It’s been a rough road for Mitch MicDeere. Now, it’s come to an end — at least on NBC. The Firm has been cancelled after one season of 22 episodes.
The Firm picks up years after the young attorney (Josh Lucas) made his deal with the mob to take his old crooked law firm down. He and his family have come out of hiding but their problems haven’t gone away. The show also stars Molly Parker, Callum Keith Rennie, Juliette Lewis, Natasha Calis, Tricia Helfer, Martin Donovan, Shaun Majumder, and Paulino Nunes.
The series represented one of NBC’s biggest launches of the season but it misfired right from the start. The two-hour premiere brought in a dismal 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic with just 6.32 million viewers.
When The Firm moved to its regular timeslot on Thursdays a few days later, the numbers got even worse. Week two dropped 29% in the demo and the ratings kept falling in subsequent weeks. After hitting an embarrassing low for a primetime show — a 0.8 demo rating with 2.97 million viewers — NBC sent it packing to Saturday nights.
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The numbers have been awful since that move — even for a Saturday night show. It’s frequently outperformed by movies and crime drama reruns on the other networks.
To date, The Firm has an average of a 0.7 rating in the demo and 2.10 million viewers. On our NBC Ratings Report Card, which measures the relative demo success of shows on the network, the show has a “D-” grade — even after low viewership is taken into account.
On the positive side, 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 eOne 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.
Not surprisingly, The Firm won’t be back on NBC (according to TVWise) because the network has opted not to renew its deal with Sony and eOne. The series could continue to be produced for other markets however and even possibly be picked up by a cable channel here in the US. There’s been no word on the show’s fate beyond NBC so, for now, we’ll have to wait and see.
There are 22 episodes in the first season of The Firm and tonight’s marks the 17th. Right now, the finale is slated for June 23rd. If a second season isn’t going to be produced, hopefully the last episode will supply enough closure for the few million faithful viewers who’ve kept watching.
What do you think? Are you sorry that NBC isn’t continuing the show? Would you watch on another channel or purchase season two on DVD?
Image courtesy NBC.
Another classic bungle by NBC… others pointed out how hard it was to find the show when they kept pre-empting it with other cheeseball fare. The show had great “stories within the story lines” and it had enough good old fashioned suspense that wasnt gratuitously violent, but great nail biting moments. I HATE NBC for so many reasons, but this is the cyanide frosting on the arsenic cake. Our best hope is that someone else will see the show’s merits and give it another try. I remember when CBS (another dying dinosaur) cancelled “EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND” the fans saved that… Read more »
The firm is the best show on TV. NBC doesn’t know how to market a show! Start it one night then move it for two or three shows then move it again… They didn’t even give people anytime to talk about thru word of mouth and create excitement. NBC will put some stupid show on and guess they have already killed a winner. What a bad TV company… They should just stick to something they can’t screw up like sports!
This show is excellent. I just found it on hulu, and watched 14 episodes at once. The plot, characters, and filming is intriguing, but the MUSIC is incredible. NBC is crazy to cancel this. It needed to be marketed better. I sincerley hope it gets picked up, and yeas, I would watch a second season on DVD.
The show is good, is just on a bad network that nobody watches. NBC keeps canceling the airings at the last minute which makes it very frustrating.
I think I will stop watching NBC as they don’t have good shows and if they do they cancel them right away.
Journeyman and a My Own Worst Enemy were two great shows that they canceled because they couldn’t best CSI: Miami in the ratings.
Three good shows for Amazon it Netflix to pick up.
Great show my husband and I watch the show every week. I cannot wait for Saturday nights to watch . My Saturday nights will not be the same. Sorry to see another great show cancelled.
We love The Firm. I thought it wasn’t going to be any good but I was hooked after the first episode. The problem is NBC moved it to Saturday. Then they didn’t show it every week. How can it get good ratings when people don’t know when it’s going to be on?
We also watch it on demand. Let the show go to cable and show NBC just how dumb they are.
We love the Firm and would like to see it renewed or on cable!
The Firm is one of our favorite shows and we are sad to see it go. The acting was a bit cheesy, but improved with newer episodes. I hope another channel will pick it up….this show has the drama, suspense, romance, good storyline and lovable characters. Will miss it.!!
My husband and I have enjoyed this NBC series and want to see it picked up on cable. Good cast, interesting characters. So sorry to see its demise.
Have they calculated the on-demand viewers? Perhaps the lack of viewers has more to do with scheduling than the actual show. We look forward to watching it every Tuesday on demand!
Love the Firm! please have another season!
Love the show
I look forward to watching this show EVERY week. The. Stories have improved over the weeks. Please do not cancel.
Gonna miss it. Hopefully it gets passed to another network.
What’s going on with NBC? I looked forward to wathching this fast pced, twist and turn laden show each week. Please give it another year! It needs to find it’s audience.
I’d pay to not watch it.
I really enjoy this show and would love it to continue how can you leave a show and not finish the story