SCI FI'S '06 PRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT SLATE TO BE CHANNEL'S STRONGEST EVER

SCI FI'S '06 PRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT SLATE TO BE CHANNEL'S STRONGEST EVER

REALITY FARE INCLUDES WHO WANTS TO BE A SUPERHERO? WITH STAN LEE, MEDIUM AT LARGE WITH PSYCHIC CHAR MARGOLIS, AND COMPETITION/ELIMINATION SERIES THE GIFT

SCRIPTED PILOT DEVELOPMENT TEAMS SCI FI WITH SEAN HAYES, RONALD D. MOORE, AND INCLUDES ADAPTATION OF FEATURE FILM THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

SCI FI SOLIDIFIES PARTNERSHIP WITH NBC NEWS PRODUCTIONS WITH SPECIALS AND NEW INVESTIGATIVE SERIES

Pasadena, CA - January 12, 2006 - SCI FI Channel has an aggressive production and development slate for the new year that includes both scripted and reality projects with top Hollywood talent and production companies including Stan Lee, Sean Hayes, Ronald D. Moore, Nash Entertainment, and NBC Universal Television Studios, it was announced today at the Television Critics Press Tour.

On the reality front, SCI FI has recruited legendary superhero comic creator Stan Lee and Bruce Nash to embark on a nationwide search for the first-ever, true-life superhero in WHO WANTS TO BE A SUPERHERO? The Channel will also try to find America's most talented, homegrown psychic in THE GIFT, while MEDIUM AT LARGE captures renowned celebrity psychic Char Margolis living her everyday life with an extraordinary talent. All three projects will premiere this year.

SCI FI continues to attract top Hollywood talent developing scripted projects including THE BRIDGE with producers Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) and Todd Milliner, and a television pilot based on the feature film THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT. It also extends its successful relationship with Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) on his new pilot project WAREHOUSE 13.

"We are very excited to be in business with such top creative talent. These new projects will help us build on our most successful year to date, and continue to broaden the scope and appeal of the channel. They also represent our clear commitment to reality programming as a means of reaching a new and younger audience; something we've already had great success with on our series 'Ghost Hunters,'" said Mark Stern, SCI FI Channel's Executive Vice President of Original Programming.

2006 Alternative/Reality Series

WHO WANTS TO BE A SUPERHERO?

SCI FI Channel, teamed with Bruce Nash's Nash Entertainment (Meet My Folks, For Love or Money, Who Wants to Marry My Dad?) and legendary comic book creator Stan Lee (Spider-Man, Hulk, The Fantastic Four, X-Men), will produce a six-episode, one-hour weekly competition reality series that will challenge a lucky few to create their very own superhero and reward the winner with the best reality competition prize yet: immortality! All you'll need is an original idea, a killer costume and some real superhero mojo. The winner of this six-week competition will walk away with their superhero immortalized in a new comic book created by Stan Lee himself!

In nationwide open casting calls, potential heroes will arrive in costume to prove their mettle ? revealing the true nature of their superhuman abilities and invoking the noble credos by which they live. From these thousands of hopefuls, Stan Lee will choose 11 lucky finalists to move into a secret lair and compete for the opportunity to become a real-life Superhero!

Finalists will leave their former lives behind and live as their brainchild heroes 24/7, all under Stan Lee's watchful eye. Each week, our aspiring heroes will be challenged with competitions designed to test their true superhero abilities. It's not all just leaping tall buildings in a single bound, a true Superhero will be tested for courage, integrity, self-sacrifice, compassion and resourcefulness. In the end, only one aspiring Superhero will have the strength and nobility to open the gates to comic book immortality.

MEDIUM AT LARGE

Char Margolis is a psychic of international renown. With an impressive list of fans, from Larry King and Regis Philbin to law enforcement officials, Char offers personal psychic readings that often have the ability to transform even the most steadfast of skeptics into true believers. Now, Char will be bringing her remarkable talents and unique life to SCI FI Channel for a six-episode, half-hour reality series produced in association with Stuart Krasnow (Average Joe, Dog Eat Dog), Krasnow Productions and FreemantleMedia North America.

