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.
I’ve been saying for quite some time that the bubble has to burst on Peak TV eventually, and this past week gave some indication that point may be approaching. HBO Max is going through shakeups due to the Warner Bros merge with Discovery which has seen several original films pulled from the service (along with the cancellation of the Batgirl movie) and potentially a larger number of layoffs on the way. Development of new scripted content may end up getting shifted to HBO which puts the future of any of a number of HBO Max originals in question like Titans, Doom Patrol, Peacemaker, and more. In addition, The Paramount+ streaming service reported a loss of $1.8 billion in 2022 which could lead to a cut back in original programming from that streamer. Even the person who coined the term “Peak TV”–FX president John Landgraf–believes that it could be peaking this year. So don’t be surprised if the number of original television shows starts trending down or even takes a tumble in the coming years.
Coming as no surprise, The CW has announced that the upcoming ninth season of The Flash will be its last. That was pretty much expected when Grant Gustin signed on for only one more year, though at least the show will get the chance to wrap up its storylines. Most of the other Arrow-verse shows were cancelled earlier this season currently leaving only Superman & Lois and Stargirl. With no new shows in development for the franchise, the Arrow-verse appears to be on the verge of fading from our screens within the next few years.
The YA vampire drama First Kill has been cancelled after one season because, well, Netflix. That show posted decent viewership numbers in its first few weeks, but execs at the streaming service did not believe it had “staying power” and it did not meet completion thresholds and other net-speak gobblygook like that. The actual fact of the matter is that the attention span of the Netflix execs shifted to the next shiny object in the queue, and they decided not to spend any more money on the show despite the fact that it built up a notable fanbase. And then they will turn around and blame a loss in subscribers on password sharing and crap like that.
Disney+’s Moon Knight series could be getting a second season despite the fact that it was pegged as a mini-series by the streamer. A post put up on social media with director Mohamed Diab and star Oscar Isaac hints that a second season is in the works. Nothing official has been announced, but it is possible that this show is not down yet.
In ratings results, the fourth season of Legacies entered the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 for acquired shows the week that its fourth season became available on Netflix. That show was cancelled by The CW after four seasons, but fans are fighting for at least one more season. If it continues to perform well in the streaming rankings, that may help their cause. More on the streaming and linear ratings for sci fi TV shows at CancelledSciFi.com.
In schedule announcements, Disney+ is shifting around a couple of premieres. She-Hulk: Attorney at law is getting bumped one day to a August 18th start. And the Star Wars series Andor is moving from a August 31st premiere to September 21st (you can see the trailer for that one at this link). Next week brings the return of Syfy’s Resident Alien for the second half of its second season along with premieres for Netflix’s Locke & Key Season 3 and AMC’s new anthology series Tales of the Walking Dead. You can see all the premieres for August and beyond at this link plus you can see the Weekly Listings here.
Did I miss anything? Probably because I am starting to tally all the genre shows for the upcoming season and it is quite a lot, 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.
