I know what you mean. Taking care of someones house while they are away and turned on their cable (we live in Australia), check Sci-Fi channel to watch some trek, and Charmed was on.
CHARMED! Sci-Fi! My ass is more Sci-Fi than Charmed.

Cable, going to the dogs.

No wonder I torr........

Sorry, I wouldnt do that (BSG, cough, cough)

> that's not what the Sci Fi Channel is
> all about these days.

This can't be a surprise, can it? The rise of the hyper focused specialty channel hasn't yet been proven as a business model. The problem with the 500 channel universe is that all the broadcasters are doing it slicing the same size pie into 500 pieces, instead of 4. That doesn't leave much pie.

Combine this with a stereotypically narrow definition of what constitutes "Science Fiction" and suddenly you've got a recipe for unhappiness.

The Inter-tubes will kill many many many of these specialty channels, and also give rise to even more frighteningly focused ones such as this one:
[www.thepuppychannel.com]

@spookcountry: Funny that you say "your ass is more sci-fi than Charmed" but you take your name from the most recent William Gibson novel.

Gibson may have started in a science fiction vein, but he's long since ceased to be a science fiction author despite his fans (and bookstore's) insistence on shoving that round peg into that square hole.

I just finished reading Serenity Sky and Halting State by Charles Stross: the former was clearly science fiction (I thought it was pretty much a space opera, complete with romance!, albeit a somewhat engaging one) while the latter was really a spy thriller.

Much like Spook Country.

Which, btw, remains an awesome book.

The Sci-fi channel sucks with a blinding intensity rivaled only by exploding thermonuclear bombs. It is an abyssmal cesspit of mediocrity, pablum and derivative nonsense. I fart in it's general direction.

The "Andromeda Strain" miniseries is being shown on...A&E.

Need I say more?

Next: "Who Wants To Be A Ghost Whisperer"

Does SciFi have anything else worth watching besides Battlestar? Their original movies are usually painful to watch.

Oh please. They were selling out when they decided to air wrestling.

While I enjoyed ST:TNG a lot, it's not like SciFi is the first channel to own it. It's kind of the "rent boy" of cable TV. So what's the big deal?
As for FRIDAY THE 13th: THE SERIES, well it is obviously more horror than sci-fi but those two are often linked together. And the show was awsome! I am just glad that new people will be introduced to it now. Is it on DVD?

Are they going to show TNG during the day? I liked behing home from work and having a 4 hour block of TNG and DS9 to keep me company on Spike.

I don't watch Space (Canada City's equivalent of SciFi except it doesn't suck as bad--no rassling or the Ghost Whisperer.) It's to the point now where if I want to be entertained by good SF, I'll read a book.

If SciFi's geniuz MBA leadershit took a chance and adapted lesser known SF classics into 4-10 hour miniseries and keep them as close to the original as possible without MBA'ing them into stupidity. For example, why not Elijah Bailey's mysteries or the Forever War?

It'll be instructive to see which of these shows pull the best ratings for them. They seem to think it'll be Charmed or Ghost Whisperer, I want to think it'll be TNG...but we'll all have to look hard in the mirror when it ends up being Mork & Mindy.

@darcymcgee: I'd watch that channel.

In defense of Sci Fi, they have been showing a mix of shows for a very long time, including anime and fantasy shows. Sickeningly, the wrestling show is one of the most watched shows on the network.

I don't mind fluff like Charmed, if it means there is an American channel showing BSG and Doctor Who rather than endless Hilter documetaries and reality shows about Ice Truckers. In better news, the President who brought ECW to Sci Fi, Bonnie Hammer, has since left. Not that I'm saying things have improved much *cough cough FlashGordon*

@ManchuCandidate: Space sucks way more than Sci-Fi, particularly since the take over of CHUM. When Moses ran the thing, it remained Quirky.

Look for Lexx to re-appear on Space I'd bet, just to meet aging CanCon requirements.

Oh, come on.
None of us will be watching this channel after BSG ends anyway, so why so serious?

I believe this is a lesson we already learned when they started showing wrestling on SciFi.

It's not surprising that they continue to go down this spiral of crap. Disappointing, just not surprising.

You can't satisfy anyone these days. A couple months ago we were complaining that they didn't have any shows. They fire someone... hire someone, we were content. They start buying up shows... and now we're pissed again. Look we all know that Science Fiction is full of crappy shows. We're either gonna watch or we aren't. But please stop the whining. I'm waiting for "Rock Monster 2"

In a perfect world.... A&E's "The Andromeda Strain" would be a Sci-Fi miniseries, but thats just not the case.

So until io9 rolls their own channel, we have to take it.

