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.
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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?
We love it. Never heard of it before Netflix. It is a great show. We want more of it. Netflix is dying to find new hits, how about reviving this one. It is great.
I, too, just found “The Finder” on Netflix … Loved it!! Loved the quirkiness and no use of guns to do the finding. Nice variety of people and I would could see them bringing it back. Yes … Michael Clark Duncan has passed on … but he could have a brother or cousin or something that inherited the bar. Totally want to see more of this. Maybe it was just in the wrong time slot!!!
If anything they’d have Leo die and Willa could come back for Leos funeral and inherit and run the bar, it wouldn’t make sense to bring in someone random that was his brother or cousin. Plus there was a lot of gun use in this show, Were you even watching/ talking about the right show?!
I like the idea of Willa coming back to run the bar and couldn’t agree more about not bringing in a new random character. However on the gun part I completely disagree. Sure many of the bad guys had guns. But not once did our man Walt use a gun which is what OP was talking about. The fact that unlike most shows these days our “hero” wasn’t just running around shooting all the bad guys.
We just watch the finder on Netflix watch the series in two days love the show wife and the kids they need to bring this back
Netflix should pick this up. It is a fantastic show
Found this show on Netdlix. My wife and Iove it. Can’t believe it wasn’t picked up for another season.
great humor, intents scenes.. I wish there was something we could do to get a station to pick this up
No it should not have been cancelled. Bad marketing for sure. I had never heard of it until I found it on Netflix. Stults is a great comedic actor. His character made the show fun.
I found it on Netflix it was a great show we should hadn’t been canceled so many shows us lousy these days I think it was better than bonus which led to it maybe a Netflix could pick it up or something
I was an original viewer when the program originally aired in 2012. I was pleasantly surprised to see it pop up in Netflix. This show needs to be brought back some how. It is so refreshing from other procedural or cop, robber, etc. Show. It’s my opinion the shows demise was the need for reality TV at the time and now consumer demand has changed where we want more scripted series and less reality. The ironic point I see in all this is The Finder has been one of the best escapes from reality while still being completely and utterly… Read more »
This show is REFRESHING, it would be a great time to bring it back. However, I’m sad the big black lawer has died. He’s one of my favorite actors. But since i discovered the show on Netflix I even enjoyed watching them over again. I wish you can replace the lost actor with a totally new character out of respect to him and continue the series. Its a great break from today’s redundant format that every other show is stuck in.
This has been one of my favorite shows since I watched the first episode. I have never heard of it until I stumbled upon it on Netflix. Very disappointed to see that there was only one season. I thought that was just the beginning and there would be other seasons, sadly no. :'( I want more.
I just finished binge watching the series on Netflix. I hadn’t heard of the show before, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and am very disappointed there were no additional seasons.
The characters were all interesting, and the mood upbeat, which is something to really appreciate these days. The finale was the only episode I didn’t enjoy, but I can understand why the writers came up with such a dark ending.
Perhaps the series was inadequately promoted.
Loved the show; just reminded of it today, and thought I’d look it up. Such a shame it was cancelled. Such a fun programme. It would be great to see a return, although, will take a big character to fill Michael’s boots.
I’ve been thinking the same thing. I figure Bob Sapp could do it.
Would love to see this series come back – don’t know who would be cast for Michael Clarke Duncan, since I believe he has died and he made the show most interesting!
The collaboration with dr hodgens was kinda weak. Felt they could of done a better episode with him involved. And yea it should totally get a 2nd season i don’t know why they canceled it. It’s such a good show.
I enjoyed the FINDER IT WAS A GREAT CHANGE REFRESHING