Quick Look At The Fall 2017 Schedule Of Sci Fi TV Shows
Believe it or not, the Fall season is already upon us with the first show having debuted on Tuesday (American Horror Story: Cult) and two more set to bow on Sunday (The Orville and Outlander Season 3). By my current count, 42 new and returning #scifi and #fantasy shows will have their bows between September and late Fall (you can see the full schedule here). And expect that number to rise because the network schedulers are still working fast and furious to find a timeslots for every show.
September gets things off to an early start with the three premieres mentioned above. Things start to pick up later in the month when Channel Zero returns for its second season on Syfy (Sep 20th), Gotham returns for its fourth season on FOX (Sep 21st), and The Exorcist is back for its second year on FOX (Sep 29th. Then we get a couple of big premieres towards the end of the month with Star Trek: Discovery having its bow on CBS on September 24th (before moving to that network’s All Access streaming service) and The Inhumans debuting on ABC on September 29th. You can see the full rundown of September premieres and returns here.
October is the biggest month for the Fall schedule with the majority of the shows starting their seasons then. All of The CW’s Fall shows (Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Supernatural) have their bows during the second week of the month. And most of the rest of the broadcast network shows kick off then such as Lucifer (Oct 2nd on FOX), The Gifted (Oct 2nd on FOX), Once Upon A Time (Oct 6th ABC), and The Last Man on Earth (Oct 1st on FOX) (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will get a late Fall start after The Inhumans has wrapped up its eight episode run). Among the cable and streaming shows, The Walking Dead returns to AMC this month on Oct 22nd, Stranger Things kicks off its second season for Netflix on Oct 27th, The Shannara Chroniclesmoves to Spike for its second season on Oct 11th, and Star Wars: Rebels is back for its fourth and final season on Disney XD on Oct 14th.
Later Fall starts will include Hulu’s two new entries Future Man and Runaways (Nov 14th and 21st respectively), Syfy’s comic book adaptation of Happy! (Nov 29th), plus TNT’s The Librarians as well as Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle should start up around November or December. You can see the full Fall schedule of sci fi and fantasy shows here and be sure to keep up with what is on each week with the Sci Fi TV Listings.
Will We Have To Wait Until 2019 For The Final Season Of #GameOfThrones?
HBO’s Game of Thrones just wrapped up its seventh season, but all the developments and reveals that occurred over its shortened, seven-episode run have fans eagerly awaiting the conclusion to the show’s epic story (especially since there is no guarantee that the last two books will ever come out). But word is that the production of the last six episodes of the series is quite involved and could go onto until late in 2018. If that is the case, the eighth season would likely not have its bow until 2019. HBO’s programming president Casey Bloys has stated:
Our production people are trying to figure out a timeline for the shoot and how much time the special effects take. The shooting is complicated enough — on different continents, with all the technical aspects — and the special effects are a whole other production period that we’re trying to figure out. That is a big factor in all of this.
And we really don’t want them to rush production because we want those last six installments to be the show’s best. But 2019 sure does seem like a long way away.
Syfy Renews #Killjoys For Two More Seasons, Cancels #DarkMatter And #BloodDrive
Syfy revealed the fate of its Summer shows this week which was good for one show, but not so good for two others. The bounty-hunters-in-space show Killjoys received a two-season pickup with its fifth year targeted as its last. Companion space series Dark Matterwas not renewed for another season, though. Creator Joseph Mallozzi took to his blog indicating that he was disappointed in Syfy’s decision and currently there is a campaign in place trying to convince Netflix or another network to pick up the show. Also getting sent to the Network Executioner was Grindhouse series Blood Drive. Series creator James Roland made the announcement on his blog and also indicated that he would still try to pitch a second season to NBC/Universal and encouraged fans to take to the social networks and show their support. Supernatural western Wynonna Earp was already renewed back in July.
‘Titans’ Casts Dick Grayson, Hawk And Dove
The live-action Titans series that will play on DC’s upcoming streaming service continues to move forward as it has cast more of the show’s main characters. Brenton Thwaites (Maleficent, Gods of Eqypt) has been recruited for the show’s lead role of Dick Grayson / Robin. And the Hawk and Dove superhero duo has been added with Alan Ritchson (Aquaman from Smallville) playing the former role and Minka Kelly (Almost Human) in the latter. Already cast for the show is Teagan Croft as Raven and Anna Diop (24: Legacy, The Messengers) as Starfire. The show is currently scheduled to debut in early 2018.
Sci-Fi TV Status Report: #AmericanHorrorStory Has A Decent Season 7 Debut
FX’s American Horror Story returned for its seventh season (subtitled “Cult”) on Tuesday and posted decent ratings for its premiere. The show had a 2.0 rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic with 3.9 million total viewers. That rating was down from the 2.8 score the show had for its Season 6 debut, but those are still very good numbers in the Peak TV crunch environment and it was the second highest rated show for the night across all of cable and the broadcast networks, behind only America’s Got Talent on ABC. AHS has already been renewed by FX through its ninth season.
Over on AMC on Monday, Preacher improved slightly to a 0.33 rating with 1.1 million total viewers. The show’s ratings in the demo remain a bit iffy, but it is pulling in a decent number of total viewers and has also been seeing good gains in delayed viewing (which is more important to the cable channels than the broadcast networks). On TBS, People of Earth slipped a bit to a 0.28 rating with 666K total viewers, but those numbers may still be good enough for a sitcom on cable these days. On Wednesday, Salvation remained low for CBS at a 0.5 rating with 3.4 million total viewers, and it appears there will be no salvation for that show.
Summer Winds Down As Preacher, Salavation, And The Strain Have Their Finales Next Week
With the Fall season ramping up, the Summer shows are clearing the way on the schedule, and we have three more season finales next week. AMC’s Preacher wraps up its second season on Monday. CBS’ Salvation concludes its first season on Wednesday. And FX’s The Strain has its series finale next Sunday. Most of the rest of the Summer shows will wrap up the following week, though AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead returns this Sunday to resume its third season and will wrap up in October. You can keep up with the weekly listings of sci fi and fantasy shows here.