No wonder most people torr........

Sorry, I wouldnt do that (Hulu, cough, cough)

I liked Friday the 13th: the Series when I was little.

I long for a real Science Fiction channel.
Where are all the old sci-fi shows and movies I loved as a kid?

I don't need another giant aardvark movie!

Trying to quell us with boobs again, I see.

Friday the 13th the series had a little bit of scifi in it but it was more fantasy/horror like Tales from the Crypt with out the campiness.

@Plague: Wait for the coming wave of science fiction reality television.

First up: an aging, b-list rock star tries to choose the perfect woman...in space.

Call it Rock the Sattellite of Love.

Blurg. I can't believe I just channeled Brett Michaels and Lou Reed in a single sentence. I should burn in hell.

{sigh} If you're going to call yourself "Sci-Fi Channel", then at least half of what you show should be readily identifiable as science fiction. If you're gonna go with the "'What If?' is what's on" crap, then either make that your name or, better yet, spin it off to its own channel like Nickelodeon did with Noggin and Disney did with Toon Disney.

@darcymcgee:
Actually I was hoping for the Star Lost to satisfy CanCon requirements (30+ year proof that CTV, the now owner of Space, doesn't understand SF.)

WTF are u doing SciFi? really ... WTF? Charmed?

The Sci-Fi Channel has realized what you here at IO9 have not; limiting yourself to just science fiction means you're going to wind up saying stupid shit like "Adaptation is a science fiction movie" because you're so lacking in material to discuss. They've accepted that fantasy and a certain amount of horror just come under the umbrella. Why can't you?

'eSplain me this?

How in the hell does ECW Wrestling fit into the SciFi "theme" - anyone?

.

The sad truth is that it is the specialty stations like these that are going to be gutted first once digital production/distribution gets off the ground.

The long tail of something like the fan based Sci-Fi market is exactly what will be needed for proof of concept digital shows.

Once that gets going, I'd expect Sci-Fi (the channel) to be gone within a few years. Along side them will be the food channels and other focused concepts.

Hey, space cooking show!

I think I stopped taking the Sci-Fi Channel seriously a while ago. I mean, I'm as irritated as -

aw, who am I kidding? I've been craving getting to see Friday the 13th: The Series for years now. It probably doesn't, but I'd like to see how it holds up to memory.

Besides, shows with a concept that deserves a remake? Oh, hell yes.

@BadThingUS: Couldn't have said it better

I liked ST:TNG.

OW! Stop that!
HEY THAT'S MY JUICE MONEY!

Everyone knows that men make up the majority of SciFi's audience. Also the majority of Alisa Milano's fans are men. Put two and two together and you see why Charmed is on SciFi. It would be nice though if they did a TV Land kinda thing with old Scifi TV shows like Time Tunnel and Star Trek TOS. Throw in old clasic movies like Star Wars or The Man With X-Ray Eyes.

I think Sci-Fi channel should rename itself to Spec-Fi channel. Speculative fiction can cover Science fiction and Fantasy, and any combination of the two.

I can't remember the name of the short story I got that idea from...

@uberfu: OH, OH, I've got this one! ECW is nothimg more then a sociological experiment into getting the US masses into accepting 'Roid fed super soldiers and US foreign policy. The Undertaker choking out The Great Kali is nothing more then the government foreshadowing the need of US military involvement in Iran. But, I thought that was kind of transparent.

@Plague: Some of us already stopped, when BSG started sucking.

I don't see the big deal. When my cable company first got the SciFi channel back in '93, the first thing I saw on it was a zombie movie. Horror and fantasy have always been part of their programming.

Sci Fi Channel is aspiring to be Spike. Fine, if it works for them, that's super. All I want is for them to admit they abandoned the original goal of the company if that's what they did.

Just come out and say, "Look, all SciFi all the time isn't working for us. Instead, we're going to show our target demographic everything on this list of things they want. If you're whining, maybe you should have been watching when we WERE mostly SciFi, so we didn't have to broaden our appeal."

That said, a lot of anime has ties to sci-fi, and some horror. If they were discerning with their choices, they could justify a lot of what people want within the SciFi genre.

Look for network re-branding in 3...2...1...

"The WhatIf Channel!"

*projectile vomits*

@Plague: "Oh, come on. None of us will be watching this channel after BSG ends anyway, so why so serious?"

I'll look in on the Caprica prequel, but that's it. SciFi has the formula - BSG has been a hit. Find good producers, greenlight good concepts, and mix in some SciFi classics to round out the odd hours.

But rasslin'? Really? And Mork & Mindy? Might as well just change the name to TV Land2.

