With the success of its reality programming, SyFy has decided to pick up three more reality shows.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the cable outlet will announce today that it is picking up Haunted Collector, Legend Quest and Paranormal Witness to air later this year.
Haunted Collector, centers on a family of renowned paranormal investigators who spend its time tracking down haunted items. The family then houses its collections — think guns, jewelry, paintings and dolls — in its museum. The series will be paired with the second season of Hollywood Treasure, beginning in June.
A month later, Syfy will roll out Legend Quest, an action-adventure series that follows real-life symbologist Ashley Cowie as he travels the world in search of hidden, mystical artifacts. Each episode is designed to combine Indiana Jones-style adventure and Da Vinci Code-type connections as theories are explored.
Finally, Paranormal Witness, a drama-documentary series from Raw TV, the creative team behind Locked Up Abroad and Gold Rush Alaska. The show will bring to life the stories of people who claim to have lived through paranormal experiences. Episodes will feature a mixture of first-hand testimony and gritty drama. The show will debut in early September.
The announcement follows continued ratings gains at the NBC Universal-owned network, where primetime tune-in is up 13 percent in total viewers and 7 percent in the advertiser-beloved adults 18-49 demographic thus far this quarter, compared to the same period a year earlier.
We now open up the comments thread to bashing SyFy for optioning more reality shows while canceling SGU.
Thank you fellow Americans, for watching this garbage.
So, this is what they cancelled SGU to make room for. What goes next – Warehouse 13 and Eureka? Those frackin’ programming bastards!
Total garbage!! I’ld rather watch the old Creature Double Features that where on during the 70’s than this crap!!
Oh goody!!!
Another steaming pile ‘O crap served up special from SyFy… Yum, Yum!!!
Only shows I watch anymore on SyFy are Warehouse 13, Eureka and Sanctuary… The new BSG: Blood & Chrome can’t come fast enough!
There is no reality like my reality in which Syfy plays no part in my entertainment decisions.
Once SGU is over, I will never watch syfy again.
@Sam: I think WH 13 and Eureka are safe for now because of good rating. SGU has crappy ratings.
I liked what little I’ve seen of Face Off, but these shows sound like garbage. I hope they get some more scripted series on the air soon.
Oh ye gods! Is this network intentionally trying to get me to stop watching?
I guess intelligent, thought provoking, scripted scifi action/adventure/drama is too much to ask for. Everyday we surge ever closer to the world in Idiocracy.
Hollywood Treasure was actually kinda fun, especially when they tracked down the real Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
And I don’t believe SGU was dropped to “make room” for any of these shows… dropping Caprica had already done that. I think there must have been some other power plays going on behind the scenes, and SGU lost.
Not that I’m happy about SGU going away, but all of these channels are really starting to make it very hard to even start watching new shows, simply because we don’t know if it’ll still be around a month later. I really wish someone would take a hard look at how they’re not helping themselves by shortchanging a show.
Summer,
There is hope because at least networks like AMC, FX and HBO have had a pretty good track record of sticking with shows a traditional network would have canceled after just a few episodes.
AMC, FX, TNT and USA have had good track records in supporting their drama series. I don’t think USA has attempted a scifi flavored show since both Dead Zone and The 4400 ended, but at least they let those series run to conclusions. I think Falling Skies on TNT come June may be the first SF flavored show on that network in nearly 10 years, but I’m hopeful it will stick around.
HBO is HBO, quality is implied.
But none of those networks has the word SCIFI in their name. The one that has SCIFI in it’s name (or used to, depending on your perspective) should be working a little harder to have an SF heavy programming slate.
I do like what NBCU is doing with Chiller Channel and Sleuth Channel, though. Why they can focus Chiller Channel but halfway abandon what they’d built with Scifi confounds the hell outta me.
Yes and no on cable outlets sticking with shows.
They’ll all stick with shows that get enough audience to justify bringing them back and may have the critical praise to bring in new fans to the show when the previous season hits DVD and the new season gears up. For FX just look at Sons of Anarchy, which saw a big bump is ratings between the first and second season. Of course, the same couldn’t be said of Terriers, a show that had a loyal, passionate audience and critical support. However, the network figured there wasn’t enough potential for growth to bring it back.
Thankfully, the producers had resolved the main story arc of the season and while there were some threads left open, the show was complete in 13 episodes. One of the good things about AMC, FX and HBO is they give series time to play out and don’t yank the shows around the schedule too much. That and taking advantage of On Demand.
People are watching FaceOff because it’s actually cool and interesting to watch how they do things.
The ideas mentioned above…. not so cool. Kinda like Syfy as a whole, lately.
Oh, and I just read further news on it over at Blastr… not only are they coming out with these 3, they’re *working* on TEN more. TEN. *sigh*
I really need to get a cable package that has BBC.
What I’ve never quite understood is that there is so much past and present sci-fi content, probably enough to run two 24/7 networks but the current Syfy channel can’t seem to find enough for even one. Are they just being cheap or lack the very imagination they are suppose to inspire?
Frak SYFY!!! I will not watch them at all. I am really sad to see that ratings are climbing for this crap, america is doomed and is showing their stupidity!!! . Where are the Science Fiction Fans- Boycott the sponsors of this crap and let them know why. This is the death of this channel for me. No more No More
Well, the author of this article summed up my sentiments exactly with his last sentence. Cancel SGU for this stuff? I must admit that I did enjoy Face Off (kind of like a reality TV version of the old Cinemagic magazine).
Yawn