UPN To Get 'Battlestar Galactica'?

As if Enterprise, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Stephen King's Dead Zone weren't enough for the network, UPN was reported today to be seriously considering ordering the Battlestar Galactica revival.

According to industry trade paper Electronic Media, the network was said to be strongly considering ordering the new Battlestar Galactica. Financial news site On24.com later added that the show might be airing in a repeat run on the Sci-Fi Channel as well. The series will be produced by Studios USA, a sister company of Sci-Fi.

If UPN is indeed able to acquire the show, that will mean it will be able to seriously challenge the Sci-Fi Channel when it comes to original SF shows. Media analyst Rick Ellis told On24 this will an interesting approach for the network. "When you think sci-fi on TV, you think Sci-Fi [Channel]," he said. "For UPN to be able to break that is going to be tough, but it'll be interesting for sci-fi fans."

UPN has also been rumoured to be in the running for WB shows such as Angel or Roswell, but Ellis wondered whether this would really be useful for the network. "There are a lot of Battlestar Galactica fans and there are a lot of fans of Roswell, but is there a big enough fanbase that it's going to help UPN? Roswell is getting fairly lousy ratings on the WB - is that 3-share going to help UPN? [...] They don't need another 2- or 3-share show, they need a breakout hit, they need that distinct thing that happened to the WB when Buffy and Seventh Heaven became hits that sort of placed that network in people's minds."

Ellis did add that the new Star Trek show seemed a good addition to the network's line-up, thanks partly to Bakula's star power. "[Bakula is] a likeable character, a very likeable guy," he said. "And you know, there seems to be a lot of excitement with really the hard-core Star Trek fans, which I don't think we've seen in quite a while."

If UPN chooses to pick up Battestar Galactica, it seems likely the show will be added to the network's schedule as a midseason replacement. The series is currently in early development by Bryan Singer and Tom DeSanto, the same creative team that brought the 'X-Men' franchise to film.

In related news, WB execs confirmed to Electronic Media that Angel will definitely be returning to the network next year, airing in the same Tuesday 9:00pm timeslot as this year. The WB also said Roswell has not been officially cancelled yet, and could still be considered for a midseason run next year. Even without these two shows, though, UPN still has at least four genre shows in development, giving the network its strongest science-fiction line-up ever.

To listen to the original audio stream from On24, in which Ellis talks more about Bakula joining Enterprise, please follow this link. The original Electronic Media article concerning Angel and Roswell can be found here.

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