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?
With so much cheap and shoddy TV material out there, I was extremely excited to watch something on TV that really had wonderful story lines. Something that made me believe the TV industry still had some talent somewhere. Then you go and cancel. Why? Do you believe that everyone wants to see smut? Because we don’t. A lot of us want shows just like The Finder. We are starving for good TV. Starving.
It might still be on your desk, but the computer itself has nasty malware about it that has enslaved it for any bot master’s use. I can still tell which section of the text was written naturally and which was a result of hours of hard labor. If you do find that you simply must enter a sizable city – Your old co-workers are not your friends: If by some chance you happen to run into an old co-worker that you employed to chat to about the daily events and exactly how much you dislike your coworkers, recognize that he… Read more »
The last episode had a great ending. I had thought when Walter smiled at the end that he was being sent into the looney bin with the fake Winston homer. They set up the absolute perfect cliffhanger for the new season and then just cancel it. WTH, bring it back
I’ve watched the first season and I really liked it. It could really be added on to with new stories and plot twists. The character storylines are still developing and the e cliffhanger with the gypsy marriage needs to be finished and they should rethink the cancellation
I like the show very much, but never heard of it until I stumbled across it on Netflix. From what I’ve seen, maybe 7 episodes, the stories are fresh and not formulaic. All of the characters are interesting and well acted. I wish someone like USA could pick up the renewal. I think it is a lot better than ‘Burn Notice’ for instance.
Just watched it on Netflix and loved it. Can we bring it back?
I totally agree. We just found this show on Netflix & we love it! Wish more people would have had an opportunity to “find” this show. Not many good ones out there!
I knew nothing of this show, never heard of it until we were scrolling Netflix to find something we never seen or watch. I did not even know this show existed! Guess what? The Finders was a great finding! We love the show! We watched 3 shows every night and really disappointed it was all gone and no more! The show is awesome, fun, interesting and we like all the casts in the show, that is very unusual. Each one of them is unique. This is much better than Bones!, it is very addicting, and I am obsessed with this… Read more »
Apparently it’s pretty obvious why …..no one knew about the show…..been watching it on Netflix….absolutely love it!!!
I love the show I saw it on netflix recently. In 2 days good show for another season.
I also knew nothing of the show until I saw it on Netflix. I have been watching The Finder obsessively ever since.
Sigh, I knew it would be cancelled, The Finder is too interesting, creative, and just plain good!
I loved the show, The Finder, and was really disappointed to find out it was cancelled. It was a great show! Why in the world would Fox do something so stupid?
I really liked the Bones episode where The Finder was cameoed. However, I did not even know the show existed and thought it was just another episode of Bones. After joining Netfilx recently, I saw the title and clicked on it. I have to say that I am so disappointed in the network for not doing a better job promoting the series. I found the writing creative, substantial, and humorous. The character development and casting was also unique and enlightening, such a fantastic job casting the talent! I enjoy this show much more than I do Bones, and I am… Read more »
I had never heard of it, but found it on Netflix as a lot of other people. And my family and I loved the show. We were very disappointed to find out that it only had the one short season because I wanted to see more. It was decent enough that family could watch it. It isn’t religious or standing for any moral issues. But it was fun and wasn’t revolting or vile as too much has become these days. Characters were intriguing enough to keep you interested, but cared enough for each other to want to cheer for them.
I really enjoyed the finder. I am gonna buy the original series ! It was different, light hearted and humerous and I really liked it. I thought the characters were good. There was some drama and some compassion. Touch is too confusing. Lol Please do another series !
I say bring it back too. Just not on at the same time as the Mentalist or any popular shows. Maybe at the same time as one of those reality shows! 🙂 Too many were thinking it was going to be another Bones and became disappointed and angry because they thought Bones was off schedule because of the Finder. People were screaming (keyboard warriors) to get rid of it and bring Bones back! Goodness, the woman had a baby and couldn’t take a break!