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.
Boo I am super sad its been cancelled! One of my fave shows. Hopefully another channel will pick it up!
I absolutely loved The Firm. I looked forward to every week’s episode!! I am so dissappointed that it isn’t coming back. I cannot believe with all of the crappy shows that NBC has on they had to cancel a really good one. Shame on you NBC!!!!
OMG, I have been waiting for the premiere of The Firm and only just found out it was not comeing back. I am soooo very dissappointed. This was one of my favourites and looked forward all summer for it to come back . I definitely would watch it on another channel or purchase it on DVD.
Yes. Bring it back. If I was here to see it, I’d record it. We been watching for it to come on & have been very disappointed that it hasn’t.
Bring it back!!!!!
I too loved the firm. I would definitely purchase or rent season two if there is one.
I loved The Firm! I was very surprised it received such bad ratings. I thought it was well put together and kept my husband and I on the edge-of-our seats most nights! I sure hope it is picked up by another network. So sad….
I like this show so much. I couldn’t believe it has such bad rating and hopefully will get a closure episode.
I loved the firm! I wish there was a season 2! Please
I loved this show. I don’t get much time to watch TV, so I DVRed this show. I would love to see a season two. I read the book and saw the movie years ago. Was so excited when the series came out. I can’t believe it did so bad. Really hope it comes back!
It was (I hope still is) a very good and engaging show with an excellent cast led by Josh Lucas. I didn’t like it when it often previewed the future and worked towards it (which was the way it ended). A little bit of that can be ok and they didn’t always do it, but they did too much of it. A couple of the court cases were too frivolous to be interesting and Molly Parker’s family was boring but overall it was a great series and it’s a bad mistake for someone not to pick it up.
I like the show. I would like to see at least a final episode or the rest of them to concluded the show.
We loved this show. Maybe ion television will pick up the unaired like they did Flashpoint,
Another great show cancelled. I think they had too much competion from more established show. I could not wait to see it. We were very sad that it was cancelled. We want to see the rest of the shows.
I am very sad about that. I want to continue.
I am super sad it was cancelled. I love the show. I hope so much they bring it back:(