Shows trying to win prestige as part of the Rod Serling Award classic television series class will have a lot more competition as 31 new genre shows have become eligible.

Among those joining the fray are popular shows "Firefly," "The X-Files," "Earth: Final Conflict" and "Dark Angel." They can now be considered along with other shows that ended their run before them as part of Airlock Alpha's annual Portal Awards.

Named after "Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling, the Serling Award honors classic science-fiction the same way the Gene Roddenberry Award acknowledges lifetime achievement of an individual. It's an award that can only be won once, and is voted on each year by the fans. It was first included as part of the Portal Awards in 2010, and will be a part of the more than dozen categories included in this year's awards, which will launch in June.

To be eligible for the award, a show has to be genre-based, and have not created any new episodes as part of the series itself for at least 10 years. Any show that ended their run in 2002 will now become eligible. In order for them to make the final ballot, however, they must be among the five shows selected by the Portal Awards Nominating Committee, an international committee of readers and GenreNexus staff that helps decide who readers will vote for in the summer time.

Past inductees include "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in 2010 and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" in 2011. They joined the charter class that included the original "Star Trek," the original "Doctor Who" and Serling's very own "Twilight Zone."

The inclusion of "Firefly" this year is slightly controversial. The end of the show actually took place in 2003 when the remaining episodes were burned off. However, because the series officially ended in 2002 shortly after its premiere, "Firefly" was granted eligibility beginning this year, and not starting in 2013.

Other shows that will be included in the new eligibility list include "Beastmaster," "Lexx," "Haunted," the 1990s revival of "The Outer Limits," "Wolf Lake" and "Witchblade." All shows will remain eligible for the award until they win it.

Some of the nominated shows have won past Portal Awards. Nathan Fillion won for Best Actor/Television for "Firefly" in 2006 (when the show became eligible again after Syfy aired previously unaired episodes). Christina Hendricks, who now stars in "Mad Men" on AMC, won Best Special Guest/Television that same year for the "Firefly" episode "Trash," which also won for Best Episode/Television.

"Firefly" won Best Series/Television in 2006, while "The X-Files" is actually the first-ever recipient of that award, winning it in 1999.

There will be some changes to the Portal Awards this year. Best Website, which has been awarded since 2006, will be discontinued. Whether or not "Best Web Production" will be utilized this year will depend on the depth of potential nominees. The lack of depth suspended the category in 2011.

The Portal Awards, originally known as the SyFy Genre Awards, is one of the longest-lasting online awards programs designed to give readers a say in what's nominated. The awards have been handed out on an almost annual basis since 1999 (no awards were given out in 2001 since it happened just around the terrorist attacks) and have honored 166 winners.

Readers will get a chance to start voting once per day for 30 days beginning June 25. The most recent winners in 2011 included an almost sweep from HBO's "Game of Thrones" including Best Series/Television, Best Actor/Television (Sean Bean) and Best Episode/Television ("Winter Is Coming").

To be eligible for the award, television shows and movies must have been first released in America between June 1, 2011 and May 31, 2012. This year's awards will be the 13th edition.