Cancellation Watch: Syfy Cancels Sanctuary

For me this comes as no big surprise that Syfy decided to cancel the Amanda Tapping series Sanctuary after its fourth season, but I'm sure fans of the show were pulling for it to get at least one more year.  However, the series only averaged a 0.4 rating for its fourth season (based on sameday viewing), which was down from its third season and it ranked as one of Syfy's lowest rating scripted series.  The show had amassed 59 episodes over its four seasons (it usually ran 13 per season), so bringing it back for one more year would not get it to the magic 88 number that the syndication market seems to prefer these days.  So apparently the decision was made to go ahead and put it to rest, and apparently the series had wrapped up most of its loose ends with the season finale (I personally dropped out on the show in its second season).

Can it be Saved?  There is a Save Sanctuary Facebook page out there, but it doesn't look like it has a lot of activity at the moment.  The series would actually be affordable for another cable network or for Netflix, but I'm not certain how much benefit they would get from picking it up.  I'm not certain what other cable net would want it, especially considering the ratings it pulled this last season.  It would be an economical acquisition for Netflix, but it wouldn't generate near as much publicity as grabbing Terra Nova, The River, Jericho, etc.  And that seems to be what the streaming service is looking to do at this point with its original contect.  Thus the prospects for a continuation of Sanctuary seem grim.  There's always the possibility that it could go back to the web series format that it started with, but I'm not certain if that would still be an affordable move.  For now, consider it done.

You can see my thoughts on more of this season's cancelled genre shows at this link.