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 throughout the week at r/SciFiTV on Twitter and on Reddit.
His Dark Materials Starts Soft for HBO
The epic fantasy series His Dark Materials, a joint BBC / HBO production based on the Philip Pullman books, had its debut on Monday but only managed a 0.11 rating based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 424K total viewers. Now the overnight numbers are not as important to the premium cable channels, and the score will get a boost from digital and delayed viewing. But as a leading indicator, the nummbers suggest a lack of enthusiasm for this series. Considering that Game of Thrones averaged a 5.1 rating with twelve million total viewers in same-day viewing during its final season, the numbers for His Dark Materials are hardly a blip in comparison. The show also airs on BBC and may have generated more interest across the pond, and it has already been renewed for a second season. But at this point, an extended run for the series may not be in the cards. Be sure to keep up with the ratings numbers and status updates for all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows each week with our Cancellation Watch Weekly Roundup post.
>Will ABC’s Emergence Be Renewed or Cancelled and Can Fans Help the Show?
Dune: Sisterhood Loses Its Showrunner
HBO Max has the Dune: Sisterhood TV series in the works that will act as a companion to the upcoming movie based on the classic Frank Herbert novel, but the show is already experiencing some behind the scenes changes. Jon Spaihts was previously announced as the showrunner for the series and was writing scripts, but he has stepped down to work on the sequel to the upcoming movie which is already in the development stage (he also co-wrote the screenplay for that). Allegedly, Legendary TV was not happy with what Spaihts had done on the series so far and decided to go in a different direction. The search for another showrunner is in progress and should not hamper production if it does not go on too long. Spaihts will remain on as executive producer for the series.
See and For All Mankind Officially Renewed by Apple
I already reported last week that Apple TV+ had plans for second seasons of its scripted originals See and For All Mankind, and now the streamer has officially confirmed the renewals. The actual decisions to continue these shows into a second year came months ago in order to amortize costs and to cut down on the long breaks typically seen between the seasons of streaming shows. Apple TV+ launched last week, but according to Parrot Analytics the viewership is not strong for the service early on. But the streamer does not have a lot of content at start up and may take a while to build up its audience. Among the four originals available at launch, See and For Mankind have the most engagement so far.
Amazon Heads to Mexico to Join the Zombie-Pocalypse
Amazon has given the greenlight to the Mexican TV production Narcos vs. Zombies. Created and written by Nicolas Entel and Miguel Tejada Flores, the series stars Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Fátima Molina, Horacio García Rojas, and Nery Arredondo. Variety gives the following description for the project:
Legendary narco kingpin Alonso Marroquín (Peris-Mencheta) escapes from a high-security Mexican prison with his son Lucas (Arredondo) and finds refuge hiding at Paradiso, a remote drug rehab facility located on the U.S. side of the border. Meanwhile, test subjects from a failed U.S. military experiment — intended to transform wounded soldiers into killing machines — are left for dead near the border, only to revive as deadly mutant zombies. A Mexican SWAT team pursuing the Marroquíns is infected by the zombie horde, becoming a zombie army in its own right. Alerted to the threat, the U.S. Army embarks on a mission to annihilate them.
The series will debut on Prime Video at some point in 2020.
>Cancellation Watch Weekly Roundup: Watchmen Slips, The Purge Could Face an Uncertain Fate, and More
Hulu Opens Books of Blood
Star Trek‘s Brannan Braga and The Orville‘s Seth MacFarlane are working together on an upcoming horror film for Hulu. Based on Clive Barker’s anthology Books of Blood, the film will deliver “a journey through three uncanny tales tangled in space and time”. Braga will direct the film and MacFarlane will be onboard as executive producer. The film will debut at some point in 2020 and it is unclear on whether it is a possible pilot for an ongoing anthology series.
THE SCHED: Premieres for The Mandalorian, The Man in the High Castle S4, and Britannia S2
The Fall premieres have not stopped yet with three more set for the coming week. On Tuesday, the Disney+ streaming service launches and with it brings the premiere of Jon Favreau’s Star Wars live-action series The Mandalorian. That show will release one episode per week. Then on Friday, Amazon has the premieres of two returning shows on Prime Video. The Man in the High Castle, based on the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name, returns for its fourth and final season. And the epic fantasy series Britannia returns for its second season. All episodes will be available for streaming that day. 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
Keep up with the ratings developments and the status of all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows with our Weekly Roundup posts. And join the #CancelledSciFiArmy on Twitter to bolster our ranks and help us fight for the struggling and cancelled sci fi and fantasy shows.
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.
It’s a whole different story in the UK with His Dark Materials. The opening episode got 7 million viewers, and that was just the live broadcast. You can expect that figure to at least double when iPlayer catch-up figures are included.
In fact its the biggest BBC drama launch since 2014’s The Musketeers and since it was a mostly BBC production (HBO came on-board late in production to handle international distribution) I wouldn’t write it off just yet.
Thanks for the info. I’ve been watching for the BBC numbers.
I think the chosen broadcast day (Monday) might have been a mistake for HBO. On the BBC it goes out Sunday evening. I’m not sure if it’s the same in the US but in the UK Sunday evening 8-9pm is the coveted slot for big budget family(ish) shows like His Dark Materials.
Oh, BTW. Sunday 17th of Nov, straight after His Dark Materials on BBC1 sees the UK launch of the BBC’s version of The War of the Worlds.
(Not to be confused with the Fox/ French version also airing at the moment – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_(2019_TV_series))
It’s already aired in Canada and New Zealand (upsetting a few BBC TV licence fee payers about why it didn’t air in the UK first as they paid for it?) and according to some reviews at least, it’s not very good. But I’ll hold judgement until I see it.
I know you mainly cover US stuff Johnny but I know you like to keep track of what’s going on.
Keep up the good work, all the best DavyD