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,please,please bring “The Firm” back for a second season. This show was my whole family’s favorite. We pvr’d every episode and never missed it please bring it back
Hi I am very interested in the Firm and what happens next. I just don’t understand that viewing (The Firm) in the US gives u guys a rating but in the rest of the world we want more it just comes to show that the US is controling broadcating all over the wold. I think that it must ston becuase we South-Africans love The Firm and would like a season two. So I hope that u guys are busy making season 2.
I loved this show…one of the best on TV….still don’t understand why it was cancelled. It had an excellent plot and acting. All of the ridiculous stuff is still on TV, but they cancel a great show.
Everybody was watching the serie here in Portugal and Ive just been told that there isnt any season 2 cause of the poor audience. With so much series being cancelled perhaps the audience are low because we already believe at start that the serie its going to be cancelled that people dont bother to watch it anymore. Stop cancelling good series!
What is going on!! Every GOOD show is being taken off, and being replaced with some stupid reality show! I loved The Firm and I looked forward to seeing it every week. Why not give it a second chance, it is much, much, better than some of the other shows.
I’m very disappointed! I thought this show was great.
We loved The Firm! We looked forward to seeing it every week and can’t understand why it was not renewed for season 2 and more. We are extremely disappointed!!! Please bring it back!
Love the show. Started looking around for when 2nd season would start. So disappointed! Would watch on cable if available.
I liked it too; I never saw any advertising for it so never watched it until I found it online. I like Mitch MicDeere and was glad I found the show online. Was looking forward to season two but never seeing anything on it I searched only to find this disappointhing news. I hope someone else picks it up.
I’m soooo disappointed!! Been waiting and waiting and finally googled to see when it’s coming back on. So sad to see that it’s not returning.. It was my family’s favorite show!! :'(
I love the Firm, and those that didn’t watch or give it a shot were idiots! I love the cast and the story! Darn I will miss it!
I love this series. It is entertaining, and exciting. The casting is amazing . I need to know what happens to Joey and the Russians !
Very disappointed no season 2!!!!
This was a great series.
Listen to the people NBC 🙁
It was my favorite I bought the season on apple tv hoping this would be a six to seven season show. Bring it back
im verry sad they close this serie ,,,,it was one the best they show in Sweden ,hope it will come back a new episodes
andreas