Amanda Tapping’s hit sci-fi and fantasy series Sanctuary is coming back for more monster hunting next year! Syfy has renewed the show for a 13-episode fourth season.
Season Three is currently on its mid-season hiatus, and is the show’s first year with a 20-episode order — allowing for a longer and more gradually developed storyline this season. Syfy didn’t offer any explanation for why it is returning to the 13-episode format.
Sanctuary has aired in the 10 p.m. time slot on Friday nights, enjoying the lead-in audience of around 2.7 million viewers from the 2-hour block of WWE SmackDown and averaging 1.46 million viewers itself.
Sanctuary is a co-production of the SPACE network in Canada, which has also announced the renewal.
“We’re thrilled about the extraordinary support SPACE has provided since the beginning,” series creator and executive producer Damian Kindler said. “They were the first to recognize Sanctuary‘s potential and are the foundation upon which all of our success rests.”
Stargate Atlantis's Christopher Heyerdahl stars on Sanctuary as John Druitt
Sanctuary co-stars Robin Dunne, Ryan Robbins (Atlantis‘s Ladon Radim), Agam Darshi, and Christopher Heyerdahl (Atlantis‘s Halling and Todd the Wraith). The series was created and is executive produced by former SG-1 writer Damian Kindler, and executive produced and directed by former Stargate director Martin Wood. Tapping also serves as executive producer.
Syfy had originally planned to move the show to Tuesdays with Stargate Universe, but changed their minds just a few weeks before the season premiere — keeping the Sanctuary team on Friday nights and instead pairing SGU with Caprica. Both of those series found the Tuesday night competition rough-going, and were canceled by December.
The renewal puts Syfy’s success rate for its fall scripted series at a meager 33 percent: 100 percent success on Friday nights (1/1), and 100 percent failure on Tuesdays (0/2).
Season Four of Sanctuary will kick off next fall on Syfy Channel and SPACE. The second half of Season Three returns in the spring.
heck yeah!
Sanctuary really found its feet this Season. I actually found myself looking forward to it more than SGU. I actually look forward to its return a little more as well… thought that may just be because SGU has already been cancelled.
Either way, it’s another year with Amanda Tapping et al. on our screens. Hopefully they can keep the connected story lines going.
BYE
Well deserved
Good news for people who like this show obviously, but I’m not one of them. SyFy
have left a bad taste in my mouth over their
treatment of SGU.
13 episodes is only 3 months worth, things have certainly slowly gone downhill since shows used to have 26 episode seasons, and 29 in the sixties if I am correct.
Who wants To make a bet that whatever they put on Tuesday nights 2011 Autumn will also get cancelled?
Congrats to the entire Sanctuary team for being picked up for another season. I’m looking forward to the rest of Season 2 and Season 3 in the fall.
Sanctuary got much better this season. It found it’s direction.
@Imperious: That’s an unfair bet. Too bad if it’s some really good new series and SyFy murders it too.
Great news, theres little SCiFi around to watch and its great to see quality stuff week in week out.
That’s weird… this means SyFy is still airing the genre on which it was initially based.
“Syfy didn’t offer any explanation for why it is returning to the 13-episode format.” Lol, since when did SyFy need an explanation for screwing over fans? They still haven’t given us anything outside of a twitter/tweet behind why they canceled SGU. I guess its a good thing this show didn’t air on Tuesdays too or chances are it’d be gone too, though I think that it would have done better than SGU or Caprica, it would have worked better as a lead-in to SGU and Caprica should have been on Fridays, because we all know Caprica was going to get… Read more »
I guess one could say that they chose Monsters over Aliens.
With Primeval back, the monsters are winning the Sci-Fi game.
I like Sanctuary. It has the camaraderie of the best SG shows. Way to keep it going Amanda!
I think show just jumped the shark from the second episode of the season and it all gone downhill from there. Only Henry’s part of Animus was good enough for me. I really hope they will redeem themselves later this season.
I’m excited to see it continue as well. As far as the 13 episode season, I actually like the format for some shows. Keeps things tighter, less fat.
I would think who ultimately gets screwed are budding writers and directors, who often get to cut their teeth working on some of the filler shows.
Not sure how Sanctuary was structured, but that is always the first thought that comes to mind when I see a shift like this. I think of missed opportunities for guest writers, directors, et al to play in their world.
Sanctuary, created an enormous expectation with the people of the underground…but, it is exploring the fantastic theme in an almost infantile way…care Amanda Taping…fiction has to have intelligence!
another thing…that brunet girl that substitutes Amanda Taping daughter…she doesn’t have charisma none!
@Glucharina: I agree that the first episode was the best, but it’s not bad. I do admit that the “in medias res” beginning has been done to death, revived and done to death again in this series though.
@Seaco: Ashley had no charisma either.
I have yet to actually sit down and watch a full episode, but anything with Amanda Tapping in it is brilliant IMHO!
Just sucks that it’s on the channel run by demented chimps (Syfy).
yay for the s4 renewal! more sanctuary, more amanda! MORE AMANDA!! :D
Yay, more Sanctuary!
Sad that the season is shrinking, but we don’t want to overwork all the awesome people who make the show.
I’m glad to hear that Sanctuary was renewed – at least I’ll have something to watch next fall. Congrats to the cast and crew! :)
That said, I think that cutting it down back to 13 episodes is weird and entirely undeserved…unless they get to keep their 20 episode budget and thus get rid of the “cheap feeling” :)
I’m glad that the show got renewed at all..any good news is welcome..
