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?
Sadly, Michael Duncan’s passing was a major blow to any fan attempts to revive this show. He was a subtle yet vital part of the show, playing the pathos, the ground and heart to Walter’s quirkiness and pathology. I just don’t see how the show could continue with the same feel without Michael Duncan as Leo.
I agree with Dwight, too much quirky.
One of its problems was too many quirky characters that was hard to get a bead on. The Finder was complicated, the heavy lingoed Australian girl was distracting and Michael Duncan didn’t do anything except offer legal advice, which even Booth from Bones didn’t need to have around. The actors were good, but their characters were too much and it seemed as though the Finder almost found things too quickly in succession, almost like watching a DaVinci Code series.
Bring the show back it was so good
I heard that Michael Duncan got very sick. He would have been hard to replace, but not impossible. The federal agent sucked, she was two-dimensional, not well written and not well played. But Willa Monday was just great and so was Walter. I would have liked to know what happened to her after she walked away at the end of episode 12, how she defied the ******* uncle and got the Romani “family” to get off her back. Also, Walter demonstrated some killer moves when he saved his mom and ninja-whipped the three cultists, and he gets busted up at… Read more »
All the shows that get cancelled is because of ratings iam glad that iam in canada at least canadien shows get renewed I never know when they say low ratings where they come from was finder after it takes two salvation wiskey cavalier the enemy within all good shows and some programs coming on the fall 2019 they suck
Mercedes Masohn was not a good casting. She just wasn’t a convincing federal agent. She was the only thing truly annoying about the show. Otherwise, it was great. And I ‘d still like to know what happened to Willa…..
Low rating. Such a lie. Season two would be great enough to have season 3
So imagine if people could recognize a good, no great! thing at the early stages and there you have Finder. If I could I would slap those who decided to quit the series. Bring it back! Please
I don’t think there was enough advertising about this show or information, especially for people who didn’t watch Bones until it was re-runs or watch American Idol. Networks also put shows on hold & make it impossible to find them again until it’s too late. But This was Fox who cancelled “The Good Guys” & “Human Target”, ruined Sleepy Hollow” So…
I loved this show. I never heard about it when it was run in prime time, but I binge-watched it on Netflix and the ending killed me! I wish Netflix would pick it up. Fox did a crappy job of promoting this one and it was first rate.
This was just a real nice warm hearted show with no demons or zombies. So of course Fox cancelled it. Can’t have just a nice show, shat brings people joy.
Like Bones & the original Startrek series, The Finder was a higher quality show than most of Fox’s pablum. It takes something like Netflix to find us, the heavy duty viewers. The Finder is worth re-watching to catch all the impressive esoteric fact gems hidden in it. Hopefully, Netflix will finish the series.
Saw it on Netflix. Definitely would watch additional seasons if it goes to Netflix. Although one of the key actor died that could be dealt with.
I don’t have a solution, but I certainly thought where it ended, with Geoff Stults’ character headed off for jail, a wide-open possibility for the writers of this show. It’s certainly a show that the actors would not be ashamed to tell their families, friends and children that they acted a role in this show. He’s a Vet, putting his life back together without whining about the Life Lessons he got dealt and he and his cohorts are certainly not living in the usual 9-5 box society would have them live in. GO GEOFF STULTS AND COMPANY!!!!!!!