Syfy recently announced plans to rebrand itself, shifting away from the D-movie “Sharknado” schlock-fests, reality shows and pro wrestling and refocusing on quality original programming and along those lines, it’s unveiling its promising new series ‘The Magicians’ on December 16 at 10pm. To mark the special event, the pilot episode will air commercial-free!

The show will return for its regular run in late January. Based on Lev Grossman’s hit fantasy novel series, ‘The Magicians’ follows an edgy group of students, attending a school for magic wielders. But don’t expect Hogwarts! This series promises to be a bit edgier and with an older cast, a lot sexier.

Syfy will be airing its highly anticipated miniseries ‘Childhood’s End’ on consecutive nights, December 14-16 from 8-10pm. It will be using ‘Childhood’s End’ to help showcase not just ‘The Magicians’ but its other anticipated new drama ‘The Expanse’ starring Thomas Jane. The first two episodes of ‘The Expanse’ will air after the first two episodes on Monday and Tuesday, with ‘The Magicians’ appearing on Wednesday at 10pm.

Here is a quick preview of ‘The Magicians’:

Adapted from Lev Grossman’s New York Times best-selling fantasy trilogy, THE MAGICIANS centers on Quentin Coldwater, a brilliant grad student chosen to attend Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy, a secret upstate New York university specializing in magic. He and his 20-something friends soon discover that the magical fantasy world they read about as children is all too real – and poses grave danger to humanity.

‘The Magicians’ stars Jade Tailor, Jason Ralph, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Hale Appleman, Stella Maeve, Arjun Gupta, Summer Bashil and Edwin Perez.

Its regular premier will be on January 25th.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter