Fox Renews Nicole Beharie’s Sleepy Hollow for Second SeasonPosted by Wilson Morales
October 3, 2013
Source: Deadline
And the first pickup for a new series this fall goes to — Fox’s drama Sleepy Hollow. But instead of the standard back 9 order, the adventure series is getting a 13-episode second season renewal. Sleepy Hollow is part of Fox’s strategy for shorter, largely uninterrupted, cable-style runs.
It was designed to air its 13-episode first season in the fall before another drama series ordered under the same template, The Following, returns in the Monday 9 PM hour, likely in January. Given the success of Sleepy Hollow, it probably was tempting to try and extend its freshman season to the standard 22 episodes, but Fox brass stuck with their original plan.
Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who co-created Sleepy Hollow with pilot’s director Len Wiseman and Phillip Iscove but are now under an overall deal at CBS TV Studios, are on board for Season 2. “The show has proven to be a risk well worth taking – it’s a conceptual blast unlike anything else on television and it all holds together with inventive writing and a fantastic cast,” said Fox chairman Kevin Reilly.
Sleepy Hollow, a new take on the tale of the Headless Horseman, has been one of the biggest success stories this season, not only because of its premiere rating but because of its consistency, opening with a 3.4 18-49 rating and, three weeks in, still staying above the 3 ratings threshold in Live+Same Day (3.0). The series, from K/O Paper Products and 20th Century Fox TV, also is a huge DVR draw, earning a 5.0/13 rating among Adults 18-49 and 13.6 million viewers for the premiere in Live+3, making it Fox’s most successful fall drama premiere since the debut of 24 in November 2001. With its encore, post-three-day playback on DVR and VOD and streaming, the Sleepy Hollow premiere has drawn an audience of more than 22 million to date.
What if you suddenly woke up from the throes of death 250 years in the future to find the world is on the brink of destruction, caused by unimaginable events, and you are humanity’s last hope?
In this modern-day retelling of Washington Irving’s classic, ICHABOD CRANE (Tom Mison, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”) is resurrected and pulled two and a half centuries through time to unravel a mystery that dates all the way back to the founding fathers. Revived alongside Ichabod is the infamous Headless Horseman who is on a murderous rampage in present-day Sleepy Hollow. Bound to the Headless Horseman by a blood spell cast on the battlefield of the American Revolution, Ichabod quickly realizes that stopping Headless is just the beginning, as the resurrected rider is but the first of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
As this re-invented Ichabod finds himself in present-day Sleepy Hollow, he discovers a town and a world he no longer recognizes. All that is brutally familiar are Headless and Ichabod’s determination to annihilate this immortal being. It’s a mission he must complete quickly, as Headless already has viciously slain Sheriff AUGUST CORBIN (guest star Clancy Brown, “Cowboys & Aliens,” “Carnivale”). Grey served both as mentor and father figure to Detective ABBIE MILLS (Nicole Beharie, “Shame,” “American Violet”), a young cop whose own supernatural experiences help her form an unlikely bond with Ichabod. But Sleepy Hollow’s head of police, Captain FRANK IRVING (Orlando Jones, “The Chicago 8,” “Drumline”), isn’t buying any of this.
In fact, the only person who is on Abbie’s side is Ichabod. His extensive first-hand knowledge of our secret American history, coupled with her superior profiling and modern threat assessment skills, will make them a formidable duo as they work together to triumph over evil. The complex pasts of Ichabod and Abbie, from Ichabod’s inclusion in the powerful and secretive Freemasons Society and the ghostly appearance of his late wife, KATRINA (Katia Winter, “Dexter”), to Abbie’s childhood visions, will help them solve the intricate puzzles of Sleepy Hollow in order to protect its future.
As history repeats itself, the oddly-linked pair will draw on the real stories and hallowed secrets this nation was founded on in their quest to stop an increasingly vicious cycle of evil.
