Why is the SyFy channel getting a cooking show?

[darkshadow0001]

I think I've seen the strangest thing happening now... the SyFy channel is getting a cooking show! Now while I like watching cooking shows (when they are good), I don't understand why the SyFy channel is getting one. SyFy is about sci-fi... not cooking... I miss the good ole' days of when television made sense...

SyFy getting a cooking show

Talk about targeting an audience

 

[Christopher]

^For the same reason that Cartoon Network shows live-action movies and game shows, that Court TV began showing courtroom dramas and then turned into a reality-TV network, that former fine-arts channels like A&E and Bravo have turned into rerun/reality channels, that The Nashville Network turned into SpikeTV, and that countless other formerly niche cable channels have switched to more mainstream programming over the past decade or two. There is hardly anything new about this.

Commercial television networks need to make money to stay in business. You can make more money with programming that has broad appeal than you can with programming that targets only a niche audience. Therefore, non-premium cable networks that started out with niche programming have either diversified their programming or abandoned their niche focus altogether in order to stay in business. If anything, SciFi/Syfy has held onto its niche focus longer than a lot of other cable networks.

The only thing I don't understand is, if Syfy wanted to do a cooking show, why not hire Alton Brown to do it? Good Eats is practically a genre show already, full of food-science geekery, pop-culture references, cheesy MST3K-style special effects and skits, and occasional fantasy scenarios like visits from Santa and assorted historical figures.

 

[BlobVanDam]

Maybe now I can finally find out how to prepare Gagh properly.

 

[propita]

Nah, this is Marcel from Top Chef. Yeah, he’s good--but he thinks he’s god’s gift to the world. And he puts “foam” on his dishes. All of them.

Please note that “foam” is a like a sauce, but “foamed-up” and not in a liquid state. Get your minds out of the gutter.

 

[Jamaica Jive]

Because most the shows SciFi has shown over the years are cr*p and that has kept it's audience away. So, they have to find another way to bring an audience to it's channel. What the h*ll has wrestling have to do with Science Fiction!

 

[Brian]

I heard someone on the radio talking about this awesome dinner they had, and while listing the components, they said "baked potato foam."

WTF is wrong with a baked potato that you need to serve a virtually imaginary version of it for ten times the price?

I always found Marcel to be highly annoying on Top Chef. He's too full of himself and his so-called "cuisine". He's such a snob.

Apparently, SyFy is trying to paint him as some kind of mad scientist of food, instead of just a prick.

 

[Greg Cox]

Because most the shows SciFi has shown over the years are cr*p and that has kept it's audience away. So, they have to find another way to bring an audience to it's channel. What the h*ll has wrestling have to do with Science Fiction!

The wrestling is only a couple hours a week. Is it sf? Of course not, but it's no big deal.

The way people talk, you'd think Syfy was airing wrestling 24/7 . . . .

 

[Christopher]

Every network's gotta pay the bills. Television is not a charity. Airing wrestling, infomercials, idiocy about ghosts, and yes, cooking shows is how Syfy affords to produce its original SF dramas.

Ultimately, if the mass television audience were more interested in watching intelligent science-fiction programming, then Syfy would air more of that programming and be able to profit from it. But unfortunately, the audience that wants to see wrestling and ghosts and cooking and cheesy monster movies is larger than the audience that wants to see sophisticated outer-space adventure and speculative dramas.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Obviously they are doing it because they believe it will attract viewers. Period.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Maybe now I can finally find out how to prepare Gagh properly.

If only it were a sci fi cooking show. That would be a blast. But no such luck.

I don't mind cable shows wandering away from their supposed topic, but they always wander in boring directions that don't interest me. History having shows about pawn brokers, Nat Geo having shows about Bigfoot style "beast hunting" (I thought they were supposed to stick to reality). Fie!

You can make more money with programming that has broad appeal than you can with programming that targets only a niche audience.

Fine! I'm a niche audience!!! Why won't someone program for me??? Where's the channel for the "intelligent sci fi (and don't get scared of space opera" niche?

Please note that “foam” is a like a sauce, but “foamed-up” and not in a liquid state. Get your minds out of the gutter.

It wasn't in the gutter till you put it there!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Fine! I'm a niche audience!!! Why won't someone program for me???

http://www.youtube.com

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Imagine Greater.

 

[KJbushway]

I have always said that money is the end of science fiction. Is there anyone out there that has connections in the syfy network and can tell them to either get rid of the fashion show and the cooking show, or change the name, because syfy is more and more turning away from its science fiction roots.

 

[Brian]

or change the name.

They did. Once they did that, I knew they had no commitment to airing quality science fiction programming any longer.

If their monster movies of the week weren't enough of an indication already.

 

[KJbushway]

yeah but Syfy souns the same when pronounced as Sci-Fi.

 

[Brian]

So does "sigh, fie." But it doesn't mean the same thing.

 

[indranee]

Maybe now I can finally find out how to prepare Gagh properly.

 

[Holdfast]

Maybe now I can finally find out how to prepare Gagh properly.

I'm so glad I wasn't the first one to think of this gag on reading the thread title.

 

[Christopher]

People forget that "sci-fi" is just an informal nickname for the genre called science fiction, and a very loosely applied nickname that often encompasses fantasy, horror, and other borderline categories. From the beginning, the reason they went with "The SciFi Channel" rather than "The Science Fiction Channel" was (according to an interview I read when the channel was new) that they wanted the name to be a brand label like Bravo or Lifetime rather than a strictly literal declaration of their potential range of content. They specifically didn't want to limit themselves to showing only one kind of programming. Indeed, in the network's early years, a fair amount of their original content was nonfiction science-related programming or vintage horror films, not to mention the infomercials that made up their late-night programming. There has never been any real correlation between the name of the network and their programming intentions, at least not to the extent that many people assume.

Ultimately, the "commitment" of any commercial television network is to make a profit. That's true regardless of its name. There was a time when niche cable channels could be profitable, even if it was largely from showing reruns of old TV series that fit that particular niche. But now we have old TV series on DVD to satisfy the niche viewer, so cable television has to broaden its focus in order to survive. I'd rather have a network that airs a few hours of original SF programming per week and pays for it with wrestling and cheesy movies and reality hogwash than see that network go out of business entirely or turn into another 24-hour reality-TV cesspool.

 

[Lookingglassman]

I knew when the only decent show they had, NuBSG, went off the air they would fall into FAILVILLE!