With one of the Sci-Fi Channels’ most popular shows, Battlestar Galactica, coming to a close with it’s final season, the Sci-Fi Channel is looking to the future and putting out some new programming for you, the fans.
It looks like Sci-Fi’s goal is to cover material across a wide spectrum so they have a little something for everyone. They’re coming up with a new mix of shows that range from scripted original content, reality series and low budget movies (at least they admit it). They’re also buying the rights to reruns of some successful series, punctuated with the occasional theatrical movie showing and miniseries. Whew!
For reruns, the fans will be treated to Lost and Jericho. (Can someone please tell me what the black, killer smoke is? Please??)
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For the reality fans out there, Ghost Hunters International and Mind Control with Derren Brown will be returning. (Derren, go see the Nielsen people!)
Sci-Fi is also bringing back Scare Tactics: A show where “friends” set up friends in scary, reality challenging scenarios that Sci-Fi is more than happy to set up for them. Scare Tactics new host will be comedian Tracy Morgan.
I actually liked Scare Tactics – Parts of the show were over the top, but some of the stunts were pretty dang funny. Did anyone see the episode where Bigfoot pops up outside the window of an RV and the victim practically jumped out of her skin screaming? Heh… sorry… I can’t help myself.
A few new shows have been announced for the line up as well:
The Stranded is about aliens stranded on earth and it’s not like we’ve heard this theme before or anything (Roswell, The 4400) but it could have a nice surprise for us. Heck they’ve surprised us before. Also of note, The Stranded comes from a joint venture between the Sci-Fi Channel and Virgin Comics where they’re producing comic books that might have TV potential.
Deputized is a comedy drama about an intergalactic cop who gets special powers. That sounds like MIB, but funnier?
The other new show that’s been mentioned is called True Believer. It’s based on another comic book, and it’s about a comic book fan who hires a down on his luck superhero to try and make a go at fighting crime. It will be brought to us by Rosario Dawson, co-author David Atchinson and writers Matthew Spradlin and Tom Feister.
Here’s a quiz and a thought for our readers: With all the new shows, I can’t help but wonder if anyone at the Sci-Fi Channel has pondered the idea of bringing back that big blue, nigh invulnerable sardonic cracking mental case of a superhero? Anyone know who I’m talking about? I don’t have any cool prizes, but bragging rights are cool, aren’t they?
As far as miniseries go, since Tin Man was such a hit they’re looking at another loosely based adaptation called Alice. No, not the Alice from Brady Bunch. Alice will be an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and will be done by the same creative team that brought us Tin Man.
This has promise since Tin Man was interesting enough to pique my curiosity to watch it. Each time they touched on a familiar theme in Tin Man, they twisted it into new elements that kept me off balance enough so I could not anticipate the story line. I’d call it… refreshing.
As I mentioned earlier, Battlestar Galactica is coming to an end this year with it’s fourth season and I have yet to see if they’re going to toss all 20 episodes at us at once, or break it up into two different 10 episode spans as was hinted at previously.
Battlestar Galactica’s prequel Caprica will be going into production this spring, so we may not have to go into Galactica withdrawals.
TV isn’t the only medium that Sci-Fi is looking at these days. They’re looking to ramp up their internet presence quite a bit with more original content, an expanded gaming site and a number of initiatives linked to the last season of Battlestar Galactica.
In an earlier post, I wrote how the new boss, David Howe was coming on board with new ideas and it looks like he’s doing just that as he’s taking the bull by the horns and driving it with the future in mind!
On a funny note, Sci-Fi UK is announcing a brand new show, Flash Gordon… poor souls.
As for us, now we just wait… and see.
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24 Comments
I wonder if SciFi is going after Journeyman. Because I REALLY think they should. Ghosthunters and Destination Truth are stupid shows. There is way to much reality and pseudo-reality on TV nowadays. I am glad to see that they are trying some new ideas, but Journeyman could be a Friday night staple with Dr. Who and Stargate Atlantis.
Man, I’d love to see them pick up “Journeyman.” It’s not like it’s an expensive, VFX-laden show to produce.
