Coming as no big surprise, FOX announced today that the voyage for their sci fi dramedy series The Orville will continue for a second season. That show got off to a strong start ratings-wise when it had two Sunday airings that were boosted by a lead-in from NFL Football. When it moved to its regular Thursday timeslot at 9 PM EST, its numbers did drop, but that was to be expected considering the stiff competition on the night from the ABC dramas and Thursday Night Football. Still its ratings average in that hour thus far this season is up 38% from what FOX was averaging in the same timeslot last year. In addition, The Orville has ranked in the Top 15 among all broadcast network shows when Live+7 viewing is taken into account. The Star Trek-like comedy started out with mostly negative reviews, but it caught on with fans and it has since developed some very good buzz in the sci fi community (it currently has only an 18% Fresh Rating at Rotten Tomatoes, but a 93% Audience Score). I have had the show at Renewal Possible status since its debut and considered it borderline Renewal Likely. No need to change the status now, though, since the renewal has already come in. The Orville only had thirteen episodes planned for its first season to keep costs down and allow the needed time for production. FOX has not announced the second season episode count, but I expect it to be around the same number.







The Orville follows the adventures of the less-than-stellar crew of a mid-level exploratory spaceship that is part of Planetary Union in the 25th-century. It was created by Seth McFarlane and he also stars along with Adrianne Palicki, Penny Johnson Jerald, Scott Grimes, and Peter Macon.

This is the second renewal of the Fall season after Star Trek: Discovery (an interesting first two), not counting the shows renewed in advance like American Horror Story and Outlander. Be sure to follow this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for more announcements and updates.