Syfy’s new space opera series Vagrant Queen premiered in late March, but it has yet to find much of an audience and now it looks like the show is getting booted from Prime Time. Through its first three episodes, it has averaged only a 0.07 rating based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic, with its numbers sinking each week. Neither Syfy nor parent company NBCUniversal has an ownership stake in the show, so the network only makes money on advertising revenue and that is driven by the same-day numbers. At the current levels, sponsors are certainly not interested in paying much for commercial spots (especially outside of Prime Time).
According to the current schedule, the planned April 17th airing has been preempted and the network’s website indicates that the show will next air Thursday, April 23rd at 11 PM EST. That shifts the show out of the Prime Time hours (8 PM to 10 PM EST), likely for a burn-off run. The last time that a Syfy series got kicked out of Prime Time was in 2016 when Hunters was booted from its Monday 10 PM EST timeslot to midnite. That show also suffered from low ratings and was cancelled at the end of its first season. Currently, it appears that Vagrant Queen is headed to the same fate.
With the sinking ratings, I had quickly moved the show to Cancellation Likely status, and this scheduling shift seems to confirm its fate. It has been flying solo on Friday nights without the benefit of a decent lead-in, and it did not receive much in the way of promotion from the network. It is also not a well-known property, based on the Vault comic book series by Magdalene Visaggio and Jason Smith. It is possible that the show has international financing and/or syndication deals that could keep it viable. But if not, it seems almost certain that Syfy will part ways with the series by the end of the season. Fans may want to make a Call to Action on the social networks to help it out or possibly interest another venue in picking up the show. But that needs to happen RIGHT NOW, and it needs to be LOUD!
The current season will be winding down soon and we should expect to hear word on the fate of shows such as USA’s The Purge, ABC’s Emergence, and more. You can see the status of all the currently airing, returning, and upcoming sci fi and fantasy shows on our Cancellation Watch Page. And be sure to stay tuned to this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
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I love this show. In times where a lot of us are anxious about money, healthcare and our loved ones – having a campy, queer and comical sci-fi show is exactly what I need. I love how ridiculous this show is – the fight scenes are purposefully bad stunt actions. The beautiful colours and uplifting music always makes me want to jump up and dance.
The problem with it is broader than just some folks not enjoying the space fantasy comedy genre – it’s the fact that Syfy hasn’t optioned this as a streaming show. There has been little to no advertising and it’s mostly inaccessible outside of the US. That means it doesn’t reach the target age range – I feel this show is very Gen Z / Millennial, which is probably why live numbers are so low. Even the Twitter handle for the show is badly designed: @syfyvagrantquee without the ‘n’.
This show was launched to be cancelled and that’s a huge shame. I know many people who would love to watch the show but can’t access it.
I’m enjoying this show because I grew up with this kind of content in the 80s. So it’s only GenZ etc. on the surface. But then it’s just a marketing thing. Maybe it wasn’t the right idea to aim it at young adults & 20sth. I just want more SciFi, Mary Sue politics or not, shlock or no shlock, it just has to be good, and this show is definitely a lot more fun than anything CBS-AA have been doing with Star Trek.
I was flipping through the cable guide and saw this was on the SyFy channel so I’m interested. I struggled so much to get through the first episode. This kind of reminded me of the Killjoys (which I loved and was sorry it was cancelled). I doubt I will watch the second episode.
The problem is not that the female lead is a strong character. It is that all male characters are portrayed as idiots. Run back in time to hokey Sci Fi like Buck Rogers. Did Erin Gray’s character need to be an idiot to help Buck be admirable? Of course not. Try to reimagine Vagrant Queen with Rozon’s character being strong as well. Totally different show (and probably not yet cancelled). Check out some recent successful female lead shows. How many of them REQUIRE the males to uniformly be idiots as a means to strengthen the female lead? Think about it… How insulting is it that the show assumes we won’t buy into a strong female lead without surrounding her with weak males?
Amazing! Shocking! Unpredictable! ~ Something made by Visaggio was wanted by no one, even when they could get it for free on commercial TV. (How do you manage to be so bad that you pull what has to be a record-setting minimum rating of 0.04 by the third episode in the middle of a stay-at-home pandemic?)
If SyFy paid a dollar for “The Expanse”, they better not have paid more than a penny for this.
I just watched the first episode and the cancellation isn’t surprising. Visually it’s pretty terrible. The awkward juxtaposition of poor CGI and embarrassing practical effects is glaring. The presence of both together makes it worse. The production crew seems painfully aware of just what a mess they stirred up because the lighting is low and frequented with a burning haze of neon glares. Less as more would have resulted in a much stronger presentation. Poor special effects aren’t a dealbreaker; A good story can make watching something worthwhile in spite of the visuals; They are just window dressing. The story is worse than bad; It’s recycled. There are so many Star Wars tropes hacked in the writer should be embarrassed by their lack of originality. What’s worse is the uneven tone that permeates the whole mess. It tries to be funny but it’s hard to say when you are supposed to be laughing. My theory is that it might have started as a serious pilot then when they realized just how substandard the package was they threw in some weak jokes to change the tone to better suit the rest of the production. I couldn’t find a single quality that struck me as innovative or enticing.
