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.
Please dont cancel the firm,we here in africa like it,i love the law cases of mich,action of kim ross & clark,the way season one ended we need to see more of the next season,it kept us waiting for more action
Unbelievable, the networks bring in these series and then without any notice or finality they just never appear again. I loved the firm, I think it was the time slot because the story lines and acting was excellent, so why? Not surprised good ol NBC and ABC they are famous for doing this.
I love the Firm, I watch it every week. I can believe that finally a good show and you decide to remove it.
Classic NBC; if I like a show it will cancelled! Josh Lucas is great; the plots are fun; and I finally have found a show where I like Juliette Lewis! Grrr
bring back the show!! I really loved it..looked forward to Saturday nights!!
I love The Firm. I’m very disappointed that it has been cancelled. I haven’t watched anything on NBC since they cancelled ER. I was really excited that I had finally found another weekly show to look forward to. I hope that it is moved to another network. I will be looking for it in again the fall!
Bring The Firm back, it is a great show.
I love this show- hope another station picks it up. NBC stinks!
This is such a great show. It seems like everything clean and actually entertaining never seems to make it. My husband and I are disappointed. At least NBC pulled their heads out and renewed Parenthood. I guess we are back to only supporting NBC once a week instead of twice. Too bad, it really was a great show.
My husband and I love this show. With so much trash on tv, we are shocked. The Firm is smartly written and brilliantly cast. Shame on NBC!!!!
Excellent show! Excellant acting,writing, and theme. Would do well to continue airing at the most appropriate time slot and network, has great potential, though its had a rough start. Poor marketing of a great show! Also…. inconsistant airtimes will produce loss of following.
The Firm keeps you engaged and entertained. The hour is up before you know it. Even on Saturday night. If I am not home to watch, I DVR to watch later. So much better than most of those not so real “reality” shows.
My wife and I just watched the last 3 episodes of season 1 off of the DVR last night. Several months ago we heard that the show would be cancelled and we were shocked as well! This is the first show we have watched on NBC since “Friends”! After watching the last 3 episodes last night, we are very disappointed that of all the shows on tv, this one had to be cancelled. We certainly hope another network such as TNT picks up the second season of the firm. I think they would do a better job of marketing the… Read more »
Quite disappointing. It was a great show. Its failure was not the story line or the characters but the lack of advertising compared to a lot of other shows. As soon as I watched this, I went into work and told all my colleagues (those who were tv show fanatics) about it.
Was looking forward to season 2.
I love this show and am very disappointed that it is being cancelled. I actually quit watching TV about 5 years ago because there is nothing good on anymore. Then, last season, there were finally a bunch of shows that were good and I started watching TV again. Of course, a lot of them were cancelled. It’s a shame that TV is so full of garbage shows that are called “reality” shows when the good, entertaining shows with actual storylines continue to be cancelled. Nothing but crap on TV these days!