Hey, I'll watch it. SciFi is a mixed genre. Blame the bookstores that lump fantasy and horror with sf. Blame the conventions that mix fantasty and horror with sf. SciFi sucks, but it's better than nothing.

SFC has included other genres since day one. They had Night Gallery right there at the beginning.

A pure SF channel would not survive. End of story. Just stop the puling already.

Hey, better Charmed (Rose McGowan!! Alissa Milano!!) than freaking wrestling!

And, remember this:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke

Charmed has as much to do with SCIENCE as Star Trek, if you really think about it.

@reddingofish: Men make up the majority of SciFi's audience? Take a look at their forums! It's the female fans that keep those boards active. The rabid 'Save Farscape' campaign was started and run by mostly women. The Stargates and Eureka - huge female following.

We just tend to stay off most of the 'major' filmgeek sites (i.e. AICN) because of the rampant asshole behavior of the posters there.

As a Sci Fi Channel viewer since 1992-1993, this is absolutely nothing new. They've always dabbled in horror/supernatural/fantasy stuff, so Ghost Whisperer and Friday the 13th: The Series? Nothing new. This morning they were showing Tales from the Darkside!

At least it's not more episodes of SVU.

FRIDAY THE 13th: THE SERIES? Hey wait a minute wasn't that aired on the nineties on scifi already. Yes I believe it was sandwiched between forever knight. Scifi might be going to the dogs, but these dogs know it well.

@FotoVerite: Yeah, I was just going to say that. I'm pretty sure that's where I first saw Friday the 13th: The Series.

And I completely didn't understand what the hell was going on with it.

@Balius: Spike atleast has real wrestling with TUF and UFC... And I'd rather watch MXC and the other Japanese game shows they put on from time to time then ManCat and Snapping Turtles: Return to Jethro's Farm.

I can see it now:

Star Trek: A Sci Fi Channel Original Series.

@FotoVerite:

Aaaaannnnd... according to Wikipedia, NBC Universal already had the rights to the show, they're airing it on Chiller. Or they were, anyway.

What we need is a critical mass of people with HTPCs hooked up to their TVs.
Then, a place like IO9 can license all the good sci-fi and stream it on demand for a monthly, or per-show fee. (depending on the package you buy)

This would be a good idea if it weren't for things like DRM and media companies demanding outrageous licensing fees.

@choinski:

Yeah, wrestling was the true "wha?/huh?" moment. Maybe Sci-Fi can merge with Bravo or some such and air "Project Alien Runway" or "Dancing with the Stars - Literally."

I have no problems with fantasy/horror on Sci-Fi. If they aren't going to make it true SF, then branch a little bit, lets lower the reruns of the same old crap all the time.

As a Canadian I don't see much of the SciFi Channel, but anytime I do get to watch it, they're invariably playing a made-for-TV movie featuring Bruce Campbell and a bunch of cheap-ass digital effects.
Does he make one of these every week?

The Space channel is okay, but it's getting hard to put up with the Standard Def broadcasts. The Space network needs to switch to HD and now. Discovery Channel Canada is in HD and they have some good "sci-fi"-ish shows on..

Beyond that though, I'm okay with Charmed. Sure, not Sci-Fi in the true sense of the word but it's got Rose McGowan in it so seriously, what more do you need?

I don't understand their thinking...

A Sci-fi channel should show Sci-fi programming.

Otherwise change the name to the...
"Cheap Canadian tax credit giant snake movies and other unrelated crap channel"

You dont have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

Few things sadder than a network boss who doesn't know his audience.

And another thing...

Who sits and watches FOUR HOUR BLOCKS of the same show? Or even worse, an all day marathon of Stargate SG1?

What ever happened to an once a week, regular programming schedule?

Ah, the good ol' days when your favorite program was an event. Remember when you actually looked forward all week to sitting down with your favorite show on Tuesday night at 9:00?

But Zantor, the audience is the same one that goes to cons, where fantasy and horror is mixed with sf. And like I said, the fans are influenced by book stores that have f next to sf next to horror. The network boss just thinks nerds/geeks just watch antyhing with spaceships or dragons, ray guns or magic wands. We've been turned into a catch-all basin for trash programming because we buy into it. The boss figures any culture dumb enough to glorify comic books is too stupid to notice what the programming is. Let's face it, sf has less and less to do with good books and more to do with special effects in stupid movies. (I really liked Iron Man!)

@Zantor: people with dvd box sets

originally i was going to use that as a response to just your first question but i think it actually answers all of them.

GODDAMMIT. Right as soon as the cable company shuffles the channels and I lose Sci-Fi, they go and finally get one of the few shows I actually wanted to watch. Slag.