Cancellation Watch: His Dark Materials Remains Low for HBO, Amazon Gives Lord of the Rings Prequel Series a Second Season, and More

Weekly Roundup: Ratings results and status updates on all the currently airing sci fi & fantasy shows as well as those still awaiting word on their fates. For the latest ratings updates throughout the week, be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site

Ratings Roundup: We are still experiencing technical difficulties with the CancelledSciFi.com website, but apparently shorter posts are working so I will give a quick roundup of the ratings results of interest from the last two weeks.

The epic fantasy series His Dark Materials, based on the Philip Pullman books of the same name, debuted two weeks ago on HBO but posted only a 0.11 rating based on same day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 424K total viewers. The show then slipped this past week to only a 0.08 rating with 369K total viewers. That one will improve its stats with delayed and digital viewing, but the leading indicator suggests that this one has not drawn much interest from the premium cable channel. The viewership is much better in Britain–it is a joint BBC / HBO production–and it has already been renewed for a second season. But if HBO hoped this would be their next Game of Thrones, they have to be disappointed at this point.

USA’s The Purge continues to pull marginal numbers, slipping to a 0.22 rating with 569K total viewers last Tuesday, but it may be doing just enough to get to a third season. ABC’s Emergence got a boost two weeks ago from the Little Mermaid special that preceded it and its numbers improved to a 0.7 rating with 3.4 million total viewers. But the network didn’t let the show take advantage of the potential surge of new viewers because they preempted it this past Tuesday (the second preemption already for the series in its short run). I currently have that one On the Bubble.

The CW’s Wednesday shows got a lift this past week after slipping to low points prior to that. Riverdale improved to a 0.3 rating with 820K total viewers while Nancy Drew improved to a 0.2 score with 728K total viewers. The former series is still pretty much guaranteed a fifth season renewal as it is currently in the syndication stretch. But Nancy Drew probably needs to hold at its current level to get a second season nod.

On Friday, Syfy’s Van Helsing slipped to a 0.09 rating with 324K total viewers, but that might still be enough to keep it going for a fifth season on that network. This past Sunday, HBO’s Watchmen improved to a series high 0.26 rating with 752K total viewers. That one has also been doing well in delayed viewing and still has a chance of returning for a second season. Over on AMC, The Walking Dead improved to a 1.1 rating with 3.3 million total viewers. It has already been renewed for an eleventh season.

The other sci fi and fantasy entries remained mostly steady with the prior week or did not air new episodes, and you can see the full ratings results for the week at this link, Be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for the latest results and breaking news and to join the #CancelledSciFiArmy as we fight to save our sci fi shows. For more info on what the ratings mean and how I use them to gauge the status of a show, check our our Cancelled Sci Fi FAQ Page. Ratings Source: ShowBuzzDaily

Renewal Announcement: Amazon has given its Lord of the Rings prequel series an early second season renewal while the show is still only in the pre-production stage. That of course makes plenty of sense as the streamer has invested quite a lot of money into the series and wants to show a commitment to keeping it around for at least a couple of seasons (streaming originals tend to cap out around their third or fourth season). This will also cut down on the time between seasons which has stretched to as much as a year and a half for the more expansive television productions. The series is currently scheduled to debut late 2020 or early 2021.

Status Updates will hopefully resume next week.