‘Resident Alien’ Moves To USA Network With Season 4 Renewal
It’s official: Resident Alien has been renewed for a fourth season at a new NBCUniversal home, USA Network, moving from cable sibling Syfy.
As Deadline reported exclusively last month, the quirky sci-fi comedy-drama was not likely to continue on Syfy, with a move to USA as its most viable option to get a fourth season with a significant budget reduction.
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The transfer gives USA a second new scripted series, joining the recently picked up legal drama The Rainmaker as the once-thriving original scripted brand is returning to the arena with a slate influenced by the network’s glorious “Blue Sky” era that spanned most of the 2000s and early 2010s.
With the relocation to USA, NBCU is looking to expose Resident Alien to a broader audience, a crossover potential the series’ successful run on Netflix hinted at. Season 1 made it to the global streamer’s Top 10 of English-language series for its first five weeks of release.
Season 3 of Resident Alien averaged 3.3 million total viewers (+4% vs. S2) and 1 million in the 18-49 demo (+36% vs. S2) across all platforms through 35 days. Like Season 3, Season 4 will be available on NBCU’s streamer Peacock, with future windowing plans still being worked out.
There is no word yet on the future of the only current USA original scripted series, Chucky, which it shares with Syfy. The latter’s scripted slate also includes Reginald the Vampire as well as Canadian co-production SurrealEstate.
Based on the Dark Horse comics, Resident Alien follows a crash-landed alien named Harry (Alan Tudyk), whose secret mission is to kill all humans. In Season 3, Harry vowed to work with General McCallister to rid the Earth of the Grey aliens, a task made more difficult when he discovered that the Grey hybrid Joseph had taken a job in town as the new deputy. In addition, Harry struggled to balance business and his personal life when he fell in love for the first time.
The series also stars Sara Tomko, Corey Reynolds, Alice Wetterlund, Levi Fiehler, Elizabeth Bowen, Judah Prehn and Meredith Garretson.
Resident Alien, which has been well-reviewed, with its first two seasons averaging 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, was adapted to television by executive producer Chris Sheridan, who has served as showrunner since the launch of the series and remains at the helm for the upcoming fourth season. Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg of Dark Horse Entertainment, Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank of Amblin TV and Nastaran Dibai also executive produce.
The series is produced by UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Amblin TV and Dark Horse Entertainment.
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