'Talk Soup' for geeks: 'The Wil Wheaton Project' on Syfy
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "The Big Bang Theory" actor Wil Wheaton gets his own TV show lambasting the weirdest and funniest things to pop up on the Web.
No ghost hunter, cat meme, pop culture mashup, or nerd celebrity mishap will be safe from commentary by geek icon and actor Wil Wheaton, thanks to a new comedy show called " The Wil Wheaton Project" debuting Tuesday, May 27 on Syfy.
The network has announced "The Wil Wheaton Project" (working title) for a 12-episode summer series airing at 10 p.m. local time. The weekly 30-minute comedy show, hosted and developed by Wheaton, will offer a celebration of everything sci-fi and geeky in the news.
"Each week, Wil provides his insider point of view, sense of humor, and expertise as he dissects the week's most popular and trending topics across sci-fi film, television and pop culture, as well as video games, viral videos and news," Syfy said in a press release. "Wil is on his feet for the rapid-fire half hour, delivering sharp, straight-to-camera commentary as he riffs his way through content clips. The result is a fun appreciation for all things science fiction."
Wheaton added on his blog, that "The Wil Wheaton Project is a weekly roundup of the things I love on television and on the Internet, with commentary and jokes, and the occasional visit from interesting people who make those things happen."
"It's sort of like 'Talk Soup' for geeks, with a heavy focus on those hilariously bad paranormal reality shows," Wheaton added. "In fact, that's where the whole thing started a year ago, but as we worked on the show more and more, we discovered that there were lots of scripted paranormal shows that provided a ton of comedic material. When we expanded to cover the scripted shows, we discovered that nobody was doing a show like this that was just focused on the genre shows that nerds like us love, and we decided that we'd make that show because of reasons."
Wheaton is no stranger to all things geeky. He's best known for his role as Wesley Crusher on the hit sci-fi TV series "Star Trek: The Next Generation." But he also gained fans from his recurring roles as a scientist on Syfy's "Eureka," a hacker on TNT's "Leverage," and a version of himself on CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" (disclosure: CBS is the parent company of CNET). In addition to acting, Wheaton created, produces, and hosts the award-winning Web series "TableTop" where he plays board games and RPGs with his fellow geeky celebrity pals.
"I really love that I get to be part of something that brings Science Fiction back to Syfy," Wheaton wrote on his blog, "and if I read correctly between the lines during our meetings with the Syfy executives, this is just the beginning of the network formerly known as Sci-Fi returning to its science fiction roots, which is awesome."