Dark Matter season 4: The latest updates from renewal campaign
First, let’s say a tremendous thank-you to everyone who checked out and shared the piece we wrote on Saturday comparing the show’s cancellation by Syfy to what happened with A&E and Longmire. We had a chance to witness the renewal efforts with that fandom, and they were extraordinary. We don’t expect anything less here, and we’re blown away seeing what’s being constructed already to make another season happen somewhere. Bringing a show back from the dead is always a longshot, but it still happens and it’s even happened a couple of times in the past year and a half! Look at CMT/Hulu picking up Nashville, Netflix giving Sense8 a proper farewell after initially canceling it, and NBC deciding that they needed to give Timeless a little bit more time. The universal link between these series are quick action amongst the fans to make something great happen.
Today with Dark Matter, we want to bring a few different things to your attention that have picked up steam since we wrote our piece with hashtag advice and more over the weekend.
1. A petition – You can sign it over at the link here, and as of this writing it has more than 21,000 signatures. We know that there are some cynical folks out there who say that petitions are meaningless, and we couldn’t disagree more. Weak petitions are meaningless. If you can build up enough signatures to make your petition into a movement, it’s a tremendous publicity boost to your effort. This one is already well on its way, and just needs more attention to get to the next level. If even just one out of five Dark Matter viewers sign this, it would blow most save-our-show petitions out of the water. (For the record, we’ve already signed it.)
2. Early conversations – Showrunner Joseph Mallozzi wrote in a new post on his blog on Sunday that there have been preliminary discussions with possible new homes for the show. It’s still super early, but there is enthusiasm out there. The best thing that the show has going for it, beyond the passion of the fans, is that there is a creative team led by Mallozzi who adore the show and will speak wonderfully of it. One of the stories we’ve about the Longmire renewal was that the pitch the producers made to Netflix was so powerful, the streaming service’s executives were deeply moved after hearing it and it helped to turn the tide.
3. The party continues on Friday nights – Twitter sprees are important to get a show attention — they’re a proof-of-concept that there are fans interested in getting the show back. The more unity there is here, the better off the show is going to be. You can calculate and bring this data into pitch meetings and prove that this is a show any network home/streaming service would want. It’s certainly a beacon of positive publicity if you pick it up!
The graphic below (we’ve updated it with a current version via Tom Gardiner) gives you a little bit of information regarding what the current plans are for Fridays, provided that you want to get involved. While we know that not every fan is on Twitter, it gauges enthusiasm better than most social media. If you’re not on Twitter … why not join just for the campaign? You can always get rid of it later.
That’s all for now…
Rest assured, though: Once there is more to report on the Dark Matter season 4 effort, we’ll let you know. There’s nothing we love more than seeing people come together in order to save a show. It’s a negative world out there, and these efforts help to bring a little bit of light into it. (Photo: Syfy.)