TNG Headed To Sci-Fi Channel [UPDATED]

After being recently pulled from both the Spike TV and G4 schedules, reruns of the Star Trek The Next Generation were off the air for the first time in years, but that is about to change. The SCI FI Channel, which currently airs Star Trek Enterprise, is now the new cable home for Star Trek: The Next Generation . TNG is as part of a newly announced package deal between SCI FI and CBS, but is the only Trek series named.

SCI FI is the third cable home for TNG, after Spike (previously TNN) and G4. Although this is the first time TNG will be on SCI FI, it is not the first Trek on the channel. SCI FI aired Star Trek The Original Series and Star Trek The Animated Series until 2004. SCI FI began airing airing Star Trek: Enterprise in January of this year. TNG is part of a new larger package deal between CBS and SCI FI, that’s headlined by the third year CBS drama "Ghost Whisperer". Other properties named in the deal are "Charmed" and "Highlander". No word yet on when TNG will begin to air or at what times.

UPDATE: SCI FI have updated their schedule. 4 episodes of TNG will begin airing each Monday at 7pm starting June 2nd (Enterprise currently airs in that slot and will begin airing 3 episodes starting at 7pm on June 3rd)

More on the CBS/Sci-Fi Channel deal at Variety.

The new Trek cable landscape
In addition to dropping TNG, G4 has also ceased airing Star Trek: The Original Series, but TOS still plays on TV Land. Star Trek Voyager is still going on Spike, with two episodes each day. However, Spike recently replaced its three weekly airings Deep Space Nine episodes with repeats of Voyager episodes aired the previous night. It isn’t clear if DS9 will return to the schedule or it it is gone entirely from cable reruns. See the table below for more details of Trek on cable.

Star Trek on Cable (US/Canada)

    Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
TOS TVLand 6am  
TNG Sci-Fi 7-11pm*  
DS9 Spike? none currently scheduled
VOY Spike 9am, 4pm, 5pm 2am, 9am, 4pm, 5pm 9am, 4pm, 5pm  
ENT Sci-Fi 7-11pm* 7-10pm*  
  HDNet 1pm & 9pm 12am, 3am & 1pm 1pm  

* Starting June 2nd, TNG replaces ENT on Mondays and ENT moves to Tuesdays

all of the above is subject to change, always good to check your local listings

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oh yes i am first. I LOVE TNG!!! BEST NEWS EVER!

Haven’t we all seen every episode of TNG by now? Or own them? ;)

Atron has a point… I video-taped them years ago then bought the DVD sets years later.

Who AMONG US watches these reruns ?

Still as long as they avoid seasons one and two (which were pretty ordinary imo) these reruns will possibly hook into star trek newbies and provide dollar fodder for ST XI

I don’t tune into trek on tv much anymore as I have it all on DVD. I sometimes stop if I’m flipping and its on but kinda stinks about no DS9 airing anymore. I love all trek but lean toward DS9 as my fav but it seems like its the red-headed stepchild even though I hear the most complaints of Voy and Ent.

Would be kinda cool (I know won’t happen) if Sci-fi did something like when TOS came to the channel un-cut and made new interview segments when it came to commercial.

Damn, i was watching DS9 everynight on spike…. now i know why the past few nights voy was in its spot… :-(

I’m pretty certain thses are the regular syndicated shows, if you want the extra footage,, you still need the season sets or the whole series:)

This is both good and bad news. I’m very glad TNG will be on a channel I can watch (I didn’t have G4), but now I can’t watch DS9. I *could* watch it on some streaming website, but the quality is piss poor. You can’t watch the Dominion War episodes in that bad of quality!

also when the sci-fi channel first launched in the early 90’s They ran the star trek animated series..in fact in general.. All star treks should have their home on the sci-fi channel. I just wished that the horror stuff would find its own channel.

Any chance to see Marina Sirtis over and over again is worth it to me!! Thank you SCI-FI channel!!

It would seem that true fans already own these series on DVD so we could care less who reruns these episodes and when. But it is reassuring to know that, after all these years, TNG hasn’t faded from the airwaves.

I always enjoy watching reruns of both Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation on television. I think that this is excellent news! Maybe eventually I will shell out the money for that nice box set!

I watch the reruns because I’m not a big enough tool to pay $130 for a season on DVD. Every single one of you who owns Star Trek on DVD makes me cry. It’s also your fault they are so expensive. The only reason they cost so much is because Paramount knows Star Trek fans are dumb enough to pay the money.

The ratings will plunge further.

I have all the DVDs of ENT & TOS & some of the better seasons of DS9, but never bought TNG dvds. I do have them all on tape if I ever really needed to see a specific episode. I’ll probably watch them on Sci-Fi. This is good news.