I really don’t see anything besides “Caprica” that looks like it’ll pick up the high quality mantle of BSG. And of course they still have “Stargate: Atlantis.”
Vic
Vic,
I think Stargate: Atlantis and Dr. Who are the 2 best shows on SciFi right now. I don’t know how anyone can watch BSG. It was probably the most depressing Sci-Fi show I ever watched, and I only watched 3 episodes. I’ll take the campy 70’s version over this dark POS ANYDAY!!
SPOON!
I am all for bringing the tick back to tv. It was my favorite cartoon as a kid, and now it is my sons favorite as well. Yes, I even watched the short lived live action series. Hopefully soon we will have my families favorite hero back on the screen.
Villains beware, you face the TICK!!!
WE HAVE A WINNER!!!! Good call Jon.
Maybe we should organize a spoon campaign for Sci-Fi, or better yet, just send letters.
I miss The Tick… but alas, that cursed Nielsen box strikes again!
Journeyman would be a great idea.. dang.. I even saw the woman who played his wife, Gretchen Egolf, in a semi-bit part on Medium.. sigh.. almost like the last nail in a shows coffin when they show up in bit parts.. Next, we’ll probably see her in a Law and Order episode!
How about bringing back Babylon 5 reruns?
“Deputized is a comedy drama about an intergalactic cop who gets special powers. That sounds like MIB, but funnier?”
When I read the description, the first thing that came to mind was “Greatest American Hero.” Whether this will be any good, though, I can’t begin to guess, but it’s one of only two that I’m curious about, the second being Caprica.
Beyond those, Sci-Fi Channel seems like they’re just going to continue the trends that have kept me from having any interest in watching them. Too bad.
It would be quite an accomplishment to copy “Men in Black”’s format AND be funnier. That movie was hysterical and is one of my faves.
Vic
FlameStrike: That’s too funny. Greatest American Hero was my first thought, but I wanted to keep it relevant with newer references for any younger folk.
Why? Because some years ago, (Before the newest Star Wars trilogy), I was at a party in my ultra cool Darth Vader costume, and a little kid came up to me and asked me which ninja turtle I was. I wanted to use the force Luke!!
That’s my funny moment for the day.
And Babylon 5 reruns is not a bad idea either Quinn.
Oh, come on! No Dresden Files? Insanity! I love that show, and it’s one of the top reasons I returned to watching the SciFi channel after a very long hiatus. And now that this show isn’t even showing up for reruns, there’s little reason for me to watch the channel.
The way I see it, why bother watching new shows on the SciFi channel when even one of their shows (Dresden) that got ratings comparable to those of Battlestar Galactica’s was cancelled after only one short season? There’s just no way. I don’t care how “interesting” SciFi claims their new line-up is going to be. I have no faith in them keeping anything worth watching.
Those reality shows sound awefull.
Deputized sounds alot like Dr Who or Cap Jack of Torchwood.
Bad news gang. Jericho was canceled today.
According to Variety, Sci-Fi introduced ‘reality’ TV to attract younger viewers because their audience was, according to Howe, ‘”…starting to age and there were too many males watching it,” particularly men with only moderate incomes.’
(http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117982778.html?categoryid=1019&cs=1&nid=2562)
They must not want mature females either, since they haven’t renewed the Dresden Files & it’s audience had a slight majority of women in the 25 – 54 demographic.
Why is the entertainment world so fixated on younger viewers??
Zarina,
That’s a good question. It’s the older viewers who actually have the money to spend on the products pitched by advertisers.
On the other hand it could be due to the fact that younger viewers buy stuff on their credit cards with no thought of how they’ll pay for it.
Vic
Yep, the younger generation spends frivolously on what catches their eye, while the older consumer does their research, or has a budget in mind – poo poo on the smart consumer.
I’m not saying ALL of one or the other, it’s just a generality that seems to drive the marketing, advertising realm.
The irony is thick with this one.
Sci-fi channel gauges there programing toward a younger audience by running reality shows. This in turn turns off the channel for older viewers. While in the meantime consumers like me sit back and see this all going on and just go buy the dvd when the shows been canceled. I don’t even subscribe because most of the shows on sci-fi I allready own on dvd or suck so bad that I won’t subscribe.
