Thursday, January 9, 2014

Sci Fi Cancellation Watch is Moving to CancelledSciFi.com

This site is now moving to a new location: cancelledscifi.com.  It's a more straightfoward name and simpler URL that relates exactly to what people have been coming here to find out:  will their favorite sci fi / fantasy show get cancelled?

The mid-season schedule of sci fi and fantasy shows is now available there at this link.  Going forward, all new posts will be at that site.  For my mid-season predictions, check out my Power Rankings at this link.

Cancellation Watch: Intelligence Has a Decent Bow, Almost Human is Still Kicking, but is Agents of SHIELD Losing Steam?

Mid-season for genre shows already kicked off last Friday with the return of NBC’s Grimm and Dracula along with several more shows debuting or returning as well.

On the Hot Seat: NBC’s Dracula had a slight uptick in its numbers when it closed out its Fall run, but when it returned last Friday it slipped back to a season low. That episode could only muster a 0.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 2.9 million total viewers and keeps the show firmly in its certain to be cancelled status. It only has three more of its ten episode order to go and then it will almost certainly return to the grave. FOX’s Almost Human was looking pretty weak when it wrapped up its Fall run, but it came back with slightly better numbers on Monday night. That episode pulled a 1.8 rating with 6.4 million total viewers which is still not great, but perhaps enough to keep it from falling into the abyss it was previously at the edge of. It’s still a bubble show, but the pressure eases off for at least a week now. ABC’s Agents of SHIELD still hasn’t moved into bubble territory yet, but its tepid mid-season return surely didn’t help its cause. Last night it only slightly improved on the season low if ended Fall with as it pulled a 2.2 rating and 6.5 million total viewers. For an expensive show like this, I’m thinking those ratings won’t be keeping the ABC execs very happy. It needs to get its score closer to the 2.5 level if it wants to feel comfortable about getting a second season.  Read the full article at CancelledSciFi.com.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Cancellation Watch: A Look at Prospects of Helix, Intelligence, The 100 and the Other New Mid-Season Genre Entries

This past Fall had a record number of sci fi and fantasy shows airing on the broadcast and cable networks and mid-season will be bringing even more into the fold with several new entries premiering over the coming weeks and months. When looking at these shows before they have debuted, it’s always hard to give a reasonable prediction on whether or not they will meet with ratings success because there are too many factors that can’t be fully assessed until you have some numbers to look at. For that reason, I rarely give a new series the highest or lowest Cancellation Alert status before they have had their premieres. That said, I have made a few exceptions over the past few years, previously giving Arrow and Agents of SHIELD a Low Cancellation alert (which worked well for the former but the jury is still out on the latter). I also gave The Neighbors a High Cancellation Alert before it debuted and that one proved me wrong (though many will argue vehemently that it should have been cancelled and it is surely head there this season). And I was tempted below to give both CBS’ Intelligence and Syfy’s Helix a Low Cancellation Alert prior to their debuts, but I decided to keep them at a more conservative Moderate.  Read the full article at CancelledSciFi.com.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Cancellation Watch Power Rankings: Ranking the Sci Fi / Fantasy Shows from Least to Most Likely to Get Cancelled

This kicks off a new companion piece to my Cancellation Watch column which will be ranking the current sci fi and fantasy shows from strongest to weakest based on where I believe they stand as far as their renewal or cancellation prospects.  My Power Rankings follow my Cancellation Alerts pretty closely, but they expand on those and show all the factors that I believe should be taken into consideration.  This is the mid-season edition of the Power Rankings which looks at the returning Fall shows plus the other returning genre shows that will have their debuts over the next few months like Being Human, Teen Wolf, and Game of Thrones.  I will be doing a separate look at the new mid-season shows next week.  And I will be updating the Power Rankings every week to two weeks as new ratings information is tabulated.  The rankings order the shows by those least likely to get cancelled to those most likely.  Any non-cancelled show in its final season will be addressed separately at the bottom.  Read the full article as CancelledSciFi.com.