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
Digital Ratings
Manifest remained atop the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 for acquired shows for the week of September 13th to 19th for its encore run on Netflix, pulling in another 712 million minutes of viewing. It has now been in the Top 10 for fifteen straight weeks since Season 1 and 2 of the show became available on the streamer, and eleven of those weeks were at the Number 1 slot. In the Top 10 originals, Lucifer took the Number 1 slot in the second week of the release of its sixth season, pulling in 1.6 billion minutes of viewing. Disney+’s What If . . . ? improved one slot to Number 8 with 243 million minutes of viewing. Y: The Last Man had its debut on Hulu that week but did not make it into the Top 10 for originals. It is releasing one episode per week so it could still nudge its way in once more episodes are available. In the Top 10 for movies, the Netflix original film Nightbooks entered at the Number 7 slot with 163 million minutes of viewing. 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 Sep-13 to Sep-19
Streaming Originals
1 (2) Lucifer (Netlfix) 1.6 Billion
8 (9) What If (Disney+) 243 Million
Acquired Shows
1 (1) Manifest (Netflix) 712 Million
8 (8) Supernatural (Netflix) 316 Million
Movies
7 (n/a) Nightbooks (Netflix) 163 Million
Source: Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings (Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix), Nielsen National TV Panel, U.S. Viewing Through Television
Ratings Results of Interest
On Tuesday, Syfy’s new horror series Chucky had its debut and it was simulcast on USA. That one pulled a 0.13 rating with 357K total viewers on Syfy and a 0.18 score with 451K total viewers on USA. That counts as a decent start for a basic cable series these days, but the premiere likely drew a large number of curious onlookers. We will have to see how that one tracks in the coming weeks. Also on Tuesday, NBC’s new sci fi entry La Brea held mostly steady at a 0.63 rating based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 5.1 million total viewers. It was in a tie as the second most-watched scripted entry for the night across the broadcast networks. On Wednesday on The CW, Legends of Tomorrow had a 0.09 rating with 585K total viewers for its seventh season premiere which was slightly higher than its sixth season average, though the majority of those episodes aired in low-viewership Summer. In the lead-out hour, Batwoman had a 0.08 rating with 469K total viewers for its Season 3 premiere, down from its Season 2 average of 0.12. Both shows will likely make up slack in digital viewing, and The CW pays close attention to those stats. The full ratings for the week, including the premieres of Syfy’s Day of the Dead and the seventh season of Fear the Walking Dead, will be available in the Tuesday Sci Fi TV Update post.
Sci Fi TV Development:
AMC has officially given the greenlight to its TWD anthology series The Tales of the Walking Dead. Each episode will deliver a stand-alone story and will focus on new and established characters from the TWD universe. Development of the series was announced previously, and now it has the official go-ahead with the six-episode first season planned for the Summer of 2022. Channing Powell, who has been a writer and producer on both TWD and Fear the Walking Dead, will be the showrunner. This will be the fourth spin-off from The Walking Dead, and a Carol and Daryl series in the works as well.
Sci Fi TV Schedule:
A new trailer has been released for the upcoming Disney+ Hawkeye series (you can see it at r/SciFiTV) with that show set to release its first two episodes on November 24th. Next week brings three premieres, all on the streaming services. On Thursday, Young Justice Season 4 has its premiere on HBO Max with the first three episodes available for streaming that day. It will release one episode per week after that. On Friday, Invasion has its series premiere on Apple TV+ with the first three episodes available for viewing that day. It will then release one episode per week. Also on Friday, the second season of Locke & Key will debut on Netflix with all episodes available for viewing. You can keep up with the Weekly Listings at this link and you can see the full Fall schedule of sci fi and fantasy shows at this link.
Follow our Sci Fi TV Update posts each week for the status of the current sci fi and fantasy shows, the latest news, schedule info, and more.
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.