I consider myself a “true fan,” however I am an economically challenged grad student who has NEVER been able to cost justify the Star Trek series purchases on DVD, TNG being on Sci-Fi is just fine by me. Will I go out of my way to watch it? Probably not, but if I’m channel surfing and I stumble upon it, I probably will watch.

SJB, I got TOS for like $50 a season ! Thanks in part to buying them at Wal*Mart right after the HD-DVD / Blu-ray format war started up.

No way was I going to pay $130+ a season for Trek as I’m not rich.

One just needs to buy the season sets at the right time.

Like buy the DVD versions when they get marked down to make room for the new Blu-ray replacements.

Why is the chart above listed “US/Canada” when some of the stations listed (like Sci Fi) are not available in Canada, while Canadian stations that do carry Trek (like Space) not listed?

I’ve got them recorded, but I think I’m more likely to watch them if they’re on while I’m flipping by.

I still put them in late at night if I can’t sleep; it’s like comfort food.

The Sci Fi channel is worthless.

Maybe G4 dropping TOS series is not such a bad thing. I never thought their presentation of it (what did they call it with the interactive menus that you could never access?) was very successful. And the little factoids they showed were also not entirely accurate. For instance, Vic Perrin did the voice of the Metrons on “Arena”, but it’s clear to anyone that Ted Cassidy was the voice of the Gorn. Vic was good but he didn’t have that kind of range.

If I am scrolling around on the hundreds of worthless cable channels with nothing on them, I might park it on ST:TNG for a while, even though I own them on VHS and DVD.

Also….SciFi could fill some programming time if they showed all the interviews they did for their run of the TOS a few years back.

#20

The good thing about G4 showing ST TOS was the entire episode was shown. I am not talking about ST TOS 2.0, but ST TOS that was being aired after ST TNG 2.0 bombed. They ran the entire TOS episode w/o any cuts, unlike TV Land with syndication cuts, which are shown at some ungodly awful time like 5am…… But at least its there, I guess….

#22 Good memory, I didnt remember those, but that would be nice to see them.

DVD’s have really spoiled me and make it very hard to go back to commercial television.

When shown on commercial TV, Trek episodes are usually butched, there are ads all over the screen, commercials always interrupt the narrative, they air at the most ungodly hours and the picture quality is lacking. I don’t watch much commercial TV to begin with, so when I do catch something I’m usually shocked at all the distractions.

About the only Trek I make an effort to catch on commercial TV these days is the remastered TOS and that’s only until the inevitable BluRay puchase down the road.

#19 – I agree for the most part. The SciFi Channel has been an incredible disappointment for me. They ocassionally impress me (BSG and the Dune mini series) but for the most part they pander to the least common denominator of SF. Their programming department should be sacked (by Ralph the Wonder Llama, no less).

Its nice that TNG will be on SciFi and i’ll probably watch, but how big is their potential audience? Being on SciFi will be like preaching to the converted. If its the aim to try and convert new fans a venue like SciFi Channel isn’t really the place to do it.

H

About time TNG goes back on the air… I think I’ve watched the entire Voyager series 30 times on Spike now.

I bought only two individual seasons of TNG to the tune of about $15 per set on Ebay last year, so it’ll be nice to have the rest of the series out there to watch again.

Well all in all the scifi channel is a good one. Yes they have some very lame programming. Like the stupid flash gorden series. But they have great stuff like battlestar galactica. I thing tng will be great with enterprise on the scifi channel. Hopefully they will put more and more great programming and i think the scifi channel has a lot of great potentional.I think all the Star trek series should be on sicifi and add the tos remastered as well.

If memory serves, didn’t Gene Rodenberry help start up the Sci/Fi channel? All his trek incarnations should be on the air because of that.

Very happy to see that TNG will be back on the air. Sci-Fi has an HD channel on DirecTV, so the resolution will be good even though the show wasn’t originally filmed in that format (one of the reasons I enjoy Enterprise!). Anyway, I never bought the DVDs – I find it perfectly sufficient to Tivo and watch the recordings at leisure. Way to go, SciFi!

YAWN.
We can get reminded yet again how lame most of those episodes actually were.

It’s good to see that TNG is returning to television. Anywhere is better than nowhere!

Good news!

wow, an actual good sci fi show on the sci fi channel, quick. catch me im about to faint.

arrrrr…

strangely enough, a Sci-Fi channel executive had ta’ be dissuaded from tryin’ ta’ hire Gene Simmons ta’ host the show… seems he was unawares dat “TNG” is an acronym and notta texting shorthand….

Dat same executive ordered five more Killer Squid movies OK tho’…. arrrr… tha’ Squid! Watch fur that beastie wrapping its tentacles around yer shrine ta’ Terri Garrrrrrrr

arrrrr….

I like watching ST on tv as opposed to DVD because I can still anticipate watching my favorite episodes. Having the DVD would make me tired of watching it.

