I recently discovered that the Sci-Fi Channel is going to be airing ECW wrestling.

What does wrestling have to do with science fiction?

A few of the press releases hail it as 'a good thing that will help increase viewership'. Well, I'll give you the increased viewership part, but a success for Sci-Fi? No.

The Sci-Fi Channel was started as a niche channel, specifically for airing shows in the science/speculative fiction market, which includes fantasy. Shows like 'The Outer Limits', 'Battlestar Galactica' and the like. Movies such as 'Alien', 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Bladerunner'. I haven't seen any wrestling in any of the sf/f novels or short stories I've read. Nor have I seen wrestling in any of the genre's movies.

What the execs are doing is drawing a different crowd to the channel to 'prop up' viewership. Pretty soon, it won't be Sci-Fi any more. Pretty soon, it'll be another Spike clone.

What would help Sci-Fi -- what would be a success for them -- would be to create better programming. Spend a little more on researchers and script supervisors that will actually look at a map. Spend a little money renting futuristic concept cars for background. Maybe then, you'll draw more of the people who are interested in the sf/f genre, but won't watch shows that play down to them.

For example, I watched 'Path of Destruction' with interest, at first, because I wanted to see where they'd go with the idea of a Von Neumann device swarm... But, come [b]on[/b], people - you [b]can[/b] drive from Palmer, Ak to Seattle, WA, but [b]not[/b] by driving through Juneau. Grab a map, will you? Google's got one that's FREE. It'll even draw a nice blue line showing how to get there. And why did the movie need the funky CGI airplane? You can throw a device of that size out the bay of a B-2 just fine.

And on 'Battlestar Galactica' -- a fine show, don't get me wrong -- why would a people with a higher tech base than us, a people with artificial gravity, come up with a Hummer for their military 'jeep' of choice? Somebody over there is slacking.

Fix the issues and people will come back. Really. You don't need to pander to a different crowd.