'Battlestar Galactica' Season 4 Not Starting Until April 2008
October 28, 2007
It's official, Battlestar Galactica will hit the airwaves – or cablewaves – sometime in April of 2008. The Sci Fi channel, however, has not indicated whether the series will be split into two 10 episode ‘mini-seasons,' as has been rumored, or whether the series will be shown, as the creators hope, in it's full 20 episode run.
The April start date is not such happy news for fans. The show will have been of the air for a full year in March, unless you count the prequel film event Razor as an episode, and for many fans the wait has already passed the unbearable point.
There is no official ‘reason' for holding Battlestar Galactica out until April 2008, the series has been in production for some time now and will surely have wrapped by the time the new season airs. Most fans and critics alike are chalking this move up to yet another poor business decision from the Sci Fi Channel.
Initial news that another six month wait was due for fans seemed to resonate through the blog-o-sphere like an unexpected gut shot. Season three of Battlestar Galactica was already well under way this time last year, having debuted October 6th. The second season began seven months on the tail of the first season, premiering July 15th.
With those gaps in mind, most insiders were expecting the Sci Fi Channel to begin the series in January or Februrary of 2008. Indeed, some industry favorite sites like IMDB had already scheduled episodes as airing in January.
Like the unpopular notion of splitting the final season into two halves a year apart, Sci Fi is completely mum when it comes to addressing this unpopular announcement. The network would be wise to study the lessons of CBS and Jericho when it comes to riling fans and dashing hopes. The network could find itself buried in April Fools jokes if the scheduling maneuver doesn't at least come with a decent explanation.
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