Syfy Cancels Defiance and Dominion
Two of Syfy’s bubble shows won’t be back in 2016
Two of Syfy Channel’s summer dramas have run out of time.
The cable network has cancelled Defiance, which ran for three seasons on the network and aired its final episode in August. The show, from creator Kevin Murphy, told the story of a frontier community cutting out their place in the world after the Earth was terra-formed by the arrival of several different alien races.
Defiance was a significant financial investment for Syfy, which launched it in 2012 as part of a multi-platform media tie-in campaign. The Defiance video game from Trion Worlds will go on.
The third season of the show averaged 1.1 million viewers in Live + Same Day ratings, down 28 percent from last year. Despite the slump it was still one of Syfy’s better performers, if an expensive one.
Also getting the ax is the post-apocalyptic angel drama Dominion, based on the 2010 feature film Legion and coming from writer and producer Vaun Wilmott. Twenty-five years after a war between the angels decimated the planet, humans try to survive in a world where angels and demons still roam.
Dominion aired for two seasons, and took its final bow at the start of October. In Season Two the show turned in around 900,000 weekly viewers (Live + Same Day), tumbling 45 percent from last year.
On deck next for Syfy is the outer space drama The Expanse and the mini-series Childhood’s End, both premiering in December.
Next year is a big year of transition for the cable network, with Haven, Lost Girl, and Continuum also ending this season and Helix put on the chopping block earlier this year. In 2016 Syfy will roll out new scripted dramas The Magicians and Hunters, as well as bringing back 12 Monkeys, Killjoys, and Dark Matter — all for their second seasons.
Via Deadline
Sad to see both Cancelled but we did have end to Defiance unlike SGU, ALL Have Great Actors. We can only hope for a movie someday.
Agreed at least we have an end and not going off to a big sleep. I can’t believe it. Oh wait it is the SYFY channel again canceling good to great shows to save a buck. VERY disappointed! Defiance was an enjoyable show with a great many plots to follow. Well, at least they didn’t move it to Thursday at 10 the place where shows go to die.
At least Defiance ended with some kind of closure … good result for once.
I am sooooo done with SyFy. They cancel all the good shows year after year. I will be waiting for Dark Matters, and Killjoys to be ended after 2 or 3 seasons. Just wait for and see for yourself, because its coming. They make me sick. They had Smackdown for all those years and didn’t end it earlier.
I don’t think people have any clue how business works when they post things like I’m reading in the comments. Of course the shows have to show some sort of positive benefit or Syfy would go out of business. Not that I’ll ever forgive them for cancelling SGA and I haven’t watched a show on the network since, but still I do understand how the world works.
What is the matter with you people!!?? Defiance was the BEST show you had! My WHOLE extend family loved it. We are all so disgusted and disappointed with your decisions. You need to cancel the people in charge of your programming and get someone in charge who can make a rational decision. There was everything in that program to keep it going from season to season. My wife and I are not going to watch any more of your milksop programming and we have discussed it with our kids(grown with their own families) and our grandchildren. They are all upset just as we are. You’ve finally done it. You have forced us all to go to Red Box and other forms of TV entertainment. CONGRATULATIONS! SYFY channel. You blew it.