Why so Many Science Fiction Fans Are Turning Off the Sci-Fi Channel

Sometimes as I am flipping through the channels, I come across the Sci-Fi Channel. Once, I used to make the Sci-Fi Channel the first station that I would go to once I turned on the TV. Now, it is one of the last. The Sci-Fi Channel does not hold very much of its original lure to many science fiction and horror fans.

When the Sci-Fi Channel first graced my TV, I was amazed with the lineup that it provided. During the day, a fan could watch episodes of many of the older, cancelled and obscure science fiction shows.

I would tune in during the day to watch episodes of, "Auto Man," "The Misfits of Science," "Kolchak," and "Dark Shadows." I could spend hours watching these shows, and never become board.

In the evening, science fiction and horror fans would tune in to the Sci-Fi Channel to see great science fiction and horror films that you could not see on other channels. There would be movies that many of us had watched when we were young, but had not yet made the transition to DVD.

Every few weeks, the Sci-Fi Channel would feature a different type of movie for the week. Many were eager for the Universal Studios Classics week, or the Hammer House Classics Week. Some would wait for the Vampire Movie week, or the Werewolf Movie week.

Many fans were enthused when it was announced that the Sci-Fi Channel had bought the rights to thousands of movies, and hundreds of different cancelled shows. There were rumors that the Sci-Fi Channel would splint into two separate channels. One channel would be for science fiction, while the other was for horror.

Over the last five years, the Sci-Fi Channel has completely changed right in front of the eyes of those fans that made the station popular. The Sci-Fi Channel spends much of its time showing movies that it produces itself. Many older Sci-Fi fans are becoming fed up with seeing the second rate movies that the Sci-Fi Channel produces.

There has also been a growing number of programs on the channel that do not directly relate to science fiction in the way that their older programming did. While I am a fan of, "Ghost Hunters," I do not see how it fits onto the Sci-Fi Channel. Even though I am a wrestling fan, I do not understand what place ECW has on a channel that is supposed to be dedicated to science fiction.

Last year as, "The Da Vinci Code," was being released in theatres, the Sci-Fi Channel ran a series of shows that were intended to debunk the book and the movie. How does a book that throws a controversial issue out about religion have anything to do with science fiction or horror?

Many science fiction fans are no longer keeping the Sci-Fi Channel as their cable base of operations. They are trying to find what they want on other channels. According to reports from the Sci-Fi Channel, they are placing these programs on to lure fans from other genres and to counteract the decrease in viewers.

Hey Sci-Fi Channel, you would not have this decline if you went back to your original formula. Show the old shows that we love, and the movies that we forgot about. Do not show us the movies that you produce, because those are ones that we want to forget about. Take an example from Coke. Don't mess with the original.