SyFy Readies New `Battlestar Galactica' Series Pilot

Syfy will continue to build on the Battlestar Galactica franchise with the greenlighting of a new two-hour pilot, Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome.

The pilot, which follows events that occur between Battlestar Galactica and its prequel Caprica, follows a young William Adama's first assignment on the Galactica battlestar during the first war between humans and cylon machines.

"The Galactica universe as re-imagined by Ron Moore and David Eick is rich with possibilities and backstory," said Mark Stern, executive vice president of original programming, Syfy and co-head of content for Universal Cable Productions in a statement. "We jumped at the chance to revisit the William Adama character and explore this exciting chapter in the BSG narrative which falls between the events of the original series and the prequel, Caprica currently airing on Syfy."

The Caprica series, which takes place about 40 years before the events of Battlestar Galactica, currently airs Tuesday nights on Syfy. The first two episodes of the second half of the series' freshman season averaged 860,000 total viewers, according to Nielsen.

The first nine episodes for Caprica that aired earlier this year averaged 1.8 million viewers including DVR usage, said SyFy.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.