Syfy believes in magic—or at least its new series “The Magicians.” The network has renewed the freshman series for a second season.
Based on the bestselling novels from Lev Grossman, “The Magicians” tells the story of students at Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, a secret upstate New York university specializing in magic.
Brilliant but troubled grad student Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph) is chosen to attend Brakebills as the series begins. Quentin and his friend, Julia (Stella Maeve), meet his fellow students—Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley), Eliot (Hale Appleman), Penny (Arjun Gupta) and Margo (Summer Bishil). Soon they discover the dark side of magic when they unwittingly invite a malevolent entity from the other side into their world.
The main cast will return for Season 2, as will series regulars Rick Worthy (as Dean Fogg) and Jade Tailor (as Kady).
New episodes of “The Magicians” air at 9/8c Mondays on Syfy. Read more below.
The Magicians renewal press release
Syfy today announced it has renewed hit drama series “The Magicians” for a second season of 13 episodes, expected to air in 2017. “The Magicians” is from Universal Cable Productions and is executive produced by John McNamara, Sera Gamble, Henry Alonso Myers and Groundswell Productions’ Michael London and Janice Williams.
Based on the bestselling novels from Lev Grossman, “The Magicians” is currently airing its first season on Syfy at 9/8c on Mondays.
“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 Dave Howe, president of Syfy and Chiller.
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). The series is also strong among younger viewers, with Adults 18-34 growing consecutively over each episode, averaging 180% above Syfy’s prime time delivery in that demo.
Digitally, the series’ 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. An on-air sneak peek of the pilot, airing December 16 at 10PM ET/PT, drew 1.3 million total viewers (based on L+7 data).
“The Magicians” is part of a powerhouse Syfy 2016 lineup 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 2 of the critically acclaimed “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 scripted projects in development include Aldous Huxley’s classic novel “Brave New World” with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television; and David Goyer’s Superman prequel, “Krypton.”