First they canceled Farscape when it was their number one show.  That was the best sci-fi program on television, and possibly the best program on television period.  SciFi just got stupid and kicked it to the curb because its ratings weren’t where they wanted them despite it being their biggest draw.  Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

They recovered somewhat by procuring Stargate SG-1 from Showtime.  This, too, is a fantastic sci-fi series, and its recent 200th episode also marked the fact that it’s the longest running American sci-fi program ever.  How did SciFi Channel decide to celebrate this milestone?  By announcing the cancellation of the show.

Again, what ignorant boneheads are running that place?

Here’s how it works.

They put it on against Monk which actually draws from the SG-1 audience, and they did this knowingly.  Then, when the ratings slipped, they screamed “Foul!” and canceled it.

They run the show’s new episodes during the summer.  Yes, they expect a large audience by running their new programs at the time of year when television viewership is at its lowest.

Anyone else see why ratings may be falling?  This is the same attitude they had toward Farscape and that eventually led to its demise at the hands of the ignorant folks in charge over there.

What original programming have they offered in the meantime?  Wrestling.  Yes, wrestling on SciFi Channel.  That place is run by crackwhores…  Wrestling is fiction, I agree, but it’s not science fiction and it’s certainly not entertaining to anyone with more than a single brain cell firing upstairs.

Oh, and they’ve also pushed this other crap series called Eureka that is anything but entertaining.  It’s just bad television and is so poorly written, acted, and produced that it essentially begs for you to change the channel.  You know, like the wrestling does.

And then there’s other puke they regurgitate and offer as though you should be grateful.  Like Ghost Hunters, the reality TV show that’s laughable — but only because you find it hysterical that anyone would produce and broadcast such tripe.

And the list goes on.  Mostly what they’re offering in the way of original programming is bunk.  Garbage.  Sewage, in fact, and I can say that based on recent experience.  It smells the same, looks the same, and oozes from the television just like it did from the toilet and bathtub.  Yes, poppets, SciFi is pushing sewage and calling it entertainment, and all the while they’re killing the best programming they have — not to mention the monumental show that set records in the US for its broadcast tenure.  They also killed what was known as “the most cinematic program on television” — Farscape.

They still have Stargate Atlantis, Doctor Who, and Battlestar Galactica in their corner, but SciFi has already shown they can take a good thing and demolish it with no thought involved whatsoever.  Given their history, these shows will be gone quite soon.  I give them no more than two seasons before they’re cut, and I’m being generous.

Ultimately, SciFi is going down the drain.  As with Farscape and now with Stargate SG-1, they find good shows and put them on just long enough to kill them with scheduling nightmares and plain stupid programming decisions, and then they cancel them and fill the empty slots with such meaningless drivel that you want to swear off of the station forever.

If something doesn’t change with the assholes running the network, they’ll continue chasing their ‘tales’ like this without ever being worthy of mention.  They’re known for offering quality programming just long enough to bury it.  They’re known for offering mostly shit-stained excuses for programming.  They’re known for proffering wrestling as their version of “quality original science fiction programming” without even realizing how absurd that is, or how it ensures their place in history as the most clueless network executives on the planet (excepting NBC, of course, for canceling the original Star Trek and losing the longest-running and most financially successful science fiction franchise on the planet!).

Anyway, I’m sick of SciFi Channel and this silly shit they keep pulling.  Maybe it’s time for me to just give up on them entirely as I know what to expect if I find they have a good show.  It’ll last long enough for me to become interested in it, and then it’ll be gone and replaced with filth.  What idiotic batshit crazies they have at that place…

In response to this debacle, here’s the e-mail I sent to SciFi, NBC Universal, and the various other contacts I could find associated with this ignorance:

Much like the travesty of your Farscape cancellation, I am once again sorely disappointed in your channel’s ill timed and poorly considered decision to end Stargate SG-1, and I am even more horrified that you announced the show’s end at the same time it was celebrating its 200th episode — an accomplishment that should have been celebrated rather than tainted.

Most of the programming you now offer is terrible nonsense. Eureka is just bad television with little to offer in the areas of watchability, originality, and entertainment. Wrestling is garbage, and it’s offensive that a science fiction station is even showing it. Who Wants to be a Superhero? is… Well, it’s laughable in all the wrong ways and is an insulting piece of trash. Ghost Hunters is just so much reality TV crap that is best suited to late night showing like the rest of television’s yuck. Ultimately, your channel is now focused on tripe rather than quality programming.

And why do you think the ratings for the “Gate” series have declined? Could it be your lack of promotional money and the bizarre schedule that often places these shows on when television viewing is at its lowest (during the summer), and even against programs that steal away part of your audience (like Monk)? Of course. And I thought a television station would understand at least these minor pieces of television information.

Ultimately, I tire of the same old SciFi ignorance that saw to it that the best show on television, Farscape, was killed an agonizing and sudden death based entirely on poor decisions made by your network. And now we have the best sci-fi program being canceled because of the same bad decisions being made by the same bad network. You are losing viewers not because these shows are bad or failing; you’re losing viewers because your station continually insults them with garbage that is placed ahead of good shows like those you’ve already canceled and those you are now canceling, not to mention your continued tendency to pit your shows against scheduling nightmares.

If SG-1 leaves the air, you will have only three programs left that will be worth watching: Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, and Doctor Who. The rest of your schedule is toilet fodder at best, and, lacking SG-1, I will find it increasingly difficult to tune in at all, even for the shows mentioned above, because experience has shown you will run them into the ground and ruin their ratings, and then you’ll cancel them as though they somehow disappointed you when in fact the network itself is to blame for destroying the only quality programming it has left.

Replace the people making these stupid decisions. Leave these quality shows on the air. Invest some money in them instead of hoping word of mouth is sufficient to draw in viewers. Stop forcing them to languish in schedules that contradict everything we know about when people are most likely to watch television (that means NOT during the summer). Cease the inherent conflict of pitting them against other programming you know will degrade their viewership. Pull all of the junk off the air that you keep throwing at us and focus on quality rather than quantity (i.e., get rid of wrestling, Superhero, and Eureka to start, then take a serious look at the rest of the schedule and get rid of the vast majority of what you’re offering; most of it is insulting and unwatchable).

As a network, you’re running out of opportunities to save yourself with this continual ignorance. Either shape up, or we — your viewers — will give our time to other networks. It may already be too late because you keep burning the same bridges.

Yes, I take my science fiction very seriously, and good escapism like that provided by SG-1 for the last TEN YEARS is hard to come by.  I have Mom to thank for that particular trait as she taught me to enjoy the entertainment and diversion provided by the original Star Trek, and that long before I graduated from elementary school.

Again, I’m tired of SciFi Channel.  For me, this is their last chance to get it right.