Sci-Fi Storm

The Orville, which harkens back to mid-80s Star Trek with more humor, has scored well with viewers and also with the network brass – Fox has ordered a second season of the Seth MacFarlane show while just halfway through its freshman 13-episode season. After a post-NFL premiere of 8.6 million viewers in the Live+Same Day ratings, it moved into a regular Thursday and although there was an expected drop, it’s still holding on to more than 4 million viewers a week, and when including Live+7 it jumps another 67%.

With Star Trek: Discovery pulling in good numbers for CBS All Access, the parent network is looking to bolster original programming, it’s once again digging into the vault for a beloved classic – and this time pulling out The Twilight Zone.

During the earnings report investor call, CBS boss Les Moonves said today that they will reboot the iconic series for the streaming network, but also said that the new series would need to “stand out” to draw audiences. The audience for CBS All Access skews much younger than the broadcast network – an average of 20 years younger.

CBS has rebooted The Twilight Zone twice already – first in 1985 for three seasons (one of which was in syndication), and once more in 2002 for sister network UPN for a single season. Neither were considered successful – the third syndicated season was largely to meet obligations as they had pre-sold syndication rights before the show aired – but with the increasing interest in anthology-style shows (such as the long-format American Horror Story and Channel Zero), perhaps the time approaches for short-form anthologies again?

Beware…I’m sensing…The Love Boat…