The sucking sound comes from the reality tv show.
So the channel trying to micro-manage every single demograhpic in terms of viewing habits is WAY OFF the mark….
Good job morons.
Agreed 790!
One would think that having a corner on the market of an entire genre’ that they could do something wonderful. Instead we get low-quality, interchangeable mutant bug/rodent/mammal/sea-creatures movies and ‘reality’ TV.
I love sci-fi and would love to watch sci-fi ON the Sci-Fi Channel. Unfortunately I’m not at all interested in ‘reality’ TV & the mutant movies are all the same except for the mutant, so with so few actually decent quality sci-fi series on the Sci-Fi Channel, I don’t watch it much at all anymore.
There are plenty of ‘generic’ channels & networks, why does Sci-Fi Channel want to be another one of those?? By trying to attract everyone, they’re losing their fanbase.
Doesn’t seem like the most logical plan to strengthen & grow a network/channel to me…
Sci-fi channel has done some good. If it wasn’t for the old regime we wouldn’t have awesome shows like LEXX and Farscape but latly (the last 4 years) its been sinking into the quicksand of mediocracy and bland “mutant” movies. Sci-fi channel IMO should be re-running some of the clasic shows like Lexx and Farscape haha.
Seriously pickup Journeyman and Jericho you idiots.
And get rid of these generic reality shows.
At this point Spike channel plays better sci-fi.
Zarina, 790, you’re both exactly right. From what I’ve seen, it’s happening in movies, TV, and radio.
Movies these days seem like they are almost all geared to get as much action as possible, as many explosions as possible, and and much sex as possible into the movie, and the movie makers don’t seem to care about developing the characters or writing a decent story any more.
TV networks don’t give shows a decent chance to find an audience before canceling them, or bouncing them to a new time slot, without any warning. Then these shows are replaced with “reality” shows. This so-called alternative programming is becoming so prevalent these days that it almost seems like the scripted shows are becoming the real alternative programming. When a show does become successful, more often than not it does so because it appeals to the desire most people have to not be required to pay attention to it to enjoy it. More and more often, it seems, people don’t want to have to think about the shows they watch, and networks are more than happy to oblige.
As for radio, I’ve recently lost the one station in my city that I found worth listening to because the marketing directors decided that the station would be better off as a dance/rap station than as a jazz station. The fact that virtually every other station in the city has the same format seemed to tell them that that was what we all wanted to listen to, and all the people who want to listen to jazz around here aren’t even considered.
Every form of entertainment these days seems to be geared more and more toward mimicking what everyone else is doing, and less and less toward trying to do something creative and intelligent. Every year, I find myself watching less TV, watching fewer movies, and I’m no longer even listening to the radio anymore.
I now find myself wondering how much longer it will be before this trend backfires on these industries.
Good points FlameStrike.
Tv these days plays to a dumbed down audience more so these days because they can subterfuge subliminal ads that only the truly dumbed down folks will pay attention to.
Smart people click the mute button on ads and Tivo over commercials.
When was the last time you saw an ad for a random drug and called your doctor to see if that would be good to try. (Never!). Only truly dumbed down retards fall for that.
Tv in general IMO is the False Prophet reffered to in Revelations.
Happy Easter!
Any update or word about Sci-Fi picking up Amanda Tapping in Sanctuary this next season?
Funny you should ask Alcadyzaar.
It just so happens I wrote about that very show at the end of January! A quote from my post:
“Sci Fi is picking up this seasoned show and it will be the first TV series to use live actors against virtual sets, in much the same way 300 and Sin CIty were done.”
Check it out at http://screenrant.com/archives/sanctuary-comes-to-the-sci-fi–1339.html
Has anyone else seen the flashed words that appear between shows? They are quite fast, one said “listen”, another said, “watch”, another said,”think”. The weird one was tonight after Eureka and it was an entire sentence, I only caught the words “You” and “hilarious”….I think its supposed to go unnoticed, but its strange.
Actually, Deputized sounds more like an update of “The Greatest American Hero” than MIB.
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