Unless otherwise noted, the ratings numbers below are based on the final overnights and may vary slightly from the preliminaries reported on the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site.

Renewal Announcement: Disney announced yesterday that their animated spin-off series Star Wars: Rebels will be returning for a fourth season. That announcement comes as no surprise, even though their had been some concern among fans that the show would end after its third season because another Star Wars animated series is allegedly in the works. I figured that a fourth season renewal was pretty much a lock because that gets the show beyond the 65 episode threshold generally preferred for a syndication run of an animated series. And supposedly it is Disney XD’s Number 1 series in total viewers and “key demos”, though its linear viewing numbers have been down in its third year. Whether its fourth season will be its last remains to be seen, and the episode count has not been announced yet (expect between 13 and 22). But this well-regarded series will be returning for another year (with a Fall 2017 projected start) and continue to expand on the Star Wars universe.

Trending Up: On Wednesday, Syfy’s The Expanse improved to a 0.22 rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic with 625k total viewers. That is its second week in a row of improving ratings after hitting a series low three weeks ago and perhaps word is getting out about the show (you can read more about that at this link). It’s likely that Syfy has not leveraged this one as heavily on the linear ratings, but it would be nice if it was showing stronger performance with the metric. At this point, I like the show’s chances of getting a third season nod, but fans should still be active in supporting it on the social networks and watch digitally or buy the season pass at Amazon, iTunes, etc.

Ratings Results of Interest: Over on FX on Wednesday, Legion slipped to a 0.37 rating based on the overnights for the 18-49 demographic with 780k total viewers, a season low. But as with The Expanse above, I don’t believe this show’s survival hinges as much on its linear viewing numbers and I don’t consider it in trouble at this point. Over on Syfy, The Magicians slipped a bit to a 0.32 rating with 750k total viewers, but it remains that network’s top-rated scripted show and is pretty much a lock for a third season renewal. On Monday, Freeform’s Shadowhunters slipped to a 0.22 rating with 520k total viewers, but that one is still looking like a good prospect for a third season renewal. On Thursday, USA’s Colony improved slightly to s 0.26 rating with 780k total viewers and it continues to have a decent chance for a third season nod.

Charts: AMC’s The Walking Dead slipped to Number 4 (down from Number 1) in the Weekly Nielsen Social Net Top 10, but remained at Number 1 in both the Cable Top 25 charts. The CW’s Supernatural slipped back out of the Nielsen Social Net Top 10 for the week. And CBS’ MacGyver slipped to Number 20 (down from Number 17) in the broadcast net Top 25 based on total viewers.

Series Chart Curr Wk Rank Prior Wk Rank MacGyver Broadcast Net Top 25 (Total Viewers) 20 17 Supernatural Nielsen Social Net Ratings Top 10 n/a 7 The Walking Dead Nielsen Social Net Ratings Top 10 4 1 The Walking Dead Cable Top 25 (18-49 Demo) 1 1 The Walking Dead Cable Top 25 (Total Viewers) 1 1

Be sure keep an eye out for the latest numbers and any breaking news throughout the week at the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site and Facebook Page. You can see the status of all the currently airing sci fi / fantasy shows at the Cancellation Watch page. And for more information on where I get these numbers and how I make my Cancellation Alert assessments, check out the Cancelled Sci Fi FAQ.