Syfy has named Scott Vila, who was instrumental in the development of water cooler hits such as 24, Dark Angel and Firefly, to the newly created position of Vice President, Current Programming, Scripted. Based in the Los Angeles office, Vila will report to Erik Storey, Senior Vice President, Original Programming, Syfy.
Vila will be responsible for Warehouse 13, the network’s highest rated show, as well as two of the network’s sophomore hits, Haven and Being Human.
Mark Stern, President, Original Content, Syfy, and Co-Head, Original Content, Universal Cable Productions, said: “Throughout his career, Scott has consistently developed quality television. His diverse strengths, from targeting compelling stories to overseeing successful execution, will contribute immeasurably to the growth of Syfy’s scripted programming.”
Before joining Syfy, Vila was Vice President, Original Programming, A&E, since 2006, where he was responsible for the development of series including The Glades, The Beast and The Cleaner. Prior to that, he served as executive producer for NBC’s Medical Investigation (2003-05) and producer of Fox’s The Simple Life (2002-03).
During his three year tenure (1999-02) as Senior Vice President, Drama, Twentieth Century Fox Television, he worked on an array of top series such as 24, Dark Angel, The Practice, Boston Public, American High and Judging Amy.
Vila was graduated with an MBA in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
This might be a good thing.
Interesting.
Well, just because they’ve hired someone who may be competent to develop new programs, it doesn’t mean that they’re going to stop showing wrestling. In fact, I’d bet that their quality shows will bump up a couple notches, but because they’re SyFy, they’ll balance out the good with something exceptionally lame.
I was prepared with some non-optimistic and quite sarcastic comments but it is possible this might be a good thing. I suppose if they want to prove they are serious about scripted programming, they could bring back Caprica and SGU. While they are it, cancel Quantum Kitchen and hit Tracy Morgan with something really hard.
Who cares. It doesn’t mean a thing when you pull your shows mid-run.
The show creation is not the problem. Pulling good shows before they have a chance of catching and gaining an audience is still at the heart of Syfy’s problems.
Hopefully some new blood at SyFy will shake things up, but I doubt that it will have much impact on a network that would cancel SGU and abandon the SG:Atlantis movie while at the same time jumping whole-hog into pro wrestling.
Yes, but does he know the difference between a choke hold and a full nelson?
Michael, you hit the proverbial nail on the head when it comes to networks. They are really good at creating good shows but hanging onto them is the problem. It’s as if they have ADD and can’t concentrate long enough on anything which makes little business sense. They spend so much time and energy creating a product then simply disregard it the very second it doesn’t work. If the Wright brothers or NASA functioned like that we would have never taken to the skies or have gone to the moon. The point is, networks need to stop going for the quick buck and think about long term investment.