Syfy (formerly known as the SciFi Channel) has announced that the highly anticipated Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica will debut on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 10 pm (ET, PT).  The events chronicled in Caprica predate those in the modern BSG series by 58 years.  Caprica stars Eric Stolz, Esai Morales, Polly Walker and Paula Malcomson (see “BSG Prequel Greenlit”).

According to Variety, Syfy has order twenty 1-hour episodes of Caprica, though the cable network has not indicated whether the 20 episodes will be split into two seasons or run continuously starting in January.