Looking to the future with Sci Fi

Sci Fi president Dave Howe and programming boss Mark Stern were in London recently and gave a few hints of new shows that are coming up on the channel. TBI was there and got a peek into the future.

NBC’s Sci Fi has 400 hours a year of original programming – here’s some of what’s coming up. Firstly, there is a new (third) instalment in the Stargate franchise, Stargate Universe.

Then there’s Revolution (CBS Paramount), which Sci Fi programming boss Mark Stern says is an "epic sweeping drama – the American Revolution set in space."

There’s also Caprica (Universal Media Studios), which is the prequel to one of Sci Fi’s biggest hits, Battlestar Galactica. Set on the eponymous planet seventy years before the current show, it will follow the forbears of several characters in the contemporary Battlestar Galactica series.

Another scripted project in the works is Warehouse 13 (Universal Media Studios) – which follows two agents who work in a government warehouse that houses various supernatural objects.

In the unscripted realm there is an international version of Sci Fi’s top reality show Ghost Hunters (Pilgrim Films). Ghost Hunters International will pitch the team into locations outside the US.

And there’s a pilot of a US version of a Fuji TV Japanese format Run For Money (Buena Vista). Pitched as a real-life video game the ten contestants race from checkpoint to checkpoint while being pursued by ‘hunters’ that look remarkably similar to the baddies in The Matrix movies.

Other reality shows include Estate of Panic (Endemol), in which contestants battle through a haunted house and Brain Trust (Idiot Box), where geniuses are tasked with finding inventive solutions to problems. Last up is Enormous Fighting Robots, which, true to its name, features some large robots that fight each other in a scaled up version of Robot Wars.