Speaking as someone who doesn’t really know (or care) about the politics or ideologies swirling around comics or tv nowadays, I’m usually all about this style of show. The premise sounded really interesting. The execution was downright terrible.
I’m not surprised that this show is already getting shown the door. It’s bad. It’s VERY bad.
Xena wasn’t as in your face, was blatantly “Red Sonjya”, and included a lot of PG-13 and suggestive clothing and themes. Played right in to the audience for science fiction shows, especially when that audience was in their teens and twenties. Killjoys already did the young super heroine trained by (white male) experts carrying the entire team; only they didn’t emasculate their male heroes too badly, and thus managed to last a few seasons. On the surface this is funny and reminiscent of Lexx and Andromeda, but too blatantly insults its only – not target – audience. Their target audience does not watch this type of show; their only audience doesn’t either.
so a cheesy action show featuring an improbably cool female lead? sounds… exaclty like Xena, which was the most popular show in the world twenty years ago?
not everything is about how the SJWs are out to ruin your life.
Ain’t that the truth.
you discovered the dirty secret of the constant fake “female empowerment” blitz by various media entities. yes there were already shows with strong female characters that were very popular and their audience was mostly males. a strong woman by itself is not “sjw” and never has been, nor is it something new or something that needs to be supported regardless of the quality of the work.
although the source of this show is unarguably “sjw”, but ultimately the quality should stand for itself.
Go woke and go broke.
The Great Depression of the Twenty-Twenties will be merciless to the SJW writers.
A few dozen executives at the SyFy need to be given their walking papers. The collapse of add revenues and ratings will see to that
Listen you grouches. Granted the show looks and feels cheesy, like a 1980s movie, but I believe that’s what the producers are going for. Not every sci-fi show is going to be as heady as Star Trek or as action-packed and expensive as Star Wars. I like the fact that an African-American female was the lead in a sci-fi series. How the hell often do you see that? And the lack of promotion leads me to believe that Sy Fy didn’t have much faith in this show in the first place.
Frankly, I want a good story that doesn’t rely of tired character cliches or checking racial representation check boxes. How many Black actresses lead a sci-fi series? Who cares? I’d rather have an actress that can act. I want characters I can relate to and not some female power fantasy.
For those who think that the gender and race of a cast are a SJW shot against them, that says more about your world view upon seeing people who don’t resemble you than it does about the show.
This is just a bad show for numerable reasons, starting with the script the going to the direction, leading into an attempted humorous tone that falls absolutely flat.
Let me guess, you’re white and male, right? If the answer is yes, than your email is disturbingly typical.
It’s silly Fun Camp, that’s all
This show is bat sh!t crazy
but it’s a fun show
I agree…it’s cheesy, sorta a rip of guardians, but then I thought the same about Orville and they turned it around. Ive seen plenty of good stuff like Stargate universe canceled. It has potential, and I can overlook cheesy fx. Maybe if all the people that watch truly trash shows like sharknado they’d stop making sequels of garbage and invest in something better. I mean Flash Gordon was pretty cheesy and overly dramatic and is still fun to watch.
I had a feeling this was DOA from the first episode. It’s not Olympus levels bad but it’s a waste of Tim Rozon. When I saw the shift to 11:00 I knew it was dead.
It’s not bad enough to be entertaining to watch and rip it apart, just well below average, probably the worst a show can be and the humorous tone probably isn’t working for most viewers.
Listen the show has potential. But changes need to be made. I know this may sound weird. But every syfy show that’s shot in mostly dark scenes fail. There needs to be more communication between players. Some of the ideas has a chance. Even wardrobe costumes needs a change. I’d watch the show regularly if something was fixed. I watch syfy channel frequently but didn’t see much advertisement for this show. If network would learn that marketing is everything. Even a crappy show will become iconic. With the right marketing that is. Syfy channel could put some effort into it. And help make this show. But they won’t because they want money for virtually doing nothing. I hope the show can make it in spite of these things.
Yeah, it’s a cheap & trashy show, it has the usual modern shtick of unnatural (and often implausible) super-women being boss & kicking ass & being arrogant, or simply being geniuses at everything they do, or all of the above, while men are reduced to over-emotional, bumbling idiot sidekicks—we probably all know where that comes from, and the scifi crowd, which is predominantly male (I assume), increasingly tends to see through this agitprop—, but weirdly enough, it’s nevertheless still a fun show at times, at least for old apes like me who grew up with 1980s sci-fi trash on VHS. Not as glorious a trash, but quite close. Wouldn’t miss this show for a second, but wouldn’t mind either if it stuck around for another season or two.
Good riddance to bad rubbish