A Debut to Be Happy! About

Syfy’s new fantasy crime drama Happy!, based on the Grant Morrison comic of the same name, debuted on Wednesday and pulled an impressive 0.4 rating based on same day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 1.1 million total viewers. Those are the best ratings that Syfy has seen since the Season 2 premiere of The Magicians pulled a 0.52 score this past January. Considering that this Fall has been mostly a disaster for Syfy, with even the usually-reliable Z Nation notably down year-over-year, the network has to be pleased with the performance of this new entry. I can’t really explain why the show did so well because I didn’t think the comic had that much of a following, but then this one did seem to get much more promotion than the typical Syfy show. It’s possible that the first episode attracted a fair amount of curious onlookers, and it will be interesting to see how many stick around for the rest of the first season run. Or this may be another case where a niche show found its audience amidst the Peak TV crunch.

Should Happy! prove a hit for its first season as the early numbers indicate, that may not work out so well for Van Helsing. That show’s numbers have been down notably from its first season, but I had been thinking that Syfy would keep it around because new entries Ghost Wars and Superstition appear to be headed to cancellation and the network may not want to ax three shows this Fall. But the horror / supernatural shows have not worked out too well for Syfy, and the network may want to clean house of the ratings slackers, especially considering all the development currently in the pipeline. This last Summer, the network split on its shows, cancellation Dark Matter and Blood Drive while renewing Killjoys and Wynonna Earp. Syfy could do something similar in Fall, keeping Channel Zero (already renewed), Z Nation, and Happy! while cutting ties with Van Helsing, Ghost Wars, and Superstition. That is only an assumption at this point and we will have to see how Happy! trends through the rest of its first season run, but Van Helsing fans should definitely double-down on efforts to support their show if they want it to come back for a third season.

Ratings Results of Interest: The Gifted Takes a Slide

The late Fall slump continues as several of the genre entries slipped in the first week of December. FOX’s The Gifted slid to a season low 0.8 rating with 2.8 million total viewers on Monday. I expect that one will improve with its Fall finale next week and it continues to land in the Top 20 based on Live+7 delayed viewing, so it should be okay for now. On Tuesday, The Flash slipped back down to a 0.8 rating with 2.2 million total viewers after getting a slight bump last week with the crossover episode. Interestingly, Legends of Tomorrow was up from its usual 0.5 rating, pulling a 0.6 score with 1.6 million total viewers. Maybe enough fans knew in advance that Constantine would be making a surprise appearance on the episode. Over on ABC, Kevin (Probably) Saves the World only managed a 0.6 rating with 2.6 million total viewers as that one probably will be heading to cancellation.

On Wednesday, Mr. Robot improved to a 0.20 rating with 437K total viewers as that show continues to track for a fourth season renewal.  On Thursday, The Orville had a 0.9 rating with 3.5 million total viewers for its season finale (based on the preliminary numbers).  That show continues to rank in the Top 20 based on Live+7 delayed viewing, though.  Both Supernatural and Arrow went out low for their Fall finales with a 0.5 rating and 1.7 million total viewers for the former and a 0.4 score with 1.3 million viewers for the latter.  Neither are in any danger at this point, though.

Be sure to follow my weekly Sci-Fi TV Status Report column on Tuesdays which tracks the ratings results and renewal/cancellation prospects of the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows. And you can get the latest ratings results at the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site.

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