In Medium at Large, Char will provide impromptu on-the-street readings, giving some unsuspecting folks astounding psychic revelations. She will also be doing home visits, helping people with unresolved issues find closure with lost loved ones. In addition to sharing her methods to help viewers at home develop their own abilities, she will share her unique life. What is it like to go on a blind date with a psychic? How do you prepare for a stint on Larry King's show when the make-up artist asks for a reading moments before airtime?

THE GIFT

Have you ever thought of someone moments before the phone rang only to hear their voice on the other line? Have you ever had a premonition something would happen and it does? Have you ever experienced d?j? vu? Some people believe that the intuition we all have is a basic level of psychic ability inherent in all people and that these skills can be further developed through proper training. Executive produced by Tony Krantz (24) and Victoria Holt, The Gift, a unique six-episode, one-hour weekly reality series will delve into the world of psychic phenomena in a way never seen before.

After testing the baseline psychic abilities of people throughout the country, eight contestants will be selected to participate in an emotionally intense "boot camp for intuitives." Run by the world's greatest psychics, our finalists will compete against each other in a series of gripping challenges devised to test their growing abilities. One-by-one, they will be eliminated to reveal a final gifted, metaphysical winner. But then again, they already know they're going to win! Or do they?

Scripted Development

THE BRIDGE

From executive producers Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) and Todd Milliner under their production banner Hazy Mills Productions, The Bridge is a dramedy in the vein of Defending Your Life and Wings of Desire in which a group of cynical, flawed souls are trapped in purgatory and must affect positive changes on the living in order to earn their way out. The project is written by Julia Dahl (The West Wing, Party of Five).

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

Based on the 2004 feature film of the same name starring Ashton Kutcher, The Butterfly Effect is about a man who discovers he has the ability to go back in time and change the course of events for himself and others, though not always for the better. NBC Universal Television Studio is producing with FilmEngine's Anthony Rhulen and AJ Dix, and Benderspink's Chris Bender and J.C. Spink serving as executive producers.

WAREHOUSE 13

Continuing its strong creative relationship with Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica), SCI FI is developing a new series project with the prolific producer/writer titled Warehouse 13. After bungling a government case, a federal forensic accountant and an assistant U.S. attorney are banished to Warehouse 13, a storage facility in nowhere North Dakota, where they must spend their days cataloguing thousands of artifacts, relics and other odd detritus collected by our government over the centuries. They quickly discover that each strange item has a story...and often the stories involve the supernatural, the extra-terrestrial, the fantastic and/or the downright bizarre. Executive produced by Moore, the project will be written by D. Brent Mote (Atomic Train). NBC Universal Television Studio is producing through a previously announced overall production deal with Ronald D. Moore.

Investigative Series and Specials

Following SCI FI's successful Special, The Bermuda Triangle: Startling New Secrets, the Channel will partner with NBC News Productions on a new investigative series, SCI FI INVESTIGATES as well as several 2-hour Specials.

SCI FI Investigates (working title), a real-life X-Files, will aggressively explore the mysterious, wondrous and unexplained of our world. Capitalizing on the experience and resources of NBC News Productions, the series and its team of investigators will seek to uncover new evidence by using the latest forensic technology to reveal new perspectives on world-renowned mysteries.

In addition, several stand-alone two-hour Specials are in the works with NBC News Productions including THE TOP 10 WAYS THE WORLD COULD END TOMORROW, in which potential scenarios for the earth's next mass extinction, as well as potential solutions, will be explored, and ATLANTIS, examining the celebrated lost civilization, which, according to Plato, disappeared beneath the ocean waves nearly 12,000 years ago.

SCI FI Channel is a television network where "what if" is what's on. SCI FI fuels the imagination of viewers with original series and events, blockbuster movies and classic science fiction and fantasy programming, as well as a dynamic Web site (www.scifi.com) and magazine. Launched in 1992, and currently in 85 million homes, SCI FI Channel is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies.