Sci Fi TV Update: Status updates, news, and developments on sci fi and fantasy television. For breaking news, be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site
Digital Ratings
Manifest rose to the top of the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 for acquired shows the week of Jun 7th to 13th, pulling in an estimated 1.1 billion minutes of viewing. The first two seasons of the show debuted on Netflix, and the viewership placed it as the second most-watched property among all series (original or acquired) and movies on the streaming services for the week. But Netflix still passed on picking up the show for a fourth season following NBC’s cancellation. Fans continue to fight for it, though, and perhaps another venue will have an interest in picking it up.
In the Top 10 for streaming originals, Netflix’s fantasy entry Sweet Tooth improved to the Number 1 spot in its second week of release, pulling in 1.4 billion minutes of viewing. There has been no word yet on whether that one will continue to a second season. Debuting on the charts that week was Disney+’s Loki which started its run at the Number 3 slot with 734 million minutes of viewing, impressive with only one episode available. Three other genre entries were in the Top 10 originals for the week: Lucifer (Number 2), The Handmaid’s Tale (Number 4), and Ragnarok (Number 7). Following are all the sci fi and fantasy entries on the streaming charts for the week (the number in parenthesis is the prior week rank):
Digital Ratings for the Week of Jun-7 to Jun-13
Streaming Originals
1 (2) Sweet Tooth (Netflix) 1.43 Billion
2 (1) Lucifer (Netflix) 1.01 Billion
3 (n/a) Loki (Disney+) 734 Million
4 (4) The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu) 422 Million
7 (5) Ragnarok (Netflix) 182 Million
Acqiured Shows
1 (n/a) Manifest (Netflix) 1.11 Billion
10 (10) Supernatural (Netflix) 344 Million
Movies
10 (6) Army of the Dead (Netflix) 117 Million
Source: Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings (Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix), Nielsen National TV Panel, U.S. Viewing Through Television
Ratings Results of Interest
Freeform’s supernatural drama Motherland: Fort Salem returned for its second season in June and its ratings are down from its first year. I am currently relying on Spoiler TV and ProgrammingInsider for ratings results, and so far I have only seen the same-day numbers for the first two episodes of the show’s second season. For its premiere, the show posted a 0.08 score based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 257K total viewers. That was down from the 0.10 rating it averaged in its first year, though about in line with the year-over-year declines we have been seeing from other shows. However, the second episode dropped notably to a 0.04 score with 153K total viewers. That is less than encouraging, but perhaps it will make up slack with delayed viewing. Freeform typically lets its shows go at least three seasons, so this one still has a chance of sticking around for another year. Fans should definitely start making some noise on the social nets to support the show, though.
The rest of the Prime Time lineup is currently made up of CW shows, and all of those saw their numbers drop some in June. That is to be expected in the Summer months, though, and all of the genre entries currently airing on the network have already been renewed.
Cancellation and Renewal Announcements
HBO has decided not to continue its supernatural drama Lovecraft Country for a second season. While the same-day ratings for the show were not great–it averaged a 0.19 score in the demo–the premium cable channels do not pay as much attention to those stats because they are not beholden to advertisers. And this show performed well in delayed and digital viewing. It was originally considered a limited series, having fully covered the novel it was based on, but creator Misha Green had plans for a second season which she pitched to network execs. The show was acclaimed by critics and it received a lot of attention during awards season, but HBO decided to pass on a second season without giving a specific reason. In renewal announcements, the supernatural drama Evil has been picked up for a third season by Paramount+. That show shifted from CBS to the streamer for its second season. More on the renewal at this link.
Sci Fi TV Development
Dominic Monaghan has been cast in a starring role in the upcoming AMC sci fi series Moonhaven. Deadline provides the following information about the series.
Moonhaven follows Bella Sway, a lunar cargo pilot and smuggler 100 years in the future who finds herself accused of a crime and marooned on Moonhaven, a utopian community set on a 500 square mile Garden of Eden built on the Moon to find solutions to the problems that will soon end civilization on Mother Earth. A skeptic in Paradise, Bella is sucked into a conspiracy to gain control of the artificial intelligence responsible for Moonhaven’s miracles and teams with a local detective to stop the forces that want to destroy Earth’s last hope before they are destroyed themselves.
The female lead for the series has not been cast yet. Moonhaven is created and written by Peter Ocko (Extant, Pushing Daisies) and will debut on AMC in 2022.
Sci Fi TV News of Note
Michelle Yeoh has been cast as one of the leads in the upcoming spin-off to The Witcher. To be titled Blood Origins, Yeah will be playing Scian, the very last of her nomadic tribe of sword-elves. Sophia Brown has also been cast as Éile, an elite warrior blessed with the voice of a goddess . . . After the success of Zak Snyder’s Netflix original movie Army of the dead, he has been given the greenlight to start working on the sci fi film Rebel Moon for the streamer. That started as a ptich for a Star Wars movie and it draws its inspiration from Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai . . . Sony Pictures Television has acquired the rights to the 1987 comic book series Faust which was created by David Quinn and artist Tim Vigil. An animated series is in the works following the viglante character who sells his soul for superpowers, but no network is currently attached. Be sure to follow r/SciFiTV for news, schedule updates, trailers, discussions, and more.
Sci Fi TV Schedule
This coming week will see four sci fi and fantasy shows joining the Summer schedule. On Wednesday, the AHS spin-off series American Horror Stories will have its debut on Hulu with the first episode available for streaming. On Thursday, Season 4 of The CW’s fantasy series The Outpost will debut at 9 PM EST. On Friday, the Canadian supernatural drama SurrelEstate will start its run in the U.S. on Syfy at 10 PM EST. And on Sunday, the second season of the British gamer show Dead Pixels will debut at 9:30 PM EST on The CW. In addition, Disney+ has just announced August 11th as the premiere date for its animated MCU series What If . . . ? You can see the full Summer schedule at this link.
Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and keep up with what is airing/streaming each week with our Weekly Listings.
