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.
One sci fi/fantasy show was cancelled this week and one was renewed, so does that mean that we balance out? Fans of Amazon’s Night Sky will not agree with that assumption. That sci fi series has been cancelled after one season despite spending several weeks in the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 for originals. Apparently the show is expensive to produce (the streaming services need to learn how to control costs) and Amazon decided that the viewership did not justify the expense to keep it going for a second season. The streamer did beam the first episode of the series into space as a promotional gimmick, but apparently no one told Amazon execs that Nielsen doesn’t distribute viewership meters to aliens.
Getting the renewal nod was Paramount+’s supernatural drama Evil which will be returning for a fourth season. That one first started on CBS before moving to the network’s affiliated streaming service and it has thrived on that venue. Had it remained on the genre-averse CBS, it may not have survived beyond its second season because the Nielsen ratings for the show were not great. So the move away from the old-school network has certainly helped it.
Daredevil fans who are still waiting for a fourth season of the cancelled Netflix show got some good news this week. The Man Without Fear and Kingpin will be facing off in the upcoming Echo series on Disney+ which is a spin-off from Hawkeye. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio will be reprising their roles as the characters, giving Daredevil fans something to tide them over until the promised fourth season of the show finally lands at Disney+.
Here’s a bit of trivia for you: One of the original Ghost Busters passed away this week. Who was it? (Hint: the answer is at r/SciFiTV.)
In the nobody really cares what you say anymore category, George R.R. Martin is making new promises on the upcoming Game of Thrones books. He claims that the ending he is writing “will be quite different” from the TV series because . . . of course he does. Why would he be following an ending that was widely despised? And nobody believes that he will ever finish those books anyway, so what does it matter?
In development news, Peacock has cancelled plans for its adaptation of the epic fantasy Green Bone Saga books by Fonda J. Lee. That is not to be confused with the Amazon epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time nor the upcoming epic fantasy prequel to Lord of the Rings which is headed to that service. It is also not to be confused with Netflix’s epic fantasy series The Witcher nor its other epic fantasy show Shadow and Bone. It is also not to be confused with all the epic fantasy spin-offs of the epic fantasy series Game of Thrones headed to HBO and HBO Max. So . . . maybe one less epic fantasy on television isn’t necessarily a bad thing? Peacock also just cancelled its plans for a Field of Dreams TV series. That streamer seems to be having commitment issues lately. More sci fi TV development news at this link.
In ratings news, lots of people are watching Stranger Things. I mean lots and lots and lots. That show set a record for Nielsen with over seven million minutes of viewing in one week. It wraps up with its fifth season next year, but expect multiple spin-offs to follow from that. Meanwhile, not many people are watching Westworld on HBO. Or at least the live broadcast of the show. It second Season 2 episode managed only a 0.05 rating based on same-day viewing which is pretty darn low. It is probably pulling in more viewers digitally (we’ll see those numbers in a couple of weeks), but expect that show to wrap up sooner rather than later. More on the streaming and linear ratings for sci fi TV shows at CancelledSciFi.com.
Next week brings the premieres of several shows that we can laugh about, and we could all use something to laugh about these days. On Tuesday, the supernatural dramedy What We Do in the Shadows returns for its third season on FX. Then on Thursday, Hulu’s animated sci fi comedy Solar Opposites returns with new episodes, also for its third season. And on Friday, the new Netflix animated sci fi comedy Farzar has its premiere. If you are looking for something more serious, Netflix has you covered with the live-action Resident Evil series which has its bow on Thursday. You can see all the premieres for July and beyond at this link plus you can see the Weekly Listings here.
Did I miss anything? Probably because these darn Captas keep popping on the sites I am going to and I can’t find that darn bicycle yet, 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.