It is just good that TNG is playing on TV again. Yeah, all of us have seen every episode 1000 times but it playing on a channel again means that maybe it will attract some NEW fans, maybe younger fans, who then can go and explore all Trek has to offer. AND the DVD season box sets are waaaaay cheaper these days. You can find them at most stores and on Amazon for around $40 bucks. those dark $130 days are long gone.

OH HAPPY DAY!

I’m more excited to see Highlander back on the air. I dig sword fights, and there usually at least one hot chick in every episode.

Wouldn’t it be great if SciFi asked Wil Wheaton, Rod Rodberry, and Chris Doohan to act as presenters, at least for special occasions? They could even do a roundtable or guest host together.

They could share their wealth of knowledge about all things Trek to a younger generation and perhaps even have special guests like Cirroc Lofton (“Jake Sisko” from DS9) and Scarlett Pomers (“Naomi Wildman” from Voyager) on special shows.

Or perhaps Pomers could join them as as presenter.

These are some of the youngest of Trek alums and they would lend a youthful flair to the whole enterprise, appealing to an entirely new demographic.

We could have cuts of things that other young alums or fans are doing, such as their musical avocations or interests.

It would the kind of thing that a dedicated Trek cable channel could offer, except it would be during commercial interludes in the middle of TNG showings. Presentations like this are done all the time with syndicating reshowings and it wouldn’t cost SciFi much to produce — just a small studio and crew.

Topics of interest could include the upcoming Trek movie, Trek in the news, and even websites like TrekMovie.com.

Just a thought.

Killer squid eats Teri Garr five times?! I’m there! That’s the kind of daring TV programming that’s made SciFi what is is today.

Glad TNG is getting a new home.
Can’t figure out why Spike loves Voyager so mu– Oh, yeah. Duh me. (Do they even show the first three seasons or just jump straight to the Seven of Nine epoch?)

If SciFi lived up to its name, there’d be much more vintage material on it. I’m glad they’re making new product, but they’re only make about 3 movies 25 times each. They really ought to dig deep… do animation festivals like they used to. Fantastic Planet, eps of TAS, anime, more…

Hosted shows sound good, too. Barbara Luna presents…. I’d be watchin’ (with the lights down low…)

DVDs are great for fans, but ST won’t pick up new viewers from DVD. I like knowing that it’s out there, being discovered by someone the way I discovered it as a kid. I don’t care how many times I’ve seen them all, I want to stumble on to a rerun and get sucked back in, even though I _could_ pull out the DVD, it’s ON TV, knowhatimean?

Good comments, 42.

I would add to my comment at 41 that they would also have to incur the cost of paying presenters, but I think that it’s a cost that wouldn’t necessarily break the bank. It would seem that they could shoot most of these host segments in a couple of weeks for the entire run.

#26 – “Its nice that TNG will be on SciFi and i’ll probably watch, but how big is their potential audience? Being on SciFi will be like preaching to the converted. If its the aim to try and convert new fans a venue like SciFi Channel isn’t really the place to do it.”

Hmm… I don’t know about that. I think, as time goes on, we’re getting science fiction fans who haven’t seen one or another incarnation of Trek, and a fair number of them are watching Sci-Fi these days. Sure, ENT is there, but TNG is a different style and might capture the interest of some folks who aren’t drawn in by ENT. That’s a benefit of the variety of styles of the various Trek series.

If I had SCI FI, I’d watch the reruns, mainly because I don’t own any Trek DVD sets; they’re just too expensive. And this is coming from someone who spent $220 on the box set of “Thunderbirds” plus the two movies.

@ SJB: Well, maybe not all of us live in the US, now do we?

Here in Sweden they have never even aired all episodes of DS9 (beginning on a new sci/fi channel soon though), just seasons 1-3 and that was in the mid-90’s on an HBO-like film channel. VGR was shown on public service television without commercial breaks but they were three years behind. ENT was shown on the same channel but only up until season 2.

Since I started liking Trek they have aired TOS and TNG on cable but that’s been in the most recent years. Do you think I should have waited several years to watch those shows in lesser quality both in audio and video as well as with annoying commercial breaks? Not to mention the inconvenient airing times.

Well, I think not. But call me dumb if you like…

TNG covers such a spectrum: the great shows are REALLY great, the bad shows are horrible (not with any charm, unlike the horrible TOS shows). Overall, TNG is my #2 behind “Star Trek”. Frankly, I’ve always been able to handle all of the Trek incarnations except Voyager. Jeri Ryan gives me two good reasons to watch it, but otherwise, I can’t find many other reasons!!! LOL Welcome to the Sci Fi Channel, Commander Riker! ;-)

I live in Ireland , so i know for all those who have digital t.v. in Ireland and the U.K. , that Virgin1 show tng and ds9 and enterprise so good times

http://virgin1.virginmedia.com/tv_schedule

so go star trek !!!

Good news, everybody!