The Magicians Renewed For Second Season At SyFy

Syfy today renewed magical drama The Magicians for a second season of 13 episodes, expected to air in 2017.

The series is based on Lev Grossman's trilogy of bestselling novels about students attending Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy in upstate New York.

"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, Syfy & Chiller, in a press release.

The Magicians averaged 1.7 million viewers, 853K Adults 18-49 and 910K Adults 25-54 (based on L3 data), over its first three episodes. The Adults 18-34 ratings have grown 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. Additionally, 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).

Starring Jason Ralph (Quentin Coldwater), Stella Maeve (Julia), Olivia Taylor Dudley (Alice) Hale Appleman (Eliot), Arjun Gupta (Penny) and Summer Bishil (Margo), The Magicians centers on Quentin, a brilliant grad student chosen to attend Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, a secret upstate New York university specializing in magic. He and his 20-something friends soon discover that the magical fantasy world they read about as children is all too real when they unwittingly invite a malevolent entity from the other side into their world. Also reprising their roles for season two will be series regulars Rick Worthy (Dean Fogg) and Jade Tailor (Kady).

The Magicians is one part of SyFy's recent push for quality scripted content, standing alongside The Expanse and 12 Monkeys. The network is also developing adaptations of Brave New World, and a Superman prequel series called Krypton.