Sci-Fi Storm

I just got word that Syfy will not renew Alphas for a third season. Word first broke via twitter from star Ryan Cartwright, and later confirmed by several of the other stars.

Syfy said in an official statement: “Syfy has decided not to renew Alphas for a third season. 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.”

The reasons for not renewing it are not known – it seemed to do reasonably well in the ratings, but that might not have been able to carry the production costs well enough.

Of course, I’m already hearing all over Twitter about how people won’t watch other Syfy shows because they canceled this one, how their won’t be any sci-fi on the network, etc. Please people – not watching other good shows because one you liked got canceled is lame. It won’t help anything, and it could harm the other shows – thus bringing about what people claim. But if anyone doesn’t think there will be any sci-fi – you really need to look into a show called Defiance. And the Blake’s 7 remake is still being developed, which might get us back into a space-based show.

Deadline is reporting than Ron Moore, who scored big with Battlestar Galactica on Syfy, is ready to return and is finalizing a deal for a straight-to-series 13 episode order for Helix, a dark thriller about a team of scientists investigating a possible disease outbreak at an Arctic research facility who find themselves trying to protect the world from annihilation.

Cameron Porsandeh wrote the script on spec and will co-produce, with Moore and Lynda Obst (Contact, Hot In Cleveland) as executive producers.

In case you missed in during Being Human tonight, here is the latest TV spot for Defiance!
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The Walking Dead producer Scott M. Gimple has been promoted to showrunner, taking the place of Glen Mazzara, who chose not to return over creative differences.

Gimple has been working as a writer and producer on the show, as well as having created the animated Fillmore!, and wrote several episodes of FlashForward and the screenplay for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

Being Human returns tonight on Syfy at 9/8c…but you can watch the first four minutes right now!
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Season 3 of Lost Girl starts Monday at 10/9c on Syfy! Catch this sneak peek of “Caged Fae”: Bo is back. And she’s going a little wild.
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The Canadian SF program Continuum makes it’s U.S. debut on Syfy this coming Monday at 8/7c…here is a sneak peek at the first episode, “A Stitch In Time”, and catch our own first look as well!
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After being captured, Arthur and Merlin manage to improvise a narrow escape…watch “Arthur’s Bane, Part Two” on Syfy tomorrow night at 10/9c!
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Here is a new trailer for Syfy’s Defiance, released today! Defiance starts monday, April 15th, at 9/8c!
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The Television Critics Association’s winter press tour is going on, and NBCUniversal made a bunch of presentations today. Some news from the relevant presentations from yesterday and today…

Syfy’s Defiance will premiere on Monday, April 15th, at 9/8c with a two-hour premiere, and run for a total of 12 episodes (the premiere being two hours long presumably can be split to account for 13 hours/episodes.)

NBC may not be done with The Munsters – despite the network having officially stuck a stake in their Mockingbird Lane reboot, Bob Greenblatt, the head of NBC, said, “I won’t say we won’t do another version of The Munsters again.” Apparently despite the pilot (retooled as a Halloween special) doing OK ratings-wise, the network just wasn’t impressed with the prospect of the show as a series, and Greenblatt admits that the mistake was likely trying to make it more of a dramedy than sitcom. “It’s hard to calibrate how much weirdness vs. supernatural vs. family story. I just think we didn’t get the mix right.”

And as for NBC’s Revolution, which did well before heading in to a four-month-long hiatus, which have critics thinking the show could lose its audience. But producers J.J. Abrams and Eric Kripke aren’t afraid, and actually welcomed the break – which isn’t as unusual for shows on its cable sibling, Syfy, but it quite unusual for broadcast network fare.

The two cited Lost as precedence for having such a break, but Lost didn’t endure a “mega-break” until between Seasons 3 and 4 – and then it was between “seasons” (Lost switched to a shorter Winter-through-Spring run from Season 4 on.)

Anyways, they are using the break to “really analyze it, and make adjustments,” according to Kripke.