Sci-Fi Storm

Looks like we won’t find out what happens in the town of Jericho after the cliffhanger. In CBS’s announcement of who lives and who dies next season, series wise, Jericho was left off the list of survivors. Like other similar complex SF-tinged shows with a running plot line (Lost and Heroes), Jericho suffered from a long winter break and never quite recovered. Unlike the other two, it isn’t sharing in their good fortune. CBS would rather risk money on unproven new shows than relaunch Jericho.

ABC has released their fall schedule, including a few more SF shows. Lost gets another season, although it will be held until the midseason break to avoid the drop in viewership it experienced this year with the long break. New fare includes the previously announced Geico commercial-inspired Cavemen; Pushing Daisies from Bryan Fuller and Barry Sonnenfeld, about a young man who can bring the dead to life with only a touch, and does so for his childhood friend – but if he touches her again, she will die for good; and Eli Stone, about a lawyer who begins to have odd hallucinations which inspire him to seek greater meaning to life.

After NBC’s dismal season, with Heroes providing the only freshman hit, the fall schedule was announced and it provides an extra dose of Heroes and a few new SF shows. Heroes: Origins will be used to increase the Heroes season to 30 episodes, and provide insight into new characters that viewers can vote on to have them appear in the following season. This should offset some of the rerun doldrums, which did some harm to the ratings of the show (and quite a few others). Also in the schedule are the previously announced Bionic Woman remake by Galactica exec David Eick and Journeyman and newcomer Chuck, bout a young computer whiz who becomes a government agent after espionage secrets are downloaded into his brain.

At the Saturn Awards in Universal City yesterday, Edward James Olmos and Katie Sackhoff said that the upcoming fourth season of Battlestar Galactica would be the last. However, exec producer David Eick countered, saying that no end has been announced, and that the upcoming fourth season would be a full 22 episodes instead of the announced 13.