Sci Fi TV Update: American Horror Story Slips Again, Fantasy Island Could Be Headed to a Second Season, and More

Sci Fi TV Update: Status updates, news, and developments on sci fi and fantasy television. For breaking news, be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site

Ratings Results of Interest:

FX’s American Horror Story saw its numbers continue to slip with its latest Season 10 episode, pulling a 0.20 score based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 610K total viewers. Since it has reached the tenth season mark, though, it is at the point that the same-day numbers do not affect it too much seeing as now it is all about padding out the syndication/streaming package for future sales.  And the show has been renewed through its thirteenth season. Last Thursday on FX, What We Do in the Shadows had its third season premiere and averaged a 0.18 rating in the demo with 473K total viewers across two episdoes. That is down from its Season 2 premiere but right in line with its average from last year, so count those as decent ratings these days. And that one has already been renewed for a fourth season.

On Sunday, AMC’s The Walking Dead slipped to a new series low, posting a 0.49 rating with 1.9 million total viewers. That show is currently in its final season. On Tuesday, FOX’s Fantasy Island slipped to a 0.24 rating with 1.4 million total viewers. I was on the verge of moving that one to Bubble status, but apparently the network has been happy with the show’s performance so far (more on that below). Last Friday, SurrealEstate slipped to a 0.03 rating with 251K total viewers on Syfy. That show’s home network is the CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada, but if its performance on Syfy has any impact on its renewal chances, then the numbers from the last few outings have not been very promising. Ratings Source: SpoilerTV and ShowBuzzDaily

Digital Ratings

August 9th thru 15th was a slow week in Nielsen Streaming Rankings with only one genre entry in the Top 10 for Originals. Netflix’s Lucifer remained at the Number 9 slot for a second week, pulling in an estimated 198 million minutes of viewing. Disney+’s What If . . . ? had its debut that week but did not make it into the Top 10. In the rankings for acquired shows, Manifest made it ten weeks in a row in the Top 10, but it slipped all the way to Number 10. Expect that one to drop out in the next week or two. Following are all the sci fi and fantasy entries on the streaming charts for the week (the number in parenthesis is the prior week rank):

Digital Ratings for the Week of Aug-9 to Aug-15

Streaming Originals
9 (9) Lucifer (Netflix) 198 Million

Acquired Shows
4 (2) The Walking Dead (Netflix) 606 Million
8 (8) The Flash (Netflix) 425 Million
10 (9) Manifest (Netflix) 375 Million

Movies
6 (2) Jungle Cruise (Disney+) 213 Million

Source: Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings (Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix), Nielsen National TV Panel, U.S. Viewing Through Television

Status Updates

The same-day ratings have not been great for FOX’s Fantasy Island reboot so far, and I had been considering moving it to Bubble status.  But that show is graded on a curve since it counts as a Summer entry and network execs appear to be happy with its performance so far and are currently mulling a second season.  Fox Entertainment President Michael Thorn referred to it as their “first real, recent attempt at a cost effective”, though without elaborating on what that means.  The production values are quite good for the show, though it does work with a limited cast, so perhaps that makes it easier to produce in the current pandemic environment.  There is no word on when a second season decision will be made, but it appears possible that the fantasy could continue for another Summer (or perhaps this one will get shifted to the regular season schedule).

Sci Fi TV Development

The Tubi TV streaming service (which is now owned by FOX) is looking to expand into scripted originals and one of its first shots in that arena will be the movie Corrective Measures which will star Bruce Willis and Michael Rooker with Sean O’Reilly directing.  Deadline gives the following description of the project:

The film is set in San Tiburon, the world’s most dangerous maximum-security penitentiary and home to the world’s most treacherous superpowered criminals where tensions among the inmates and staff heighten, leading to anarchy that engulfs the prison and order is turned upside down.

It is based on the comic series by Grant Chastain and Fran Moyano and will also have Tom Cavanagh, Kat Ruston, Kevin Zegers, and Hayley Sales in the cast. The film will likely premiere at some point in 2022. Tubi TV is a free, ad-supported streaming service that has a fairly wide selection of movies and television shows.

Sci Fi TV News of Note

Among the news that came out of Star Trek Day this past Wednesday, commemorating the 55th anniversary of the premiere of the original series, was the fact that several original characters will be appearing in the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.  Celia Rose Gooding will come onboard as Cadet Nyota Uhura, Jess Bush will play Nurse Christine Chapel, and Babs Olusanmokun will play Dr. M’Benga (that character appeared in two episodes of the original series).  Anson Mount will be returning as Captain Christopher Pike with Ethan Peck and Rebecca Romijn continuing as Spock and Number One respectively . . . More news coming from Star Trek Day: Star Trek Picard Season 2 will premiere in February 2020 and has been renewed for a third season.  Star Trek: Prodigy will premiere October 28th and Season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery will premiere November 18th.  Both will be streaming on Paramount+ . . . FOX has given a script commitment for the adult animated series NIMH based on Robert C. O’Brien’s Rats of NIMH books.  The network will be looking to develop that as an “event” series . . . HBO Max has given a pilot order for Dead Boy Detectives based on characters created by Neal Gaiman for DC Comics.  Uber-producer Greg Berlanti is one of the names attached to the project. Be sure to follow r/SciFiTV for news, schedule updates, trailers, discussions, and more.

Sci Fi TV Schedule

Next week brings one more Fall season premiere as the long-awaited Y: The Last Man has its bow on Monday on Hulu under the FX on Hulu banner. The first three episodes will be available for streaming that day and the show will release one ep per week after that. Also next week, SurrealEstate will have its season finale on Friday on Syfy. There is no word yet on a second season of that show. There are plenty more sci fi and fantasy shows on the way this Fall and you can see the full schedule at this link.

Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and keep up with what is airing/streaming each week with our Weekly Listings.