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.
Wish the Canadians would pick up the tab for a season 2 come back. Certainly a better production than what we’ve been used to.
We love the firm…we want more!
The Firm was an intelligent, compelling show with a great cast and top story line. We all got engaged with the characters and they were played wonderfully. To get canceled after one season strongly reminds me how stupid and idiotic Americans are. When the Simpsons, the Kardashians, and a slew of crazy reality shows far outshine the Firm for viewership, clearly demonstrates how low American intelligence has dropped. God help us all!
Please finish season 2
I am beyond tired of the decisions these networks are making. They wonder why viewers aren’t invested? We just finished watching all 22 episodes – and are LEFT HANGING literally. We couldn’t figure out why we never saw this originally, and got hooked on it – only to find out it got canned. I refuse to get invested watching anything anymore – it’s either moved constantly, thanksgiving breaks, winter break , super bowl breaks, spring breaks – shows get moved around, or not promoted. But heaven knows we can keep churning out garbage like the Simpsons (35 years – really??????),… Read more »
This was a terrific show, and to cancel it so abruptly and with no satisfactory resolution is grossly unfair. I hope NBC takes a real hit for this stunt. I will hesitate to watch any NBC series from now on.
The least you could do is make a mini-series and wrap it up and put it was n Amazon Prime. I don’t understand why the ratings were so low. An established backstory, great cast and ensemble, excellent writing and a compelling story — it deserved better than this, and so do we.
I’m about anything John Grisham. This series complemented the movie and with Grisham as an EP made it even better. It moved well and I like many others can’t understand why thus didn’t do well. I was left hanging hoping that someone else would pick it up. But by this time they wouldn’t be able to get the original cast back. So disappointed.
We just finished watching Josh Lucas in The Firm on Amazon Prime…We were so Disappointed that it ended the way it did.
How do we know if Patrick got out of jail. Whether the MicDeree family is let go from The Mob? We want to see more. Who can we talk to….Can a Series 2 still be made???? We really got hooked on the Show….Want to see a second season made.
Please answer????
I loved the show. But as always when they cancel the show, we the audience are left hanging. I hope Amazon prime picks it up and develops the second season. I will wager that the audience are on the streaming side is quite good. The storyline and the actors are superb.
I think it is very unfair to end the show “The Firm” after 22 shows without some kind of ending. This is one of the reasons that NBC, ABC & CBS are seeing their viewership going down.
We were riveted to this film! Excellent actors & actresses! Where is Season 2? We are waiting to see it on Roku or Amazon Prime or Cable!
The Firm…..This is big in the UK you should make a mini season two to conclude American mini-series have a bad habit of doing this over the years
I really enjoyed the firm, I can’t understand why the viewing figures were so low, it was an excellent show in my view
I loved the show and it’s really unfortunate that it ends with the cliphanghanger and there’s no conclusion the least that writers could’ve done is done one more episode to give this the clothes that we need☺️
No I need another season, I was completely addicted to the show, absolutely loved it, need more
Great show. Boo! NBC. For not continuing The Firm series. My husband and I watched it and were both disappointed that it stopped and will not be continuing. I was thinking of telling people to watch it.
I’ve just watched the firm for the first time, have never seen it advertised. Took 3 days to watch 22 episodes, then I find out NO MORE..
I can’t believe the show has been dropped.
Action and tension, i want more
Very disappointed that there is not at least an ending to series 2