You Can “Zone” Out this Fourth of July with a Marathon on the “Heroes & Icons” Channel

Until a couple years ago, tuning in to a Twilight Zone marathon was easy: Every Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve, just flip to the Syfy Channel. The only questions were what time it started and how long it would last.

Things are a bit more complicated in 2023.

Syfy continues to air a New Year’s Zone-a-thon, but the last Fourth of July one was in 2017. Since then, they’ve celebrated Independence Day with Harry Potter, Sharknado, and other more modern fare — such as the 2019 Zone reboot, which is this year’s substitute for the original classic. Hmm, the year they ran a full day of The Greatest American Hero isn’t looking so bad now.

Into the breach stepped a plucky little channel called Decades. They not only started airing a Fourth of July marathon of the original Zone a few years ago, they scheduled a competing one on New Year’s — one that was often longer and less invasively sliced up with commercials (which, along with some truly ham-handed edits, has always been the bane of the marathon).

The only problem was visibility. Decades’ reach wasn’t all that great, at least compared to Syfy’s. And now it’s defunct, having changed its name and switched to an all-comedy format early this year. But never fear, Zone-a-thon fans. Another channel has picked up the “Rod, White & Blue” banner, so you will be able to binge your favorite jaunts into the fifth dimension.