Sanctuary | |
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Created by | Damian Kindler |
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Country of origin | Canada |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes | 59 (TV episodes) 8 (webisodes) (list of episodes) |
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Production locations | Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada |
Running time | 43–48 minutes |
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Network | Syfy CTV Sci-Fi Channel |
Release | March 14 August 30, 2007 | –
Release | October 3, 2008 December 30, 2011 | –
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) |
Sanctuary is a Canadian science fantasy television series, created by Damian Kindler. The show aired on Syfy between 2008 and 2011, for four seasons and a total of 59 episodes.
The show is an expansion of an eight-webisode series that was released through the Internet in early 2007. Seeing the success of the web series, Syfy decided to buy the broadcast rights to the series and pay to re-stage the series in a season of thirteen episodes.[1]
The show centres on Dr. Helen Magnus, a 157-year-old teratologist, and her team of experts who run the Sanctuary, an organization that seeks out extraordinarily powerful creatures and people, known as Abnormals, and tries to help and to learn from them while also having to contain the more dangerous ones.
The series premiered on October 3, 2008, in both Canada and the United States and on October 6 in the United Kingdom. The premiere drew in more than 3 million viewers, making it the highest rated original series premiere for Syfy since Eureka debuted in July 2006.[2] The premiere two-parter, "Sanctuary for All", was a combination and rewriting of the first four webisodes and was followed by "Fata Morgana", based on Webisodes 5-8. Amanda Tapping, with all of the original cast from the web series, made the transition to the television series. A second season of 13 episodes aired in 2009–10,[3] and Sanctuary was renewed for a third season of 20 episodes on December 12, 2009.[4] The second season premiered on Friday, October 9, 2009, in the 10 pm timeslot.[5] In Australia, the program debuted on Pay Television's Sci Fi and on free-to-air channel ABC2, where Season 1 started on March 1, 2010, each Monday at 9:30 pm.[6] Season 2 commenced on July 12, 2010, in the same timeslot.[7] Season 3 premiered Friday, October 15, 2010, on Syfy in its original 10 pm timeslot.[8] In January 2011, Sanctuary was renewed for a fourth season, which finished airing on December 30, 2011.[9] On May 21, 2012, Syfy announced that Sanctuary would not be returning for a fifth season and that the show had been cancelled.[10][11][12] On October 8, 2012, PPI Releasing announced that it would distribute the series in U.S. syndication, starting in fall 2013.[13]
As of 2021, the series is available to watch for free with ads on Vudu, FreeVee via Amazon Prime, Tubi, and Plex.