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.
We love the show…..it should not be cancelled
I really like this show…So here we go again…they move it or cancel it and put some show that will do nothing in the time slot…
My husband & I love this show!!! I can’t believe it doesn’t have good ratings. Please don’t cancel this show.
I love, love, love the show and will be disappointed if they cancel it.
Please keep it going!!!
This is actually a good show, it would be rather disappointing if NBC were to cancel it.
tv execs are dumber than dirt. why don’t they think before challenging established hits and fill a demographic that will watch a new series. pay me the millions these people who guess the right time slots and see what happens. can’t be worse than what these morons do!
I LOVE this show…… KEEP IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The show has suffered from a host of problems. Flashback scenes in every episode (the writers and producers apparently fail to recall the failure of two other recent series that over used this literary technique), the capitalism is evil message in every episode and weak strawman legal arguments offered to ignorant jurors and judges that win every time (but which would fail virtually every time in the real world) quickly became trite, boring and predictable. In January I predicted “13 and out”. Apparently I was too kind. It looks like it was 5 and out, though with 22 episodes in… Read more »
We LOVE The Firm!!! Cannot believe the ratings are not higher. It has suspense, humor, some romance……such a good show, well written and acted. I could not find it tonight (Saturday, Feb. 11) on Nashville, TN channels…….very disappointed. Please don’t cancel it!
I hope The Firm stays on the air. Both my husband and I enjoy watching it, and that is saying something because our tastes in TV shows are very different. It is suspenseful, has lots of action and the actors are top notch. Give it some time to build a following.
We love The Firm and cannot find the Saturday, February 11 episode on an Atlanta or Macon channel. What a shame! Same thing happened with Chicago Code last year. Please give The Firm a chance to catch on.
I really like this show – I felt that NBC had finally put on a show for those of us who are NOT reality show fans. Please don’t cancel it.
My husband and I love the show. We do not want to see it go. I would just like to see the show lighten up on the childlike love sequences between the two that work in the office ( they can be annoying).
I just love this show! I don’t know whats wrong now days because all the shows that I loved had been cancelled! Please let me know what’s wrong with me?