sf/f TV development news - 2013

Starz has renewed Da Vinci's Demons for a third season. Starz is also developing a series based on the novel Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig.

 

EW is reporting that Sleepy Hollow is getting more episodes for its second season. It'll have at least 15 episodes and possibly as many as 18.

 

^^ Ah, that is very good news.

 

USA Network has announced its latest development slate and it includes two SF/F shows:

 

Colony sounds a lot like V. Well, neither previous take on the concept has done it well since the original miniseries; maybe these guys have a new angle.

 

The CW has ordered The Flash, iZombie, and The Messengers to series and renewed The 100 and Beauty and the Beast. Star-Crossed and The Tomorrow People have been cancelled. Rumors started going around in the last week that Beauty and the Beast was going to be renewed. Most sites treated them with great skepticism as a renewal seemed like such a long shot, but it has indeed come through. That's the biggest surprise by far of the renewals this season. I guess off-platform monetization must be good enough to keep it going. The CW passed on Supernatural: Bloodlines.

 

Among this season's remaining freshmen SF/F shows on the broadcast networks, Agents of SHIELD and Resurrection look good for renewal, while Believe and Intelligence look like surefire cancellations. That leaves Dracula as a show with ratings one would normally expect to lead to cancellation but which has a shot at renewal because of a low license fee and good overseas revenues.

 

NBC has ordered Constantine to series. All of the DC Comics shows ordered to pilot this season have now been ordered to series. There will be five DC Comics shows on the broadcast networks next season.

 

The pickup of The Flash is excellent news, though far from a shock.

I wish they'd kept Star-Crossed, which has a pretty interesting story and characters aside from the central romantic stuff. And I'm surprised they kept Beauty and the Beast, which I totally lost interest in half a season ago. But I'm glad they kept The 100, and I'm neither surprised nor disappointed by the cancellation of The Tomorrow People, a show that totally fell apart in its last few episodes and that I'd already decided not to bother with anymore if it did come back.

Off-platform what now? What is "monetizing" B&tB beyond the show itself?

 

Beauty and the Beast's renewal is pretty shocking to me. They put the show on hiatus and are finishing off season 2 in June. It looked like a goner for sure. It must do well overseas .

 

I was referring to the revenue streams beyond the license fee the CW pays, i.e. foreign sales, revenue from online streaming, DVD and Blu-ray sales.

 

I am surprised because of how they handled it too. I am glad it will continue on. Hopefully the writing will get better, S2 has been pretty bad at times.

 

Yeah, season 2 of BatB has been wildly uneven. And Vincent spent most of the season so far being an asshole.

 

As expected, ABC has renewed Once Upon a Time and Resurrection for fourth and second seasons respectively. ABC has also ordered The Whispers to series (formerly titled The Visitors), as well as the half-hour fairy tale musical comedy Galavant.

Edit to add: ABC has renewed Agents of SHIELD for a second season and ordered Agent Carter to series.

And another edit: ABC has ordered Forever to series.

Here are the descriptions for ABC's new SF/F shows:

 

So will Howard Stark be a regular in Agent Carter, or just an occasional guest?

 

It's very interesting that it's a period piece. I'll give it a try on that basis alone. I wonder if they'll somehow tie Carter and SHIELD together-- she has an adventure one week and the repercussions are felt seventy years later in SHIELD.

That's funny. By the time the show is developed and aired, it will be the present-- or possibly even the past.

 

Some sites are saying NBC has cancelled Revolution. Others say a final decision hasn't been made yet.

Edit to add: now it's official. Revolution has been cancelled.