As for the 13 ep order and all of that other stuff,I think,actually from what I’ve read in the comments I’m sure people already know better than to expect any sort of logic or reason,or common sense from a grotesque called syfy,ha!
Sanctuary is a good show, it deserves to be renewed. i liked the internet episodes a bit better because they were a little darker and more sinister and the music was more exotic.
i hope syfy doesn’t renege on the deal like they did with Farscape when they announced a 4th and 5th season renewal.
@Jauh0 – but she was hotter ;) As for the show itself, glad it’ll be back! I’m not a die-hard fan like I am with stargate, but the episodes are enjoyable and as a lot have already said, it’s Amanda Tapping. I’m not entirely sure about this though: SGU and Sanctuary had about the same amount of viewers… which begs the question: Why did SGU get canceled and Sanctuary renewed? Although, the decrease in episodes could lend a glimpse as to why – TPTB figured both shows weren’t doing great, but Sanctuary didn’t have the same negative feedback like SGU… Read more »
I think the webmaster forgot that Agam Darshi had a couple of bit parts on Atlantis in the first season or two – dont think her characters were named, but she was there… BTW – I am ecstatic that the gang got renewed – in an age when your tv existance rests on a rating and a whim, Amanda must be doing something right – I am rooting for them. Flamers can just stuff it.
Yay! I needed some good news!
@Halzman Actually,Sanctuary had almost double the number of viewers,sometimes bordering on 2 mill. I also preffere space travel and stargate to monsters,vampires and other creatures of the night,but good story can make up for pretty much anything,so I wish to Sanctuary all the best.And not just cause of Amanda Tapping and Martin Wood.From what I initially thought would be a half-baked monster of the week story,they’ve actually managed to create a compelling and well rounded arc,with original and interesting characters,brought to us in an entertaining fashion.It’s basically the only thing syfy has to offer,that I’m interested in and I’ll get… Read more »
Best Sci-Fi on tv right now.
The only thing left on sci-fi (syfy *gag) worth watching to me.
With 13 episodes, I guess this means we are only going to get 6 or 7 episodes before having the usual four month break.
Sanctuary is the ONLY reason I’ll still be watching syfy! they screwed up cancelling 2 of my 3 fave shows on that network now!
@Halzman: No she wasn’t.
Yes!!! Finally SOME good news, although I don’t understand why only 13 episodes? I think the show proved that it has a lot of potential and I’m sure it can be seen in this season with more episodes and a major story acr…
@Gaia: I agree, the first two seasons felt a bit too compresssed for me. After the first episode they just jump into a status quo without exploring it.
Sorry, but Sanctuary lost me during the second season. It weeves from one story to another and just makes **** up as it goes. It’s not gone-breaking, it’s boring. But it’s cheap…
Congratulations You Guys! Im a newish fan of the show and have bought the series 1 dvd, waiting for them to come so i can catch up!!
Cant wait for the second half of season 3!
Congrats to Amanda Tapping.
They canceled SGU but we get another season of this poorly written drivel?! Its probably because it has a show string budget.
It’s because this show was not moved to a bad timeslot and this show is better than SGU. Slightly worse than SG-1 and SGA but a ^10 better than SGU.
@DarkElfa: And how can you know since you obviously don’t watch this show.
Glad it has been renewed. Sanctuary is one of my favourite shows. SGU was awesome and I am sad it was cancelled, but 3 of my fave shows (Sanctuary, Eureka and Warehouse 13) are still airing on Syfy
Sanctuary is now the only bright light on a quickly fading network. It’s good to hear some good news from Syfy. I was sure they had lost what is left of their minds. It seems as if they bring over shows that have absolutely nothing to do with science fiction as long as there is a core following….while they sacrifice some of the only worthwhile scripted tv available. Of course, Comcast requiring the digital box to view Syfy certainly did not help anything.. Must be difficult to run a tv network when they have to constantly flip through their business… Read more »
Yeah I love this show.
Wonderful news!
The green-screen took a bit of getting used to and I wasn’t all that keen on the premise but the stories have been consistently good entertainment.
Re only 13 episodes… that’s a bit of a shame but I’m glad that it’s been renewed at all and sometimes networks order more episodes if the ratings are good enough.
Maybe SyFy is willing to order 13 at this point but is waiting on ratings for the rest of series 3 before they’d consider committing to 20.
[…] Syfy renews Sanctuary for fourth season https://www.gateworld.net/news/2011/01/syfy-renews-sanctuary-for-fourth-season/ […]
So, Stargate Universe gets cancelled and Amanda Tapping’s attempt at an English accent continues.
forget Amanda, yeh Heyerdahl and Young!hey i’m a girl,ok I like guys. just joking about Amanda, we all love her.its the only reason I watch syfy also,why should I, I have Directv I got a whole kit& kabottles of sport channels with wresstling. any body checked out this new? sport? its like motorcross on iceskates in Canada. what is it.P.S.why Sanctuary over sgu, becuase its BETTER!!
good news. I love Sanctuary. I fell in love with it when it still were webisode,and I said that this belongs on tv not the internet. And I was glad and surprised it did go to tv. And now they can make a 4th season yeah!!! great work.
Looking forward to season 4 I enjoy the show very much.
some times less is more, 13 quality episodes beats 20 mediocre ones in my view, not saying this show was tho.
@Jauh0, I’ve seen EVERY episode of this show since the web shows. I’m not the kind of person who makes snap judgments without basis.
I say that with this news it more likely now that Syfy has decided to pick up there Robin hood in space show for next year.
Pass.
aren’t 13 episodes one half of a season as opposed to a whole season of 20 to 24 episodes?