Cancellation Watch Fall 2012 Sci Fi TV Preview!!!

Arrow Debuts Oct 10th on The CW

Fall 2012 brings us yet another TV season and yet another set of science fiction and fantasy shows, some new, some returning.  Every year, the networks and cable channels deliver a number genre entries (more and more of late, actually), and every year it seems like a fair number of those get cancelled (last season, over 50% of the new shows got the axe).  As frequenters of this site know, I track these shows throughout the season in my Cancellation Watch column, following the ups and downs of their ratings and determining which ones are in danger of cancellation.  And before each season begins (and also again at mid-season), I assess all of the shows on the schedule and give my predictions on which ones will get cancelled and which ones will survive for another season.

The shows that I am looking at currently are the ones set to debut at some point in the Fall 2012 season.  As I said above, some are returning, some are new, but all will bow at some point before November (or at least that’s the way the schedule is laid out right now).  There are more shows set to hit during the second half of the season (like NBC’s new entry Do No Harm and HBO’s returning series Game of Thrones) as well as several waiting the wings as mid-season replacements for when other shows falter (like ABC’s Zero Hour), but those aren’t the focus of this survey.  I’ll get to them later in the season, because you never know if the networks might do some schedule juggling before January comes around.

And once the season begins (official start is the last full week of September, though NBC is getting a jump on the other networks starting September 14th), you can follow my Cancellation Watch column to see how your favorite shows are holding up.

I assign each show a Cancellation Alert status to indicate where they stand on their cancellation/renewal chances, and I am giving each series a preseason status that they will take with them going into the current year.  The five levels, from lowest to highest as far as likelihood of cancellation, are: Low, Moderate, Medium, Elevated, High.

Note that for almost all new series, I rarely go below a Moderate Cancellation Alert status because there are too many unknowns prior to when a series launches to definitely say that a new entry has little or no chance of getting cancelled.  Also, I rarely go above Elevated for my preseason predictions on new shows, because you never know what might pique the interest of Prime Time audiences in a coming season (I had both Once Upon A Time and Grimm pegged as early losers last year, but they both managed to make me eat my words).  But that said, I do give a Low and High Cancellation Alert to two series in the Fall season, just because I feel that strongly about both of them, all the while realizing I may pay for that later.

You can read my full preview of the Fall 2012 season at this link.  And you can see the full schedule of genre shows with their premiere dates (plus the official synopses of the new shows) at this link.  And check back each week for the latest ratings numbers and changes in the Cancellation Alert status (and schedule changes as well) for all of the science fiction and fantasy shows currently on the air.  And starting this season, I have set up a Cancellation Watch twitter site (twitter.com/CancelledSciFi) where I will post info on the overnight ratings as well as other news and announcements on current and upcoming science fiction and fantasy television shows.

Also, watch for my upcoming book Why Were They Cancelled? coming out on Kindle shortly which will take a more in depth look at the ratings and the science fiction and fantasy shows that suffered from early cancellations.  But for now, take a look at my Fall 2012 Preview and feel free to add your comments on how well you expect your favorite shows to perform in the ratings this season.

Get Caught Up on Last Season's Shows on DVD/Streaming: