On the SciFi Channel’s SciFi Wire, president David Howe responded to some of the more than 1,000 comments generated on the site about the upcoming name change to Syfy. Below is an excerpt from the interview. You can read the full interview on SciFi Wire.
Howe: There’s nothing wrong with sci-fi, and we’ve had 16 great years as the SCI FI Channel. We love sci-fi, which is why we’ve said we have no intention of abandoning our roots or our core audience. We intend to continue to develop and produce great sci-fi shows like the two upcoming series we recently greenlit, Stargate Universe in the fall and Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica, coming early next year. Plus we’re bringing back Eureka in July, Sanctuary in the fall and launching a brand-new sci-fi show, Warehouse 13, in July. We’re still the biggest producer of sci-fi shows in all of TV, and we intend to stay number one.
Isn’t this just an excuse to put more shows on that aren’t sci-fi?
Howe: As the SCI FI Channel, we’ve always defined the sci-fi genre very broadly. Some of you may disagree, but we believe that sci-fi includes fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, superhero, horror and quite a lot of speculative action and adventure. Since we launched 16 years ago, we’ve always carried this broad range of sci-fi/fantasy programming on our air. So the mix of shows isn’t new and won’t change in the future.
“Some of you may disagree, but we believe that sci-fi includes fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, superhero, horror and quite a lot of speculative action and adventure.”
He forgot wrestling.
Which one of those categories would reality programming fall into?
And wrestling is a different sort of fiction… a variation of the soap opera. More accurately, the subgenre of action soap opera, designed to appeal to the generalized “male” demographic, much like the traditional soaps are designed to appeal to the generalized “female” demographic.
Gah. His fingers are in his ears.
Hey, you’ve got to admit, Mansquito and Mansquito II do fall under the “broad” definition of Sci-Fi — They never said “Good Sci-Fi” though, did they…
The article referenced seems to point to branding being an issue for the network. I guess they want people to know without a doubt who is throwing swill out into the world.