Every year, scores of cosplayers and nerd-culture fans across the country, maybe even the world, participate in a “Hunger Games” of sorts over tickets to one of the most coveted events of the year–San Diego Comic-Con, the creme de la comic.
And every year, thousands of TV, movie, and comic-book fans are kept from achieving their dreams of being part of a three-day celebration that physically includes stars like Game of Thrones’s Peter Dinklage and The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus, either due to a lack of tickets or a lack of funding. Well, this year, that might not be a problem.
Syfy announced today that they will be telecasting all three days and nights of San Diego Comic-Con to viewers at home, Deadline reports. The special, titled Syfy Presents Live from Comic-Con, will air nightly at 8PM and will run concurrently with the convention itself, from the night of Thursday, July 21st through Saturday night, on July 23rd.
The special is expected to include every aspect under the sun about San Diego Comic-Con except the ability to physically place fans in the city-sized hall itself (and it will also unfortunately prevent viewers from spending hundreds of dollars at the scores of booths in the hall). The broadcast will, however, stream non-stop coverage of the atmosphere on the floor, exclusive interviews with top-level television and movie stars, immediate coverage of breaking news from the panels, first-hand reveals of teasers and trailers for upcoming movies normally only shown, at first, within the walls of Comic-Con, and more.
Syfy Presents Live at Comic-Con will also include interviews with convention-goers, giving the convention a visual interaction with cosplayers and superfans that people at home usually only get to encounter through still photos. Syfy will even host its own events, anywhere from parties to games.
Said Heather Olander, Senior Vice President, Alternative Series, Development and Production, Syfy, “Our goal with Syfy Presents Live from Comic-Con is to give everyone the experience of being on the convention floor, at the events, or just walking through the frenzied streets of the Gaslamp District … with hundreds of thousands of their closest friends.”
What this all means for avid fans of hits like The Walking Dead (who are likely still reeling from the question of who Negan killed) to Game of Thrones (who are frankly still recovering from the death of Jon Snow), and even to smaller cult-hits like Marvel’s Agent Carter and Gotham, is that everyone, no matter whether they have tickets or not, will be able to experience the awesome immediacy of knowing inside secrets about their shows and getting to see personal interactions between their favorite stars. It means fans around the world will have an equal opportunity to revel in Comic-Con and get to do everything, just short of breathing the same air as their beloved actors and writers.
In addition to bringing the wealth of the SDCC world to the masses in their three-day special, Syfy will also be airing 7 Days of Comic Con on Sunday, July 17th, which will be a week-long excitement-prep for fans featuring custom content to satiate fans before the real fun begins.