There was plenty of news coming out of Comic-Con on Saturday as we heard of renewals on two shows and a cancellation on a third. Syfy’s fan-favorite supernatural western Wynonna Earp received its fourth season renewal the day after its third year premiere. That was definitely not a sure thing as the show has not seen great ratings through its first two seasons, and in a previous post I noted that it is at a pivotal point this year. It is not owned by Syfy’s parent company NBCUniversal, and neither were Dark Matter and The Expanse which were cancelled after their third seasons. Wynonna Earp has also been a low-rated show, but in its favor it is cheaper to produce that either of those other two. It also has a very vocal fanbase that has been active on the social networks and the show has slowly started to develop some positive buzz. Apparently the economics worked out and Syfy decided to keep this one going for at least another year, and perhaps that will give it some time to build up its audience.
Another renewal announcement that came from Comic-Con was for Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle which will be continuing into a fourth season. That acclaimed series, based on the Philip K. Dick book of the same name last delivered new episodes in 2016 and fans have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the show’s third season. Along with the fourth year renewal came the announcement that the third season is set to bow on the streaming service on October 5th. So fans have that to look forward to and will know that the fourth year is already in the works (and hopefully will not take as long to produce).
The show that did not survive the Network Executioner this weekend is USA’s alien invasion series Colony. That one did not have a presence at Comic-Con, apparently because the network already had doubts about its future. And Deadline Hollywood learned this weekend that it will not be returning for a fourth season and that this Wednesday’s episode will act as the series finale. The cancellation does not come as a huge surprise because the show’s numbers have been down by over 30% in its third season. And the last two episodes have both sunk to series lows. I have had this one at Bubble status for most of the season and fans have been attempting to support it on the social networks. But the show started later than usual this year and it’s audience seems to have faded as the Peak TV crunch is making it harder and harder for series to hold onto viewers for multiple seasons. I expect that a fan campaign will try to lobby other networks and the streaming services to pick this one up, so we will have to see how much momentum that one will gain in the coming weeks.
Today is the last day of Comic-Con, so its possible more breaking news could be forthcoming. Stay tuned to this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
