Wyle will battle aliens on TNT

And you thought trying to save every patient who came through the doors of County General was tough. Now Noah Wyle has got to try to save what's left of the human race after an alien invasion.

TNT has announced that "ER" alumnus Wyle will star in an as-yet untitled pilot for a series. According to the cable network, he'll play "the leader of a rag-tag group of soldiers and civilians as they struggle against an occupying alien force."

"The pilot opens shortly after aliens have wiped out most of the human population. They are now going about the task of rounding up the few survivors."

Not only will Steven Spielberg be one of the executive producers — as he was on "ER" — Oscar-nominated screenwriter Robert Rodat ("Saving Private Ryan") is writing the pilot script. Spielberg and Rodat also "co-conceived" the show.

"It is a privilege to be starting a second series with Noah," Spielberg said in a prepared statement. "The first didn't do too bad."

I'm only guessing, but I'll bet this new show doesn't last 15 years and 331 episodes, as did "ER."

There's no word on when this untitled project will make it on the air, but — again, I'm only guessing — you'd think they're might be somewhat of a rush on it because of the competition.

ABC has already announced that it's reviving "V," the alien-invasion show that aired on NBC back in the mid-1980s. The "re-imaging" of "V" is on the network's midseason slate, although no premiere date has been announced.

THIS IS THE KIND of show that we might expect to see on the Sci Fi Channel. Except that the Sci Fi Channel is about to become SyFy, and those of us who love science fiction are skeptical at best about the soon-to-be renamed channel.

It's all about NBC Universal's attempt to "broaden" the channel's audience — which actually sounds a whole lot more like an attempt to dilute it.

When the change, which takes effect on July 7, was announced, Sci Fi Channel president Dave Howe told reporters, "We love being sci fi, and we're still embracing that. But we're more than just space and aliens and the future — the three things most people think of when they think of sci fi.

"What this does is hopefully give us the best of both worlds. You keep the heritage but also open up to a broader range of content."

Yes, the fabulous content that already includes wrestling and reality shows. And incredibly dumb ghost-hunting shows that consist of bad-quality videotape of people saying, "I'm cold" and "What's that?"

Yes, there have been some notable exceptions over the years — "Battlestar Galactica" being the prime example — but most of what the Sci Fi Channel has produced has been rather insultingly bad. Insulting to science fiction fans, at least.