With all the new monster movies; I am waiting for something like the Rhino-Gator Squid. How many times can you remake Man-Squito and Man Shark and not drive away the viewers in droves. The whole idea about having wrestling on the channel pales in comparison to the bad movies. If there is any channel that gives science fiction a bad reputation........it's the Sy Fy Channel.
Does anyone think the SyFy channel has gone downhil?
- Thread starter NextGen123
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How about the Octo-Platapus-Jelly Fish movie?
It's one of the reasons I dropped cable, yes. 
I haven't turned on SyFy since Caprica left the air. And I don't intend to turn it back on any time soon. And in truth, I wasn't even that enamored with Caprica. I just watched it because I liked BSG.
As far as I'm concerned it's been a shining example of wasted potential ever since its inception. There's rarely ever anything good on it, much less anything that I'd call sci-fi. And who watches those "Giant this vs Mega-that" movies? Who likes those? I saw a scene from one of them in which a shark leaped out of the water and wrapped its jaws around a plane. So fucking stupid.
That's what I mean. It's not science fiction. science parody or fantasy but not fiction.
I haven't paid any attention to Syfy (I still can't get over that silly name change) since they canceled Caprica. Their lineup of programming just doesn't interest me. Too much reality TV (the dozens of spin-offs of Ghost Hunters, for instance) and shows that seem like watered-down, sci-fi-lite fare that is targeted at casual audiences instead of true sci-fi fans. I have never watched an episode of Warehouse 13 or Eureka, and honestly I don't really want to. They don't interest me. WWE has no business being on the network. And their original movies are just downright embarrassing.
I fail to understand why they have to include wrestling. They aren't generating enough money with all those reruns of Stargate,Merlin, Warehouse 13 and Ghost Hunters?
Oh and I forgot those Octo-Sharkto-Gatoroid-Man-Squito movies too!
How about the Man-Squito vs. The Man-Shark?
Or the Gatoriod Octopus Vs. The Octo-Shark....
Or the Gatoriod Octopus Vs. The Octo-Shark....
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SyFy has long since went downhill. I still have a magazine that has the original promo for The Sci-Fi Channel (contact your local cable provider!). I was so excited and when we finally got it in our area, was thrilled. That went for the first two years or so, and then it started going downhill. Classic sci-fi like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, and fun sci-fi like Farscape, Lexx, and Babylon 5 were being replaced with very shitty third rate movies from companies like The Asylum. Wrestling became the main focus as well, and suddenly you had SpikeTV Lite.
Niche channels never remain that way for long, as they have to broaden their range to allow for more butts in the seats and eyes on the screen. When a niche channel starts up, enjoy it while it lasts, because it won't be long you'll start seeing other non-related shows creep in, and then flood the channel, and then your shows will be relegated to a 3 AM time slot mixed in with Cialis commercials and ads for Magic Jack (heh).
Niche channels never remain that way for long, as they have to broaden their range to allow for more butts in the seats and eyes on the screen. When a niche channel starts up, enjoy it while it lasts, because it won't be long you'll start seeing other non-related shows creep in, and then flood the channel, and then your shows will be relegated to a 3 AM time slot mixed in with Cialis commercials and ads for Magic Jack (heh).
The sci fi channel needs competition. There is more than one sports channel, so why isn't there another sci fi channel? With all the super hero movies this year you might think that someone out there would come up with another fantasy/sci fi based channel. It's not like there is a lack of movies to run on TV. I remember the only reason I subscribed to Showtime was to get Stargate and Outer Limits. I don't see why it's so hard to make something that is well written.
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There will eventually be another sci-fi type channel, and they'll start off with decent movies, old sci-fi classic movies and TV shows, and then they too will fade into mediocrity. It's not because of competition, it's because niche groups like sci-fi fans can't really create enough viewership to warrant staying true to one genre, particularly when the people behind the niche channel see reality shows costing so little to run while bringing in large numbers of viewers. That's minimal investment for maximum profit, and you won't see a channel eschew that in favor of dedication to one genre and it's fans.
I'm rooting for that competition to appear all over the place. It's more likely that good sf/f will continue to crop up on cable channels, vs some SyFy competitor being launched, as each cable channel gloms onto something suitable to its viewership: HBO with high-quality high fantasy and sexy horror/fantasy, AMC with high-quality sci-fi/horror, TNT with mainstream and somewhat maudlin sci-fi action, etc. FX is getting supernatural horror, but I could see them successfully launching a space opera series, heavy on the military angle. Showtime needs to get into the fray (and they are part of CBS, which holds TV rights to Star Trek, hint hint!)
I'm skeptical about sf/f on broadcast, though. The problem of getting enough mainstream interest in any genre show will persist. I think CBS has the right idea with Person of Interest, which can be considered sci fi under only the most generous definition. It's going to be like a real-world version of Minority Report. Another one to watch is Touch, premiering at midseason. It's ostensibly about a psychic, autistic child, but if the show is really about Keifer Sutherland's trials and tribulations to keep his son safe, the sf/f content won't scare off the broadcast audience.
Terra Nova and Alcatraz will get big numbers for the premieres, but I'm skeptical either can hold a large enough audience to survive. Of all the fall's sf/f launches, the most likely to survive is Grimm, because it's been scheduled on Friday, which even on broadcast now adheres to cable rules about audience size: don't expect much.
I've actually given up on Syfy as a place to watch science fiction. I've fallen in love with Hollywood Treasures and Ghost Hunters is fun to watch sometimes.
I've given up on it as a place to watch anything.
It's not just SyFy. What's with all the crappy reality shows on The History Channel and "The Learning Channel?" What do they have to do with the premise of their respective channels? Since reality shows are SO cheap to produce, the viewing public is choking on them, yet eating them up at the same time. If all these channels want to show is reality sewage, they deserve to die from low ratings, but that would be just, so it probably won't happen.
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