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.
My husband and I love this show. It keeps us hanging and wanting more… We have our fingers crossed that it will return on a cable network.
I cannot believe this show has been cancelled! Episode 22 ended so “up-in-the air” that I knew we would have more. I hope someone will pick it up and leave “reality” in the dump where it belongs. My senior friends and I will watch or buy!
I was really upset finding out that the show was cancelled. My boyfriend and I watch the show every week and pvr it when we aren’t able to watch it on the night it airs. I would watch on a different station and would purchase the second season.
Acting, plots and subplots, suspense, this show has them all in spades. As another poster said, it is an intelligent show. NBC’s timing just didn’t do it justice. We taped every episode, the season finale left us wanting. Please, please keep this show on the air, would watch it any way we can.
We love the firm
We couldn’t wait until the next episode!
Please bring it back to tv or even DVD we will definitely watch it!!!
that is bs…canceled…it is hands down one of the best tv shows in a long time…I really hope that someone other then nbc picks it up and makes a killing off the great show…I think nbc is really not as smart as they think they are…the show started after most shows were in between series and people didnt know about it so they obviously didnt tune in, or they wouldnt have tuned out…i promise you that… watch the first 22 episodes and i promise you will be i shock for such low ratings…its like if a rookie quarterback failed in… Read more »
Loved this show. I am a senior and sick of reality show. This series made my heart beat 100 miles a minute and loved it. It had suspense all the way through. Loved they had a maffia mob and Russian. Don’t see too many shows like this anymore. I just think this should have been launched in the fall and the timing was wrong and it deserves another chance. Hope they can re-introduce it and get people interested in it. The characters were amazing even the head of the Italian mob…..Sad it had to end.
Would love to see another season of the Firm! We thought it was the best show on tv this season and couldn’t wait to see it each week. We would watch it on NBC or any other channel or DVD we could view it on!
Would most definitely buy season 2 or watch in another network!! We recorded it he series weekly due to kids schedules only weekly show we watched!
We love this show and will be very sad to see it be taken off the air!
We would definitely watch it on another network or purchase the second season!
would love to watch season 2 anywhere
I would definitely watch this show on another network, hopefully USA or TNT will pick it up. And yes, I would buy season 2 if it came out on DVD.
It’s an intelligent show! Someone should pick it up because I sure want to know what happens next and would love for season 2 to continue, whether it’s on nbc or some other network!!!
Soooo bummed that they cancelled the show!! Maybe the reason not many people watched it was because they kept changing the day it aired. So many of my friends had heard of the show and wanted to start watching it, but they kept airing it on a worse night. Some network should pick up this captivating show for the next season and watch it take off!
my husband is totally picky an dloved this show, i myself fell for it first, someone needs to pick this show up… if nothing else give us a mini series and end the show right… way too many ?’s still unanswered