Cancellation Watch: Syfy Appears to Have Quietly Cancelled Aftermath

Cancellation: While there has been no official announcement, it appears that Syfy’s supernatural apocalypse series Aftermath has been cancelled. That is based on the tweet below from series star James Tupper indicating that there will not be a second season and also what appears to be a farewell tweet from the show’s official account.

So sad to report #Aftermath will not be getting a second season. #sobummed

— James Tupper (@MrJamesTupper) January 12, 2017

This comes as somewhat of a surprise because I have been expecting a renewal for Aftermath. It’s linear viewing numbers may not have been that great, but they were right in line with Van Helsing which was renewed this past Fall and better than both Wynonna Earp and 12 Monkeys which received renewals last Spring. Plus, Aftermath comes as part of a partnership with the Canadian Space Channel which makes it less expensive for Syfy. Perhaps its viewership numbers were not that good up north, but I’m not thinking that the Space Channel made the final call as Tupper responded to one person’s question on why the show was cancelled with “ask Syfy why”. Since one of the show’s leads is claiming that Aftermath is not coming back, I’m going to assume that the show is cancelled despite the lack of an official announcement, though fans can hold out hope and possibly get a campaign started on the social nets to support it. Aftermath will be only the third Syfy entry from the past four years or more that has not received a second season renewal, the others being Olympus (2015) and Hunters (2016), both of which barely registered in the ratings.

Ratings Results of Interest: On Tuesday, ABC’s Agents of SHIELD slipped to a series low 0.6 rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic with two million total viewers which has it below the levels that got Agent Carter cancelled last season. I have been saying for a while that this show is likely in its final season, and its current viewership struggles appear to be reinforcing that. On Wednesday, The CW’s Frequency remained low at a 0.2 rating with 730k total viewers for its second to last Season 1 episode. That one will have to hope for a boost once it hits Netflix next month if it wants to get a second season. On Thursday, NBC’s The Good Place wrapped up its first season with a double episode that averaged a 1.1 rating with 3.8 million total viewers (based on the preliminaries). It has been running about even with its lead-in Superstore all season and that one has already been renewed for another season. The Good Place is more expensive to produce, though, so NBC may be thinking a bit longer about whether they will bring that one back. Over on USA, Colony held mostly steady with its second episode, pulling a 0.28 rating with 880k total viewers. Those should count as acceptable numbers for that network, and last season that one typically received a good boost from delayed viewing (more important to the cable channels than the broadcast nets). You can see the standings of all this season’s sci fi and fantasy shows at this link.

Charts: MacGyver improved to the Number 11 slot last week in the broadcast net Top 25 based on total viewers (up from Number 13) even though that show’s overall numbers were down. Son of Zorn slipped out of the charts because it was preempted for the week.

Be sure keep an eye out for the latest numbers and any breaking news throughout the week at the  Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site and Facebook Page. You can see the status of all the currently airing sci fi / fantasy shows at the Cancellation Watch page. And for more information on where I get these numbers and how I make my Cancellation Alert assessments, check out the Cancelled Sci Fi FAQ.