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.
The Firm is a great show. The networks need to stop bombarding us with all of the mind numbing reality shows. The Firm has a great cast and good writing . I hope another network picks it up
The ratings went down because NBC kept changing the days it was shown and viewers could not keep up with these changes. Hopefully another channel will pick up the show and keep it on the same day each week.
NBC would be better off by leaving Harry’s Law and The Firm on weekly and getting rid of shows like Love in the Wild and Biggest Loser and other crappy reality shows. GIve us something we enjoy and leave it alone!!! Ratings aren’t what they are cracked up to be!!! Guess I’ll watch another network now!!!!
Stupid people don’t TVO, or download it or get it from NetFlix.
The no-lifers watch it when it comes on TV the first time.
Therefore, shows like Jersey Shore get better ratings than shows that are appreciated by a more intelligent audience, as the smart crowd rarely has time to watch it when it airs. Instead they record it, or download it, or buy the DVD’s – which doesn’t help TV ratings.
Until advertisers learn to differentiate between unemployed buy-nothing viewers, and high income delayed viewers, we’ll see more garbage television.
I want to understand how the networks manage to keep bringing back stupid reality shows and turn off other great shows.
Very disappointed…apparently, I’m not a good tv critic, because every show that I fall in love with gets canceled within 1 or 2 seasons.
But how do networks count folks that rely solely on DVRs these days?
I love The Firm and looked forward to every new episode. The actors are positively perfect in the roles they play. There is such meaningless, badly written, poorly acted junk on TV that lasts for years – don’t understand that. I sincerely hope the show is picked up by another network.
It puzzle’s me how some shows that exhibit about an ounce of substance that The Form has, manage to go on for 7 to 8 years, (Desperate Housewives) and a show like The Firm gets cancelled within its first season. Lucky for them the production costs were already met or we probably wouldn’t have seen past episode 10. It really makes me wonder about the american audience sometimes.
I loved this show! I sure hope another network picks it up.
I have really enjoyed this show. I hope that another network picks it up because it can go a long way. I hope NBC will at least continue to air the remaining episodes. So far we are up to 19.
I really enjoyed this show and even liked the Sat. night time slot because there is nothing on then anyway. I hope another network picks up the show because I will continue to watch.
I really got into this program. I hope another network picks it up. How about it CBS or ABC. Quite frankly with the exception of Harry’s Law and of course The Firm, I really never got into NBC listings. Maybe that’s the problem, it not the programs it’s the network.
we love it….and will be disappointed if someone does not pick it up.
i hate when the channel make that big mistake…im not gonna turn on anymore my tv on NBC to watch any Tv series….that suck!!
Loved it. There was a problem with the show not airing when it was
Listed in tv guide. In fact I still haven’t seen the finale???
Bobbi » It didn’t air last Saturday. There are four episodes left.
Very disappointed this show was cancelled. The characters were just starting to develop. I will watch it on another channel if they pick it up.