Always trust a television network, and Sci Fi Channel in particular, to make a dog's dinner of the goose that lays the golden eggs...

Sci Fi were on the cusp of carving out a captive audience heavy on the advertiser coveted young males segment with their Sci-Fi Friday line-up of "Stargate SG-1", its spin-off "Stargate Atlantis" and Ronald D. Moore's brilliant remake of the 70s cheese fest featuring robotic dogs, "Battlestar Galactica".

Even political pundits were starting to mention that they'd have to cut short their punditry to make it home in time for the three hour shot of escapism.

So what does the big brains at network HQ do? First they take a wrong turn at the "never break up a winning team"-turnpike, and rearange the schedule, so the three shows are no longer in sync, having delayed the airing of the curent season of "Battlestar Galactica", which has lately been paired with British series "Doctor Who". Then came word that the so long in the tooth it's become venerable "Stargate SG-1" would be axed after the current tenth season.

Now SyFy Portal's Michael Hinman reports that the show, which has been suffering a recent ratings slump, will be moved to a Sunday time slot come next year.

When 2007 arrives, "Battlestar Galactica" will be on Fridays no more.

SciFi Channel made the timeslot move for its top-rated drama series official, and will begin to air new episodes of the show Sundays at 10 p.m. ET beginning Jan. 21.
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"Battlestar Galactica" remains one of SciFi Channel's top-rated series, and in the most recent ratings reported by SciFi Wire, was only a tenth of a rating point behind ECW wrestling, which currently is the network's overall highest-rated program. However, ratings have dropped some 25 percent over last year, and has not enjoyed tremendous lead-in success like it did when it was grouped with "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate: Atlantis."

Because jerking the schedule around for tv-series even more has always worked wonders for their longevity in the past...

One thing is for certain, if Sci Fi Channel manages to run this particular venture into the ground, chances are the fan backlash make even the outcry upon their cancelling of "Farscape" seem like a mild case of peevishnes.

It's new sunday partner will be new wizard detective series "The Dresden Files", based on the novels by Jim Butcher, which might be the glimmer of hope here, as this darker and grittier series might actually be a better fit for "Galactica" than the good Doctor.

As an aside, all the audiobooks of "The Dresden Files" have been read by actor James Marsters, recently of "Smallville", but better know for his role as the conflicted vampire Spike in Joss Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel".