Sometimes, scheduling TV series bites.

Or, at the very least, it’s made much more complicated when programmers have to consider two broadcasters in two different markets when selecting the best time and day for their series.

Such was the case with Bitten, Bell Media’s newest original sci-fi series. Last week, Bell announced Bitten would premiere on Saturday, Jan 11 at 9 p.m., the same timeslot Orphan Black so successfully debuted in earlier this year. However, its U.S. debut  on Syfy will take place two days later, on Monday, Jan. 13 at 10 p.m., following Being Human.

Finding an ideal timeslot for the show was tough, says Rachel Goldstein-Couto, director of programming for specialty, Bell Media. First, they had to wait until Syfy found a slot for the show. Then, when Syfy selected Mondays at 10 p.m., they were faced with the decision to either go day-and-date with Syfy, reaping the benefits of simultaneous broadcast, or go it alone. (Either way, Bell Media had the premiere rights to the series.)

But although Monday night at 10 p.m. is a good slot, it is also very competitive, Goldstein-Couto notes, and scheduling Bitten there would put it up against MTV’s Teen Wolf, a series’ for which she felt the target audiences were too similar.

“Monday scared me,” she admits. “We really wanted to give Bitten a great ‘in’ and a great chance and so to have the premiere episode there – we just didn’t like it.”

The team’s next choice was Friday at 10 p.m., starting Jan. 10, but before the decision could be made, Shaw Media’s Showcase claimed the slot for its new sci-fi drama, Helix (also on Syfy).

The next logical choice? Lucky Saturdays.

“It was like, oh my god, why didn’t we think of this before?” she recalls. “Saturday nights [are] Space’s slot. That’s where we launched Orphan Black, Doctor Who – that’s where we’ve launched some of our greatest shows and that’s where we’ve got Bitten now.”

As she notes, Saturday has turned into a launchpad of sorts for Space, with the 9-10 p.m. programming slot growing 74% and 103% for A25-54 and A18-49 audiences, respectively, year-over-year between January and April 2013. (Data provided by Bell Media.) The growth propelled Space to a #1 specialty ranking in the timeslot during the same period.

However, to hedge against any viewer confusion arising from Syfy’s marketing of its Bitten timeslot, Space will repeat episodes on Mondays at 10 p.m. in tandem with the U.S. channel.

“There’s a lot of bleed from the US; our fans have an idea of what Syfy is doing. So if they have the sense that [Bitten] is on Mondays at 10, then it will be there,” she says.

Bitten will be promoted this weekend (Saturday Nov. 23) with an extended preview during what should be a “massive” day for the channel with the worldwide premiere of Day of the Doctor (the 50th anniversary Doctor Who special), Goldstein-Couto says, then again during Space’s “12 days of SPACE-mas” programming promotion, and finally with a mass promo blast leading up to the premiere across all Bell Media properties.

Bitten is produced by No Equal Entertainment, Hoodwink Entertainment, and eOne in association with Space and Bell Media.