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.
I loved this show! I watched the premiere episode and couldn’t wait to see more. When they started changing it to different days I could never find it to watch it cause it was always on a different time. I hope they release it on dvd so I can sit down and see it all the way through. Great show and sad to hear it’s not coming back!
Please bring The Firm back! Ireally liked the show. Most tv now is crap!
This show is awesome. I can’t believe shows like this get cancelled but the Bachelor is still popular, come on people there are no good shows left out there.
I have enjoyed the show and am disappointed to hear that it is cancelled! There haven’t been any good shows on Saturday night in years.
Please! continue this show.
I am very surprised & disappointed that such a good show was cancelled. We can only hope that cable TV will pick it up and more accurately reflect the ratings!
should have left it on prime time. it’s one of the best shows on tv. you change a show around so much nobody knows when its on. If it wasn’t for DVR I would have never got to see it. NBC Sucks.
Finally NBC came out with some great shows this year that were really excellent. The Firm and the Gifted Man were very well done. So sad NBC isn’t renewing them. They have made another mistake. Hopefully, we will be able to see both somewhere else since NBC can’t seem to get it right. NBC, can’t you change your mind? You would certainly make our family happy.
I’m not surprised about the cancellation. I expected it. The shows I like get cancelled a lot, it seems. I liked The Finder: cancelled. I liked The Secret Circle: cancelled … just to name two. I think that the producers of The Firm should have just made the show into a two part movie or maybe a mini-series. Then it might have worked as an extended series. Maybe they thought the original movie was more than enough to get people interested. That’s silly, as it could never live up to the original. The Firm’s main plot (the best part of… Read more »
For those of us who love the series, may we perhaps see it on DVD or satellite pay-per-view? We are eager to see how it ends. Please give us that opportunity!
Disappointed that The Firm was not renewed. I hope that we get to continue the story on another channel. How about it TNT or USA?
Because it takes a brain to watch The Firm, you cancelled it and pandered to people who watch “reality” shows.
I am really sorry that this show may not continue. It is (was) one of very few good shows on TV these days.
Once again the fans have been robbed of a great show that was not given a chance for another season.Someone PLEASE bring it back! The real slap in the face to us, is not even giving us an ending and closure! Is the client guilty? Are they free from the mob boss? I hope we find out, and if not I`ll remember this when I`M NOT watching any new shoes on NBC!Fool me ounce…NBC
My family has watched every show and believe it to be one of the few network programs worth watching. It incorporates great writing, character development and casting and acting. We would watch it on any network or buy any dvd’s available. NBC is losing my confidence.