The fall TV season only kicked off a couple of weeks ago. Normally we have to wait months before we learn whether or not a program has gotten renewed, but this week Syfy jumped the gun and decided to renew its freshman series Van Helsing quite early in the show's run. Van Helsing is returning for Season 2, and production is expected to begin in January 2017.
The news was broken by the show's producer, Nomadic Pictures, along with its distributor Dynamic Television, per Deadline. Thirteen episodes are expected to be produced for the new season, which is the same episode order that was given to the series for Season 1. Honestly, the news is a little bit of a surprise, mostly because of the ratings and because the renewal came so early into the show's run.
Van Helsing has only been on the air since September 23, which means only four episodes have aired so far. Following the premiere, all of the episodes have aired under a million total viewers in Live+Same day ratings--not great numbers, even for a cable station. Still, the show has done well with critics, and is currently running at a solid 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. Plus, it's part of the brand new lineup of originals Syfy has been cultivating, which also includes The Expanse.
The series is set a short time in the future. It's 2019 and vampires have begun to take over after a catastrophic volcanic eruption allows a slew of vampires to reach the surface. The world as we know it is in shambles, and the post-apocalyptic version--filled with vampires and a black-clad kickass female who can take them down/make them human again. It's a new take on an old story, and it's one that has been drawing comparisons to The Walking Dead, even if it hasn't been bringing in quite the same numbers.
While it's always good news to hear about renewals rather than cancellations, it is still pretty early in the season for most of the major networks to be making these sort of calls. Most of the time we don't hear about show renewals until May for the major networks, although there are some early renewals and cable networks are a little more unpredictable in terms of when shows are cancelled and renewed. For now, you can see how the new network shows are doing with our ratings roundup, and find out which shows have yet to premiere with our fall TV premiere schedule.
Van Helsing airs on Fiday nights at 10 p.m. ET, only on Syfy.
