Sci Fi TV Top 5: Covering the top sci fi and fantasy TV stories of interest from the past week. You can keep up with the sci fi and fantasy TV news headlines at r/SciFiTV on Twitter and on Reddit.
1. Batwoman and Nancy Drew Get Full Season Orders
In the least-surprising-news-of-the-week category, The CW has ordered full seasons of its two new shows Batwoman and Nancy Drew. The former series joined the Arrow-verse entries this year and is currently network’s second highest-rated show. The latter series, which gives a supernatural twist on the classic female super-sleuth, has been performing well enough in the post-Riverdale timeslot on Wednesdays. The CW is known for renewing most of its shows, and the additional nine episodes for each of the freshmen entries has been pretty much expected.
2. CBS Wants More Evil
CBS has given and early second season renewal to its new supernatural drama Evil. That series debuted in September and has had moderate at best same-day ratings, so far averaging a 0.63 score over its first month. The total viewership is averaging around four million which bumps up to over seven million with the early delayed-viewing reports. It is performing below the network’s average of a 0.76 rating, but not doing too bad for the Thursday 10 PM EST timeslot. The show is designed to have thirteen-episode seasons so CBS gave it the greenlight for a second year instead of the typical full-season order (which would have been another nine eps). The current season will run until early 2020 and the second year will likely debut next Fall.
3. Freeform Cancels Cloak and Dagger After Two Seasons
Freeform has cancelled its Marvel Superhero entry Cloak and Dagger after two seasons. That series debuted in 2018 to decent ratings but saw those slip notably in its second season, a trend we are seeing quite frequently in the current Peak TV Crunch. The show averaged only a 0.12 rating based on same day viewing in its second year which was below the level that saw other shows cancelled by Freeform. It did make up some of the slack with delayed viewing, but apparently not enough to keep it going. The show has been on Bubble status since about midway through its second season, and the long delay in announcing its fate made its prospects look increasingly more grim. I did think that it did still have a chance since Disney owns Freeform and Marvel and I also considered the possibility that it could shift over to Hulu (also owned by Disney). But then Marvel TV is going through a shake-up with Kevin Feige taking over from Jeph Loeb, and apparently this series was considered expendable. There are plans for the characters to crossover with Runaways in the upcoming third season of that Hulu entry, so perhaps their story can continue in some form on that show.
4. AMC Mixes Love and Science in a New Anthology Series
AMC is working on an as yet untitled anthology series from Black Mirror / Stranger Things writer Will Bridges and Brett Goldstein. The network’s website gives the following description of the series:
The series takes place 15 years from now, when science makes a discovery that changes the lives of everyone on the planet – a way to find your soul mate. The series uses the sci-fi conceit to tell six provocative stories about the cost of finding true love, all different in tone and featuring a spectrum of people and relationships. Bridges and Goldstein previously created the short film “For Life,” which serves as the basis for this new, original series. Each episode of the Untitled Bridges/Goldstein Project will feature an entirely new story and different cast, a first-time format for AMC.
Black Mirror alumn Sarah Snook will star in the premiere episode of the series. Expect this one to hit the network’s schedule at some point in 2020.
5. Stranger Things Episode Count, Foundations Castings and More Production News of Note
The fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things will consist of eight episodes and should wrap filming in August 2020. Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies) and Jared Harris (Carnival Row) have been cast in Apple TV’s upcoming adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. The former will play Brother Day, the current Emperor of the Galaxy, and Harris will be cast as Hari Seldon. Joseph Mawle (Game of Thrones) has been cast as the main antagonist Oren in the upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel trilogy in the works as Amazon. Noah Emmerich, Fred Willard & Jessica St. Clair have been cast in Netflix’s upcoming comedy series Space Force.
THE SCHED: See and For All Mankind Debut on Apple TV+
Apple’s new streaming service launches on Friday, November 1st and two sci fi shows will have their debuts on the same day. The post-apocalyptic series See, starinng Jason Momoa, will have its bow as well as the alternate-history space drama For All Mankind (which stars Joel Kinnaman). Each series will release three episodes on its premiere date and then one episode per week after that. You can see the full schedule of sci fi and fantasy shows at this link and you can keep up with the weekly listings at this link.
More from CancelledSciFi.com
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Check out our Sci Fi TV Schedule for debut and season finale dates and follow our Weekly Listings for a rundown of the shows airing in the current week.
Check back each Saturday for Sci Fi TV Retrospectives: A look back at cancelled, classic, forgotten, and more genre shows from the past.
