FOX Bringing Back Touch, Ending Alcatraz And The Finder

FOX made some tough decisions, renewing one struggling series, and axing too others. First off, 24's Kiefer Sutherland recently made his return to series TV as the father of a boy with the uncanny ability to "see" past, present, and future events through numbers in a sci-fi drama called Touch. Ratings started hot, but have since cooled off considerably. Nevertheless, FOX has decided not to give up on Sutherland just yet, and have renewed it for a second season. Part of their reasoning may be that it's an in-house FOX studios production, and thus they don't have to deal with the cost of licensing the rights to air it from another production company.

Next up, we have some not-so-good news for J.J. Abrams fans. Despite it's talented cast (including Lost's Jorge Garcia, and film veteran Sam Neill), viewers never seemed at all interested in just where those Alcatraz prisoners had disappeared too, and why they had now come back. The ratings numbers have been consistently awful since the premiere, and with the show's high budget, it's not hard to see why FOX dropped the death blow on the series. Especially since Terra Nova got much better ratings, and was similarly axed for budgetary reasons. Alcatraz, yet another sci-fi show that ends with no resolution. Sigh.

Finally, Bones spin-off The Finder seemingly couldn't find an audience as it's viewership has been far below it's father series, and regularly dropped below it's Monday lead-in, which lead them to give it the dreaded Friday Night Death Slot. True to the name, the death slot did nothing to help, and quickly sealed the show's fate.

Remember though, FOX isn't all bad. They recently renewed Fringe for a fifth season, despite it getting lower ratings than all three of the above series. Why? I'm not sure. Maybe there's a Fringe fan in the FOX programming department.

Are you happy to keep feeling Kiefer's Touch this fall? Are you angry that Alcatraz won't get a resolution? Will you miss The Finder? Discuss.

Source: EW.com