Sci Fi TV Update: Manifest Jumps Back Up in the Digital Ratings, Fantasy Island Gets a Sunday Boost, and More

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

The Week of August 16th to 22nd was another slow one for genre shows in the Nielsen Streaming Rankings, but Manifest did see a surge as it continues to prove that it has a large audience out there. That one was at the bottom of the Top 10 for acquired shows the prior week, but it jumped up to Number 2, pulling in an estimated 705 minutes of viewing. Expect it to stick around for a few more weeks. In the Top 10 for original shows, Disney+’s What If . . . ? made its first appearance in the week of its second episode, landing at the Number 9 slot with 225 million minutes of viewing. And Netflix’s Lucifer remained in the rankings at Number 10 with 179 million minutes of viewing. In the Top 10 for movies, Disney+’s Jungle Cruise slipped to Number 7 with 138 million minutes of viewing (that one requires an extra charge to stream). 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 Aug-16 to Aug-22

Streaming Originals
9 (n/a) What If (Disney+) 225 Million
10 (9) Lucifer (Netflix) 179 Million

Acquired Shows
2 (10) Manifest (Netflix) 705 Million
7 (4) The Walking Dead (Netflix) 463 Million

Movies
7 (6) Jungle Cruise (Disney+) 138 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:

FOX’s Fantasy Island shifted to Sunday night for its sixth episode and got a boost to its ratings in its new timelost. Airing after the sneak peek of the new reality competition series The Masked Singer: Alter Ego, Fantasy Island notched a 0.46 rating based on same-day viewing in the 18-49 demographic with two million total viewers. Those are the highest numbers the show has seen so far and it appeared to boost up the subsequent Tuesday episode a bit as it improved from the prior week to a 0.26 rating with 1.2 million total viewers. The Season 1 finale will air this coming Sunday, and as I reported last week, the network is in negotiations for a second year of the show.

Over on AMC on Sunday, The Walking Dead slipped yet again, this time to a 0.46 rating with 1.9 million total viewers. That show is in its final season, but multiple spin-offs are currently in the works. Last week on FX, American Horror Story slipped to a 0.20 rating with 610K total viewers, but that show has already been renewed through its thirteenth season. And that network’s What We Do in the Shadows dropped to its lowest numbers this season as it posted a 0.11 rating with 311K total viewers. But it has already been renewed for a fourth season. Ratings Source: SpoilerTV and ShowBuzzDaily

Cancellation Announcement:

The CW has decided not to bring back its fantasy series The Outpost and its upcoming Season 4 finale will also act as its series finale.  That news does not come as a huge surprise as I previously speculated that its fourth season could be its last.  Season 3 aired in Fall–delayed due to the pandemic-related shutdowns–and at that time the network announced it was picking up the show for thirteen additional episodes.  That was not initially announced as a fourth season, but was later considered to officialy be the show’s fourth year.  In Fall I suggested that those additional episodes could be designed to wrap up the show’s storylines.  There may have still been a possibility that a fifth season could follow, but my guess is that the creative team was given the direction to start winding the story down.  The series finale will air October 7th.

Sci Fi TV Development:

Netflix has given an eight-episode, straight-to-series order for Grendel based on the Dark Horse comic book created by Matt Wgner. Abubakr Ali (Katy Keene) has been pegged for the lead role, and Deadline gives the following description for the project:

Grendel follows Hunter Rose (Ali), a gifted fencer, writer and assassin, seeking to avenge the death of a lost love. He goes to war with New York’s criminal underworld, only to realize…why beat them, when you can join them?

Matt Wagner will executive produce the show and the cast also includes Julian Black Antelope (The Flash, Debris), Emma Ho (The Expanse), Erik Palladino (Watchmen), and, and Andy Mientus (The Flash). The steamer will be looking to add this to its 2022 slate of originals.

Sci Fi TV News of Note:

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal took home an Emmy for best animated series this past weekend, beating out shows like The Simpsons, South Park, and Bob’s Burgers.  That show is airing on Adult Swim with the second half of tis first season on the way . . . A Penguin TV series is in the works at HBO Max which will act as a spin-off from the upcoming The Batman movie staring Matt Reeves which premieres in 2022.  Colin Ferrell plays the character of the Oswald Cobblepot (aka The Penguin) in the film, but there is no word on whether he would continue with the role if the series goes forward . . . The long-delayed second season of Amazon’s fantasy series Carnival Row has wrapped filming, but still has extensive special effects to complete.  Expect it to debut at some point in 2022 . . . Three Star Trek shows will be leaving Netflix at the end of September (TOS, Voyager, and Enterprise), and it is possible more could follow with Paramount+ potentially becoming the exclusive streaming platform for the franchise. Be sure to follow r/SciFiTV for news, schedule updates, trailers, discussions, and more.

Sci Fi TV Schedule:

Next week brings several sci fi/fantasy premieres on the streaming services, including the debut of a show based on an all-time sci fi classic.  On Friday, Apple TV+’s adaptation of Foundation will have its premiere with one episode a week following after that.  On Wednesday, the Anime anthology Star Wars: Visions will have its premiere on Disney+.  On Thursday, Doom Patrol will have its Season 3 premiere on HBO Max with the first three episodes available that day and one per week following after.  And also on Thursday, the third season of Creepshow premieres on Shudder and will release one ep per week.  In addition, Netflix announced two more Fall premieres this past week.  The second season of the space-based sci fi entry Another Life (starring Katee Sackhoff) will premiere on October 14th.  And horror entry Locke & Key will have its second season premiere on October 22nd (you can see the trailers at r/SciFiTV). There are plenty more sci fi and fantasy shows on the way this Fall and you can see the full 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.