Syfy’s ‘Alphas’ Cancelled After Two Seasons

Syfy’s drama Alphas is ending its run after two seasons. “Syfy has decided not to renew Alphas for a third season,” the network said in a statement. “We’ve been proud to present this entertaining, high-quality series for two seasons and to work with an incredible ensemble of talented actors, producers and creatives as well as our partners at BermanBraun Television. We’d like to thank the show’s dedicated regular viewers for their tremendous support.” Alphas, from BermanBraun, Universal Cable Prods. and creators Zak Penn and Michael Karnow, followed a team of ordinary citizens who possess extraordinary and unusual mental skills. The series starring David Strathairn was most recently run by Bruce Miller who executive produced Season 2 alongside Penn and BermanBraun’s Gail Berman, Lloyd Braun and Gene Stein. Karnow served as co-executive producer. The second season of Alphas launched in July to 1.7 million viewers.

Alphas had a long journey to the screen. In its original incarnation as Section 8, the drama was taken to NBC almost 6 years ago through BermanBraun’s first-look deal there. After the network passed, the project sparked bidding among the other broadcast networks in summer 2007, landing at ABC with a six-episode production order for a possible midseason launch behind Lost. The show was in pre-production, with writing on the first episode underway, when the WGA strike brought work to a halt. After the strike, ABC had to alter its plans for the show. That and creative differences over the show’s sci-fi elements, which the network was uncomfortable with, led to ABC eventually dropping the project. It was then pitched to Syfy, which, after some redevelopment, ordered it to pilot in summer 2009.