to the show it improved a lot.
It’s a bummer Fox didn’t give the show a chance and out it on Friday almost immediately.
They renewed Touch which to me is getting hitting as Keifer’s character is very dry and the episodes are sometimea slow. But since it is produced by their former top guy and starring their drama king it was expected.
Amazon if you’re seeing this, you should add The Finder (and a Human Target pre Ms. Pucci) to the list of series you want to pick up.
Moving the show to Friday was a sure way to kill it. Why did they do that? The show was good and they should have at least given it another chance. Fox is so quick to cancel decent shows that are slow to start, but then might have gained a good, steady audience. Idiots.
I knew it, so I didn’t bother to watch it.
bring it back pls
I know I didn’t really watch because my favorite character in the Bones episode didn’t return. I really liked Ike and found that she was the voice of reason through everything. I think it was also way too serious in some instances, it had little joking moments, but even those were just… bland. In general it had potential, but I think Ike would have been the source for the heavy moments, letting Walter’s lighter side be just that, thus also making his touching moments more poignant.
Cancelling good shows is FOX’s standard MO. FOX has cancelled more of my favorites after giving them little or no chance than any other network. That’s why, for years, I would never start watching a FOX show until it hit its second season. However, they got me with Human Target and The Finder. Cancelled Favorites: ================ (Network, years, latest 1st run airdate) —————————————- The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (FOX, 1993-1994), May 1994, 27 episodes. Strange Luck (FOX, 1995-1996) February 1996, 17 episodes. Brimstone (FOX, 1998-1999) February 1999, 13 episodes. – FOX put it on Friday nights, 8:00PM-9:00PM, Oct. 23,… Read more »
I liked Ike, too! Was sad to see her go. Would be nice to of had her return as a guest star at some point during the Season 2 that’ll never happen now.
Seems like fox is cancelling a lot of shows I liked.I think the neilson rating is outdated,alot of people dvr shows.Maybe thats part of the neilon rating too,but I dont think so.
[…] Update: The Finder has been cancelled after one season of 13 episodes. […]
[…] Finder (FOX) This Bones spin-off stumbled out of the gate and just never caught on. It’s been cancelled after 13 […]
My disappointment of Fox cancelling “The Finder” is a total disgusting act to say the least. It was light hearted, taught good clean morals and was just good clean family entertainment…thanks to the super wonderful cast and writers. I loved every minute of it. But it seems Fox continues to sink lower and lower in all it feebly puts on the air. Why is there so little care and love for pure, clean and just plain funny entertainment for the entire family without the fear of watching tv with children and having to watch the trash of profanity and just… Read more »