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?
This was an awesome show and our family watched every episode! We even set it to record so we wouldn’t miss any episodes! Who wants to watch reality shows when you can watch great shows like The Finder!
The Finder was a great show! Putting it against top shows on Thursdays (TV’s busyest night) was moronic at best, and then Friday (TV’s least seen night) has me thinking it was sabotage. The dumbass that scheduled the show in those time slots should be cancelled (ie.FIRED).
THANK GOD FOR CABLE:-)
Maybe The USA Network will pick it up (HELLO)!
Already a campaign going on to get USA to pick it up. Go to their facebook page and add your request.
Reality tv is a sick joke! They keep coming back year after year and get rid of every new show i like. Touch is half the show The Finder was and i can only hope someone… anyone will pick it up. They can run it against any show fox has on now and will get my ratings!
Yes what he said
The show should have been piggy-backed to Bones where it started. Having both those shows on one after the other, and the likability of all the characters, not-to-mention the fact of the character swapping that was so much fun. This is a big mistake FOX, Bones and The Finder were your 2 best shows everything else is total crap, get with it.
No way what a disappointment . Shows like The Finder and Firefly are unique and have become few and far between .
Maybe if you would have thrown a few more dollars or maybe spent more than the budget of a local high school play on promoting a fresh and original show with a great well rounded cast instead of subjecting us to hours upon hours of reality TV it might have had a better following. Also, you didn’t tell anyone you were moving to Fridays!@!! Of course the percentage dropped. And the least you could do is end it in a better way than you did, you left with 4 GIANT cliff hangers!!! Network television if a joke.
I so agree with you and everyone else… There is so much stupid crap on like reality tv, I have enough reality crap at home, I don’t care to watch it on tv. And they didn’t promote it but ever commercial break was “glee this or glee that” or some other B.S. Seems as if the network is afraid to show anything with depth or intellegence to it. The Finder, Bones, and (I am liking) Touch were/are the only programs worth watching on this network. An extremely STUPID MOVE on their part. If some other network doesn’t pick this show… Read more »
The Finder is 110% better then Touch. How did that even get picked back up, it was a good idea but they failed to excute the show. It is what I turn on if I need to fall asleep. The Finder, like Bones, is one of Fox best shows. It was clever and the cast was perfect. Fox keep canceling good shows for bad ones and soon no one will be watching your network. How about you take time to read all the amazing reviews the show is getting and compare that to Touch. FOX BIG FAIL!!!!
I am very disappointed – the Finder was a great funny show.
I love the finder it was my favorite show now it’s gone thank a lot Fox I’m done with you!!!!!
I to am tired of being roped into these shows and then having them canceled. I too love “The Finder”, I watched the season finale and thought WOW next season is going to be awesome!! This is really disappointing!! I hope they change their minds!!
Great series, light, fun and held your interest better than most shows. big mistake cancelling it A fun version of sherlock holms new series.
I am so SICK of being roped into new shows only to have Fox pull the plug on them!!! I love The Finder and am so disappointed that I’m about done with the main networks.They will keep producing some lame shows but hack one of the best ones after only giving it a season??? SyFy here I come….
Everytime I turn on Hulu or Fox or on demand I have to watch a “Touch” promo. No wonder why it go renewed, they probably spent more money on advertising then production. Fox didn’t give this show a fair shake
VERY disappointed that The Finder has been cancelled. Loved the show. Kinda shows the sad mind set of the viewers, when a great family show like this is cancelled for lack of followers and some stupid reality show will take it’s place. They think people would rather watch that garbage….sorry Fox, not here. BTW-we don’t watch your animation either. The only shows we watch on Fox are Bones, The Finder and America Idol.
We love this show!! So much fun! Geoff is terrific! You get humor, action a touch of romance! Watching Willa evolve into such a caring and gifted Internet detective was so much fun. We DVR 12 shows every week and 7 of those dramas have been cancelled! Either we have deplorable taste or the networks do not take this into consideration. Can’t stand all the tasteless and immature so called comedies that seem to always find their way back every season. So sad! They left us hanging on The Finder, maybe somebody will find a way to bring it back!
Can’t help but laugh. 7 out of 12! We are probably watching the same ones. Somehow I can take the other ones with a saddness of loss, but the loss of The Finder nags me to no end.
Please go to USA Network on facebook and ask to them to pick up this show.
I just discovered The Finder, after seeing the episode of Bones that introduced the spin off. I found it on Netflix, and loved it. Before I watched it, I had seen the photo for the show on Netflix, but thought it was that show “The Glades”. I wasn’t a fan of that show, but LOVE “The Finder”. I went to USA and TBS on FB to campaign for the show to be picked up. I’ll miss Michael Clark Duncan, as I didn’t know he died last year. I only hope the show will live on as a great memory of… Read more »