NBC has cancelled the Thursday airings of their low-rated legal series, The Firm, and sent it packing to Saturday nights at 9pm beginning February 11th.
The Firm follows attorney Mitch McDeere (Josh Lucas), his wife Abby (Molly Parker), and their daughter Claire (Natasha Calis), as they emerge from the witness protection program after 10 years. They relocate to Washington, DC to restart their lives but problems from the past quickly resurface. The show’s cast also includes Callum Keith Rennie, Juliette Lewis, Tricia Helfer, and Shaun Majumder.
NBC had high hopes for the legal drama but it stumbled in the ratings right from the start. The two-hour premiere of The Firm registered just a 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 6.32 million viewers. The numbers got even worse once the show moved to Thursday nights and, for the past two weeks, has only mustered a 0.8 rating with fewer than three million total viewers.
It’s no surprise that NBC is banishing The Firm to Saturday nights with ratings like these. Grimm repeats will fill the Thursdays at 10pm timeslot for the immediate future. Starting March 1st, the peacock network’s new drama Awake will take over.
While it looks highly unlikely that NBC will purchase a second season of The Firm, it seems certain that viewers will get to see all 22 episodes of season one.
If The Firm had been a typical network show, the episode order probably would have been cut down to 13 installments because of the low ratings. However, NBC’s deal for The Firm is unique and a bit more like the one the network had for Merlin, the supernatural drama produced by the BBC.
Sony and Entertainment One partnered to produce The Firm, primarily for the overseas market. Thanks to pre-sales and Canadian production tax credits, the cost of producing the series was already paid for and NBC was able to pick up the show for a greatly reduced licensing fee, just like any other secondary buyer.
If The Firm had been a big success, NBC would have made quite a profit on the series. As things worked out, the network may still be making some money on the deal or at least hasn’t lost much.
Will there be a second season? That depends on Sony and Entertainment One, not NBC.
What do you think? Do you like The Firm? Do you think it should continue?
Image courtesy NBC.
My wife and I watched the first double episode of The Firm and DVR’d the rest, but never got around to seeing them. We watched the first episode of Smash tonight, which we really enjoyed. It was while watching Smash that my wife said she wasn’t interested in seeing the remaining episodes of The Firm, and I agreed. It’s not that The Firm is a bad show. There’s certainly nothing objectionable about it. It just didn’t hook us. In previous decades the standards for quality television were lower, due to a smaller number of viewing options. But now there are… Read more »
I love the show. They just haven’t advertised it well.
The show is Very Good’ My wife and I realy like it. Why do they always try new shows in time slots which have good shows already?
Don’t cancel! Great show, but Abby can definitely be replaced! Doesn’t fit with Josh Lucas at all!
Nope. Loving Abby more and more all the time!
I love the show. I was so excited to finally find a show that I like. Please don’t cancel it!
Thus is the one show I want to see eveey week!
I love the show! Please don’t cancel it.
I like that it has a more movie-like quality to it than most shows.
The firm has been one of the interesting series that have come along in along time. So tired of all the same type shows out there. Would have been good to wait till the end of the 22 shows before making a decision to end the series.
My husband and I thought the show was great. We watch it online when we miss it. We’ll be very disappointed if it is discontinued!
I do not watch many tv programs. I happened upon the show and got interested in it because it appeared to portray an honest lawyer, who believed in “doing the right thing”. Having seen it only that one time, I was eager to watch the next episode to determine if my assessment is accurate, and if I would enjoy watching it regularly. Then I couldn’t find it again. I’m not a computer person, but lightning struck and I thought to try to find it on the computer, which I was able to do. Am now looking forward to watching it… Read more »
I loved the show – it is far better than some of these stupid reality shows and some of the new sit coms which are not funny
I love the show and even DVR’d it so I could watch it when I missed one episode!!! Never fails…they get a good show and it is taken over by ALL the reality shows!!!!!!!!
I agree. We DVR it and can’t wait for the next episode.
I liked the show. For whatever reason, I only saw the premiere and second show. Thought they were very good and had every intention of watching it. However, Im not sure if that is when it was moved to another night or not but that would explain why I missed the next episodes. Sometimes I think the newer shows are not given a fair shake. The networks are too quick to cancel. Somtimes the public just needs a little more time to #1 get to SEE the show and #2 have a chance to GET INTO the show and its… Read more »
I found this show on TV on demand and really liked it.. I didn’t find it “on” started lookin for more episodes and I am disappointed it is being cancelled.
I love the firm and i am so glad it has not been canceled, i will be watching Feb.11th.
WHAT A SHAME ! AND I MISSED THE LAST SHOW BECAUSE THE MOVING IT WAS KEPT SECRET ! NBC—- WHAT WERE YOU THINKING _ PLEASE DON’T CANCEL SUCH A GREAT SHOW __