Syfy Renews 12 Monkeys For Second Season

Syfy’s newest original series is coming back for a second year.

The cable network announced today that it has picked up 12 Monkeys for a second season of 13 episodes. Based on the Terry Gilliam film of the same name, the show stars Aaron Stanford as a time-traveler from the year 2043, who makes short trips to various points in the past to try and avert a devastating plague that will wipe out most of the world population.

The series will have a new team at the helm when it returns: series co-creators Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett step in as showrunners, with Season One producer Natalie Chaidez departing to work on another Syfy show, Hunters (set to premiere next year). Matalas and Fickett wrote the pilot and have served as co-producers on the show’s first season.

Though the show has averaged below 1 million viewers on Friday nights, it (no surprise) benefits significantly from DVR-delayed viewing. Syfy says that 12 Monkeys has turned in record increases for L3 (“Live + 3 Days”) viewership — an average of 104 percent, more than doubling the number of live viewers.

“We are absolutely committed to 12 Monkeys, and have been incredibly impressed by the outstanding critical and audience praise the series has earned,” Syfy President Dave Howe said. “The talent both on and off-screen have delivered a series that has us all on the edge of our seats, providing exactly the smart, exciting storytelling Syfy is known for.”

Season Two will air in 2016, with another January premiere date likely.

12 Monkeys is currently airing Fridays at 9/8c on Syfy. The season finale will air on April 10.