SyFy Renews Original Drama Series “The Magicians” For Second Season
Great news, The Magicians fans! SyFy announced today that it has renewed the hit drama series for a second season, a total of 13 episodes, expected to air in 2017. Based on the bestselling novels by Lev Grossman, The Magicians centers around a brilliant grad student named Quentin Clearwater (Jason Ralph), who is selected to attend Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, a prestigious school in upstate New York for aspiring magicians. The series also stars Olivia Taylor Dudley (Alice), Hale Appleman (Eliot), Stella Maeve (Julia), Arjun Gupta (Penny), Summer Bishil (Margot), Jade Taylor (Kady) and Rick Worthy (Dean Fogg), all of whom have signed on to reprise their roles in season two. Executive produced by John McNamara (Aquarius), Sera Gamble (Supernatural), Henry Alonso Myers (Covert Affairs) and Groundswell Productions’ Michael London and Janice Williams (Milk), the show quickly made a name for itself due to its impressive ensemble of characters, witty writing and gorgeous cinematography. The show is currently airing its first season on SyFy on Mondays at 9:00 pm ET/PT, with its fourth episode premiering tonight.
“Thanks to an extraordinarily gifted creative team of executive producers and our partners at Universal Cable Productions, The Magicians has become a buzzed-about hit, enchanting fans of the novels as well as attracting new and younger audiences to SyFy,” said David Howe, President of the SyFy and Chiller networks.
During its first three episodes, The Magicians averaged 1.7 million viewers, 853K Adults 18-49 and 910K Adults 25-54 (based on L3 data). In addition, the series drew in a large audience of younger viewers, with Adults 18-34 growing consecutively over each episode, averaging 180% above SyFy’s primetime delivery in that demo.
Digitally, the show’s first episode was sampled more than 6.7 million times during its pre-linear launch (January 8 to January 25) across Syfy.com and select partner sites, as well as On Demand cable, satellite and Telco TV platforms. Additionally, an on-air sneak peek of the pilot, which aired on December 16 at 10:00 pm ET/PT, drew 1.3 million total viewers.
The Magicians is part of a powerhouse 2016 SyFy line-up that includes The Expanse, which was recently renewed for a 13-episode second season, and the upcoming April 11 scripted series Hunters from The Walking Dead executive producer Gale Anne Hurd. This year will also see premieres of season two of the critically acclaimed show 12 Monkeys (April 18) as well as Incorporated, a futuristic thriller from Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Todd’s Pearl Street Films (coming in Fall 2016). Additional high-profile scripted projects in development include Aldous Huxley’s classic dystopian novel Brave New World with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and David Goyer’s Superman prequel Krypton.