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.
 Loading ... |
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 wife and I loved the show and kept up with the season through comcast on demand. NBC did not market the show effectively as most folks had never heard of the firm or when it was on.
The Firm was one of the few shows that I liked this year, and it of course got cancelled. It had a good plot line, good characters, and was a clean show. Hard to find good shows like that these days.
My husband and I were looking forward to season 2 after watching the first season on Hulu. This is so dissapointing!
My husband and I loved The Firm. We always recorded it and couldn’t wait to watch it during the week. I hope it gets picked up by a cable network.
Hi there, I live in the Netherlands and I watched all episodes on cable (we also have NBC here on national cable-TV). I know a lot of people here in the Neth’s that, just like me, LÓVED the show. About 400.000 people in NL watched the show on TV, and knowing there’s ‘only’ 16 million people in the Neth’s, this is exceptionally lárge. Offcourse I have seen The Firm (movie), I own it on DVD. And I just LOVED the announcement of a TV-series comming about The Firm, picking up the story a short time after the moment where the… Read more »
Absolutely loved this show. I’m so fed up with all the shows that we started watching this last season that have been cancelled. This show had so much drama and the writers were amazing. Loved every storyline. Why do they keep switching nights with all these great shows? The firm, Missing, Tera Nova, all cancelled. I’m so pissed. If you are going to start a show, then have the decency to at least give us closure to it.
It was a great show and will hopefully be picked up by another network.. The end of the season left my husband and I wanting to see more!
My husband and I love The Firm! I’m a registered nurse and he’s a doctor, my hours can be unpredictable. One of the features our cable TV offers is pre-setting to record episodes or entire series. We always watch our recorded episode of The Firm on Monday nights. I know several other nurses do this as well. (We live in Las Vegas, this is more common than not for any TV series). Now I’m a Nurse – I can talk to you all day about the electrophysiology of the heart. I am also VERY well trained in Statistical analysis (as… Read more »
The only reason the hose got such poor views was because no one ever knew when it was on! I was only able to keep up with it through on demand! It’s such a great show it will be a pity if losses hopefully cable will pick it up! LOOOOOVE this show
Wow… what an excellent show… well acted… just superb!
I hope cable picks it up…
The 3 major networks have their heads up their %&*^%^!
TV is so confusing these days… when is the show on?
What days? times? Hell, I had no idea that shows I watched 3 years ago are still on their air!
CONFUSING TV TIMES.
I would definitely watch it if it’s picked up by a cable network. It was a very interesting and well-done show and so much better than the reality show drivel that’s produced these days. Bring it back, please!
I can’t believe the bad ratings this show has received. My husband and I LOVE this show, it always keeps us on the edge of our seats and we look forward to every episode.
I hope somebody carries this show, it’s one of our favorites!!!
Please let us see more of this show. It is one of the best and the reason it’s rating were low is the fact that we could never really know if it was on and when. I have watched it by dvr and will be disappointed it is canceled. It is yet another good program canceled to make room for some silly reality show or comedy.
I loved the firm could not wait to see what happened next and if it is over they left us hanging….. BOOO NBC
What!!!! Noooooooo!!!! I hope this gets picked up by another network….somewhere… the show was good from the start….and yet it kept getting better and better…until (in my mind) it was one of the best shows on TV
i love THE FIRM..it is high disappointment that it has been canceled..i hope it’s aired again…to hell with NBC..
greetings from INDIA to THE FIRM 🙂