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.
James Gunn was announced as co-CEO of DC Studios last month and now fans of shows like Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman are reaching out to him asking for at least one more season of those shows. Both of those were cut short last season, along with several other genre entries, as part of a purge of allegedly “underperforming” shows prior to new ownership taking over at The CW. But the fact is that both of those shows were pulling in decent viewership for the network, and it is much more likely that their LGBT+ representation did not fit well with the “wholesome” programming preferred by new owners Nexstar Media Group. Gunn has been non-committal about bringing back any of the cancelled shows, saying that “our initial focus is on the story going forward, hammering out the new DCU, and telling the Biggest Story Ever Told across multiple films, television shows and animated projects”. But if fans continue to lobby, maybe Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Stargirl, or other cancelled DC properties could make a return at some point. (A second season of Swamp Thing, maybe?)
Actor Kevin Conroy passed away this week at the age of 66, succumbing to cancer. He is best known to genre fans as the voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman: The Animated Series as well as in multiple other animated films and shows. He also had one live-action appearance as Batman in the Arrow-verse Crisis on Infinite Earths event. His voice-over work had slowed the last few years, but he was set to provide the voice of Thomas Wayne in the Batman: Caped Crusader series which may or may not still happen now due to the shakeups from the Warner Bros. merger with Discovery.
The cancellations of genre entries continued this past week with two more shows getting the ax. Amazon announced that the upcoming second season of its fantasy series Carnival Row will be its last. That news does not come as a huge surprise, though, as the show had an extended hiatus between its first and second years due to COVID-related production delays and the options for the cast and crew had expired. The second and now final season of that show is set to arrive on February 17th.
And if we are talking cancellations, Netflix is usually part of the conversation and that streamer has cancelled the sci fi/horror entry The Imperfects after one season. That show pulled in decent viewership, but apparently did not check all of the boxes needed for a renewal. Netflix continues to churn out quite a number of originals each month with a high casualty rate, and that will almost certainly catch up with the streamer at some point.
In development news, Disney+ is considering adding a live-action Indiana Jones series to its slate of originals. There are no specifics on the show at this point and don’t expect Harrison Ford to show up because he has claimed that he is done with the character after the fifth Indiana Jones film. (He’s also getting pretty old.) A previous series aired on ABC in the ’90s titled Young Indiana Jones, but it was more of a historical take on the character with very little in the way of fantasy elements. If Disney+ does move forward with a new series, expect it to follow more closely to the look and feel of the movies.
In streaming ratings this week, the first part of the fourth and final season of Manifest landed at Number 1 in the Netflix Top 10 for English Language shows. It pulled in 57 million hours of viewing for its debut week which included only three days seeing as it premiered on a Friday. Expect that one to continue to perform well in viewership, and the streamer may be kicking itself at this point for not leaving open the possibility of additional seasons beyond the fourth. More on the streaming and linear ratings for sci fi TV shows at CancelledSciFi.com.
Next week brings just one premiere with Netflix’s 1899 (from the creators of Dark) arriving on Thursday. Also next week, FX’s American Horror Story: NYC will be wrapping up on Wednesday and AMC’s The Walking Dead will be coming to an end after eleven seasons with its ninety-minute season finale. You can see all the premieres for November and beyond at this link and you can see the Weekly Listings here.
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 you can see the premieres for all the upcoming genre entries at this link.
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.
