Sci-Fi Storm

U.K. fans won’t have long to wait to catch the new Syfy programming Defiance – Syfy UK announced yesterday that they will carry the new show on the day after each episode debuts in the U.S. This means the premiere will air on April 16th in the U.K.

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.

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.

Check out what some of your favorite Syfy say their favorite – and weirdest – gifts on the holidays are, what their New Years resolutions are, and what their favorite holiday specials are! Jaleel White (Total Blackout), Julie Benz (Defiance), Saul Rubinek and Allison Scagliotti (Warehouse 13), Kristen Hager (Being Human), and Rachel Nichols (Continuum).
(continue reading…)

Merlin will return on Friday, January 4th at 10/9c on Syfy to begin the U.S. airing of its fifth and final season. Syfy also announced the launch of Merlin: The Game in the U.S.

From the press release:

Syfy will say good-bye to Camelot when the fifth and final season of Merlin returns Friday, January 4 at 10PM (ET/PT) with 13 all-new episodes.
(continue reading…)

Syfy’s ’12 Disasters of Christmas became the channel’s most watched Saturday Original Movie since February, devastating 2.1 million total viewers during its premiere on Saturday, December 8.

The movie, which starred Ed Quinn (Eureka) and Magda Aponowicz (Caprica), also delivered 759,000 Adults 25-54 and 586,000 Adults 18-49 while averaging a 1.5 household rating during the 9-11PM (ET/PT) time period.

‘12 Disasters of Christmas was a production of Cinetel Films.

Since tonight is time to reminisce about Syfy/Sci-Fi Channel, I figure I should add some of my own memories of the channel.
(continue reading…)

In 1992, one channel set out to push the limits of possibility and imagination on television. Now, 20 years later, we’re looking back at two decades of broadcasting the history of ideas with a special retrospective on Syfy’s past, a look at the present, and a vision of the future!

Tonight Syfy celebrates its 20th anniversary with a special airing tonight at 9/8c…here is a little preview, and don’t forget to watch!
(continue reading…)

Syfy is planning on closing out 2012 (and perhaps the world) with a holiday programming festival featuring an End of the World movie marathon – in case the Mayan apocalyptic prediction proves false – along with a Star Trek film extravaganza, the Doctor Who spinoff K-9 and, of course, the annual Twilight Zone New Year’s Eve journey into the Fifth Dimension.
(continue reading…)