Sci Fi TV Week in Review: Johnny Jay’s irreverent, snarky, and caffeine-fueled look back at the past week in sci fi TV in five minutes or less.
It is official now that Nextar will be buying a majority stake in The CW and that will likely mean much less in the way of sci fi and fantasy in the coming years. Say what you want about the shows the network has put out over the years, but it was definitely supportive of genre entries. Sure, there were plenty of pretty young faces and copy-and-paste dialogue and angsty melodrama, but the Arrow-verse shows had their moments, Supernatural is the longest-running genre show in the States, The 100 was a notable sci fi entry, and genre fans could always find something to watch on the network.
But according to Nextar Media president Tom Carter, the new direction will target older viewers with inexpensive unscripted shows along with “high-quality syndicated programming”. (I’m an older viewer. I’m not interested in any of that.) The network had also previously indicated a move towards more “wholesome” programming. The Arrow-verse is already down to three entries for the coming season with The Flash wrapping up and Superman & Lois and Stargirl likely not sticking around much longer after that. There is not much else in the way of genre shows on the coming schedule, and that may become the norm for this network. After years of having sci fi and fantasy shows comprising two-thirds of its lineup or more, it sounds like the Nextar version CW may be turning into another Hallmark Channel.
The long-in-the-works reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a black female lead is currently “on hold” according to one of the executive producers attached to the project. That was first announced in 2018, and the new version would be a “contemporary” updating “building on the mythology of the original”. It was never clear if the plan was to do a complete reboot or if this would be a continuation of the original series with new characters. There is no word on what is holding up the reboot, but it could be linked to the recent claims of abusive behavior against Joss Whedon who is executive producing the new show. A reboot is certainly unnecessary seeing as the original is considered a classic and is still well-regarded today, and perhaps it is better to pass on this project as we really don’t need another reboot/revival in an already crowded television landscape.
As I previously mentioned, HBO Max is going through some shakeups with the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery. Not only are shows and movies being dropped from the service, the fate of several originals are in doubt including fan-favorite Young Justice. That show originally aired on Cartoon Network from 2012 to 2013 but was cancelled after two seasons. It was revived for a third season in 2019 by the DC Universe streaming service then moved over to HBO Max for its fourth season when DCU shuttered. According to a report from TVLine, HBO Max only ordered one season of the show and currently has no plans to produce a fifth year. That does not mean the show is officially cancelled, but it may get lost in the shuffle with all the turmoil at the streaming service. Fans should definitely take up a Call to Action on the social networks to convince HBO Max to keep the show going for another year.
In ratings news, almost nobody watched the premiere of Tales of the Walking. The first episode managed only a 0.09 rating based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 572K total viewers. Those are some of the lowest numbers for the franchise apart from a few episodes of the dreadful World Beyond (nobody watched that one for a reason). At this point, you might wonder whether AMC will reconsider some of the other TWD spin-offs it has in the works. Syfy’s Resident Alien didn’t do much better, only managing a series low 0.08 rating with 657K total viewers for its return from hiatus. Is anybody watching basic cable shows anymore? More on the streaming and linear ratings for sci fi TV shows at CancelledSciFi.com.
Next week brings the premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 on Paramount+ along with the third and final season of See on Apple TV+. Also, the supernatural drama Motherland Fort Salem will be wrapping up its run on Freeform. You can see all the premieres for August and beyond at this link plus you can see the Weekly Listings here. In trailers, this week we got a look at Netflix’s Cabinet of Curiosities anthology from Guillermo Del Toro along with the Addams Family reboot Wednesday, Rick & Morty Season 6, and more. You can see those at this link.
Did I miss anything? Probably because I have been busy watching those last few episodes of The Orville Season 3 and they are loooong, so let me know in the comments below.
Be sure to keep up with the news during the week with This Week in Sci Fi TV and r/SciFiTV.
SciFiTVSite.com: 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.
CancelledSciFi.com: Keep up with the status updates of all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows with our Cancellation Watch posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
