Alcatraz Likely to Be Cancelled and Finale at End of March

With ratings continuously dropping for 'Alcatraz' from it's premiere of almost 10 million viewers the show is likely to be cancelled regardless of last weeks increase in ratings - "while Alcatraz posted its largest three-day increase (+56%) so far this season, up three points from a week ago and +24 points ahead of its prior 2011/12 average lift (+32%)" (tvbythenumbers.com). Fox announced that the finale will air March 26th, unlikley for a renewal.

Ratings for Smash, A Little Less Than Its Smashing Premiere

Last night Smash drew 8.1 million viewers and scored a 2.8 rating in the 18-49 demo. Superbowl slump perhaps?

Also, Alcatrez continues to drop scoring a dismal 1.9 among those 18-49ers and ranking in only 6.2 million viewers.

"Alcatraz" showrunner gives hint of what's to come

'Alcatraz' Showrunner Daniel Pyne Touts New Novel, Teases What’s Coming up on the Show

Daniel Pyne, the showrunner for "Alcatraz," is interviewed about his new book, writing novels, and how his screenwriting has changed because of it. Additionally, Pyne gives a look into what "Alcatraz" has in line for the rest of the season. He even touches on the subject of how the series has been repetitive so far. 

Pyne: There will be some shows that won't be at all what anybody's seen yet, and they're coming up quick. We're gonna mix it up. We're gonna make it so it won't always be "oh a guy shows up, he's committing crimes, let's get him."

Fans of show 'Alcatraz' causing problems at prison-turned-park

Once again we have people becoming too involved with television. How many times does "it's not real" need to be explained? Although not as bad as people thinking they are from and/or need to visit the "real" Pandora (from Avatar), a prison has been having some trouble getting people to stop investigating the area.


“The TV Show Alcatraz is fictional. Many areas depicted in the film are not real,” reads one sign on the premises.

Alcatraz takes a dip

"Alcatraz (8.34 mil/2.7) in Week 3 dipped 8 and 10 percent, respectively."

Monday night, CBS played repeats while the CW had +20% (Gossip Girl and Heart of Dixie) while on Fox, House and Alcatraz slipped about 10%.

Alcatraz Scavenger Hunt

Earlier this week Fox debuted a unique promotional event for the show Alcatraz. The event was a real life scavenger hunt on the island for the first lucky 300 or so people to show up. The idea was to let Bay Area fans explore the island of Alcatraz with a map for about 2-3 hours discovering "secrets" about Alcatraz. This article on Collider.com provided a reader review and brief account of the exclusive event, with the promise of more details to come.

I thought this was interesting and telling in that the reader and participant hoped that the show would have more historical mystery woven within the story lines versus simply being a procedural. The photo above is one from the reader including the map and the files that he used during the event. 

Delusional Alcatraz Fans

I thought this article would make you laugh. Apparently die-hard 'Alcatraz' fans infiltrated tour guides to find a secret room (which as the article states only exists in the show). Just goes to show that new media can impact people's personal lives. It is kind of sad though that they had to post a sign on the Alcatraz island stating that the show is completely fictional and so are some of the locations.

They Didn't Tell You The Biggest Secret of All?

I've never seen Hulu's "The Morning After" before, but if the rest of their segments are anything like this Alcatraz Dub, I might watch a few more. The dub brings up some pretty good points regarding the show, the first being, it's not Lost.

This can go one of two ways.  Cult fans of Abrams' CBS sci-fi might be disappointed that there's no new question-wrapped-in-an-enigma-wrapped-in-a-mystery to fill the void Lost's series finale left; but, on the other hand, the more procedural, criminal-of-the-week might attract viewers who tried to get into Lost but stopped after missing an episode or two.  A more procedural approach allows casual viewers to enjoy the show without feeling like they're missing something or being confused. This might help Alcatraz's ratings in the long run (unless Alcatraz turns out anything like Undercovers did.)

Also, with Fringe's future uncertain at this point, Fox might be giving Fringe fans something to move onto in case the show isn't renewed for a fifth season.

'Alcatraz': Jorge Garcia and Producers Dish on the Show's Mythology and Characters

This article was only posted an hour ago, so it's incredibly recent. It's interesting because it starts out giving a general overview of last night's success (10 million people tuned in to watch the show) and who the producers/actors are. The good part of the article is getting everyone's feedback/insight into the show. As a huge fan of JJ Abrams, I found the part of the article where he's talking to be the most interesting. In all the past articles I've read, JJ says that this show will be unlike Fringe or Lost and he even says it again here:

"This show will be easier to tune in to every week than Fringe or Lost. Really at the heart of Alcatraz is pursuing the inmates. Every week we'll be catching or not catching one of those inmates. The mythology will be there if you're looking for it... but it won't be critical to enjoying each episode" - JJ

This article is a great one to read after reading the one posted below by Danielle Engel. I am curious as to whether all those viewers enjoyed the episode and to see how future episodes will retain their viewership.

'Alcatraz' Premiere rocks opening night

The two hour series premiere of 'Alcatraz' opens to 10 million viewers and has an intriguing story line that will hopefully keep viewers watching long enough to keep the season going. Each character has an interesting story and each one has a secret and a question (not as many questions as the viewers though). 'Alcatraz' is Fox's new mystery that could be their next hit show.

Fox’s ‘Alcatraz’: An enigma in a mystery in a riddle already unwrapped for you

Viewers of series such as "Lost" were getting too confused with the intricate story lines of their nightly programing; J.J. Abrams now has taken a different approach to the mystery-drama "Alcatraz," by basically informing the viewer on the "enigma in a mystery in a riddle" issue from the get-go. The author of the article, Hank Stuever, believes that this could be a great thing for the show and unlike other confusing mysteries such as "The Event," maybe "Alcatraz" is interesting and entertaining enough to not face cancellation. Hopefully the program's complex characters, drama-filled plot, and story line that doesn't have the viewer scratching their head every airing, could be the next great success for Fox.

Alcatraz (Lost 2.0)

Has J.J. Abrams burnt out?

For a while it appeared that Writer/Producer J.J. Abrams had the touch of Midas because everything he touched turned to gold. While I myself was not a fan of J.J. Abrams super natural thriller 'Lost' many were and those fans might be in for a little deja vu on 1/16 when his new show 'Alcatraz' premiers on FOX. 'Alcatraz' stars Jorge Garcia who was one of the leads on 'Lost', involes the super natural, and even takes place on a mysterious island devoid of people.

J.J. Abrams on getting Alcatraz started

Obvious comparisons can be drawn between J.J. Abrams' hit series Lost and his upcoming release Alcatraz; an island, a mystery, Jorge Garcia... But, according to Abrams, there was a difference in FOX's interest to invest in Alcatraz than there was for Lost but this skepticism, Abrams states, was instrumental for determining the story's backbone structure and the fact that FOX had a much clearer idea of where the show was heading (the direction of Lost after its pilot was completely unknown to studio execs) made it easier for FOX to invest in the series.

Alcatraz Social Media Campaign off to Slow Start

Alcatraz, which debuts on Jan. 16th, is off to a slow build up in the social media department. The barebones Alcatraz page on the Fox website has little content beyond the trailer, only linking out to relatively inactive Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Considering that this premiere is going to take up a two-hour block and the Abrams name attached to the product, one would think that Fox would try to reach out to the director's rabid geek fan-base.

The lack of user interaction from the account holders on Facebook, who have been commenting consistently since July, could evidence how much faith they place in the social networking site. On top of this only 83 tweets (Which have the same information as the Facebook page) in over seven months shows a company who is more interested in just regurgitating information instead of user interaction.