Syfy’s “Sharknado” franchise saw another rating dip from its last installment, leading some fans to wonder what the cable network has in store for the future of Ian Ziering and Tara Reid’s characters. “sharknado 5” placed eighth in the Top 25 cable shows and drew in 1.887 million viewers when it aired last Sunday.
Surprise hit
It can be recalled that the original “Sharknado” movie premiered to modest ratings way back in 2013. However, the horror-comedy made for TV movie became viral when celebrities began tweeting about how much they enjoyed the movie including Will Wheaton, Cory Monteith, and Olivia Wilde.
The original airing drew 1.3 million viewers while its second airing netted some 1.5 million views. The third airing of “Sharknado” drew, even more, fans with 2.1 million viewers.
The franchise spawned four other installments. “Sharknado 2: The Second One” took the franchise to New York. The third movie was set in Washington, D.C. and was premised on lead characters Fin and April Wexler receiving an award from the president for their heroism in Los Angeles and New York.
“Sharknado 4: The Fourth Awakens” was an homage to Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the latest movie “Sharknado 5: Global Swarming” went all out and even filmed in UK, Australia, and Bulgaria.
The fifth movie turned up with decent ratings but dipped slightly from the fourth movie’s performance of 2.77 million views.
It also slipped in the much coveted 18-49 demographic compared its previous outing.
Mixed reactions
The downtrend in the “Sharknado” franchise could be attributed the bad reviews for the past two movies “Oh Hell No” and “The 4th Awakens” which some critics have dismissed to be completely unwatchable. It was also pitted against pitted against heavyweights like HBO's "Game of Thrones" and Adult Swim's favorite "Rick and Morty" in its timeslot.
However, there may be hope for the future of the franchise. Despite the slip in viewership, some reviewers from the AV Club gave the TV movie a thumbs up. The sequel was credited for making the franchise “fun to watch” again as opposed to the self-congratulatory smugness, product placements and cameos from the last two movies.
“Once again, this series is providing the only thing a film that has the word “Sharknado” in its title is supposed to do: bonkers gonzo entertainment,” reviewer Les Chapell said.
“Sharknado 5” also became the top trending topic during last Sunday’s airing, and at one point surpassed the number of tweets for “Game of Thrones’” epic fourth episode. While fans wonder if this will be the last installment of the series, the cliffhanger ending seemed to promise at least another addition to shark infested B-movie phenomenon.
