Ratings II

[shavedape]

If my memory serves me, I believe he clarified his statement later and said that the 2 season thing still depended on the performance of the first ten episodes.

Obvious back peddling to assuage certain "injured" executive producer friends. They had an entire season of SGU filmed before it even aired. There was zero market testing of SGU. Work on Season 2 began even though the ratings had been dropping like a stone thru the entire first season. The show was resting on a cushion of a guarantee of at least 2 seasons, that much is obvious.

Engler's statement didn't need clarification, it needed obfuscation once it was realized that he let the cat out of the bag in a roomful of disgruntled Stargate fans. He didn't misspeak the first time around, he told the truth, otherwise why even make the comment at all?

 

[shavedape]

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Which they had a bottom line average rating for, there was no way it could fall below that in it's first ten eps. So it may as well have been just called 2 years.

That's why I think the drifters took a slower approach with the storyline it doesn't explain why they didn't do more to increase viewership from the backhalf of season one.

It's obvious by the pace of SGU that the writers weren't worried about anyone breathing down their necks. They had a nice, safe cushion of guaranteed time to work with. This couldn't be anymore clear.

 

[Mr. A]

Which they had a bottom line average rating for, there was no way it could fall below that in it's first ten eps. So it may as well have been just called 2 years.

That's why I think the drifters took a slower approach with the storyline it doesn't explain why they didn't do more to increase viewership from the backhalf of season one.

It's obvious by the pace of SGU that the writers weren't worried about anyone breathing down their necks. They had a nice, safe cushion of guaranteed time to work with. This couldn't be anymore clear.

Yes, and so ironically enough, the 2 year guarantee may have been the cause of the show's demise!

 

[shavedape]

Exactly

Firstly, it always does. I'm sure the deal had a clause that if the show completely tanked, it would get yanked out to avoid bankrupting Syfy for losing tons of money on a 2 year deal they couldn't get out of. So?

Secondly, you can't forget Craig Engler even touted that such a 2 year deal "was something very unusual in TV". That doesn't sound like SGU had the same chances all other series have when they have to perform right off the bat. It had special protection.

SGU did get a sweet 2 year guarantee and the loyal fans who gave it a chance up until the epsiode Life made sure that the deal was kept.

So I would say that just because SGU had special protection that doesn't disqualify it from being labeled a failure. Giving SGU a guarantee of 2 seasons was an attempt to cheat the system, to circumvent any opposition be it from ratings or critique. It didn't work in either case and therefore it is a failure, pure and simple.

 

[shavedape]

Most definitely!

Yes, and ironically enough, the 2 year guarantee may have been the cause of the show's demise!

With everyone gushing about "Twin Destinies", which hearkened back to the old Stargate formula of action/adventure, it's shockingly obvious that TPTB screwed up by wasting time with such a slow pace and vapid melodrama story lines. Those guys were writing episodes without any sense of pressure or attention to what was appealing. They had a guaranteed amount of time to rest on their laurels and pen a vanity project and this, as you posit, is what killed the show.

 

[Overmind One]

With everyone gushing about "Twin Destinies", which hearkened back to the old Stargate formula of action/adventure, it's shockingly obvious that TPTB screwed up by wasting time with such a slow pace and vapid melodrama story lines. Those guys were writing episodes without any sense of pressure or attention to what was appealing. They had a guaranteed amount of time to rest on their laurels and pen a vanity project and this, as you posit, is what killed the show.

Read my review! I totally charred it.

 

[Copenhagen]

I was pretty sure that after I quit watching that it would probably not get picked up for another season. But now I'm seeing that it was pretty much guarantee'd a second season? It should never have been greenlit in the first place.


I'm going to say that it will fall below 1 million. Especially since it is already know that it is now cancelled. This means that the people that did like it are now, pissed off as well.

While the Stargate fans that are trying to stick with it...possibly, i'm sure there are some out there somewhere, not me though. Anyway, when they see the episodes with the original Stargate Characters, and how bad they force them to be...will probably make them a little fustrated to put it mildly.

It will be lucky to stay around 800 thousand views I think. I stopped watching it after life I think it was, maybe I watched justice too. Can't remember. But it was horrible. I know I did not see Divided, cause I heard a guy at work talking about it. I was not going to watch it anymore at that point though.

 

[McSheppard]

Save for the horrible McKay reference, I liked this episode. Probably more than almost everything else I have seen on SGU.
I'm giving it a B or B+ on the Syfy poll. No, a B just because of the McKay dissing and the failure to mention Zalenka among the smart people on the SGC program.

 

[Mr. A]

Hey Briangate, a few times you were able to get your hands on a minute by minute ratings breakdown for an episode. Do you think you'll be seeing one for Twin Destinies? I'd like to know whether there was a measurable reaction by the viewers after the aforementioned McKay comment...

 

[johnsheppard]

Brian the numbers you posted represent first air and reruns cos I don't understand the 2nd and third numbers.I knew S5 got 1.7 in average.

 

[Briangate78]

Brian the numbers you posted represent first air and reruns cos I don't understand the 2nd and third numbers.I knew S5 got 1.7 in average.

Yes, 8pm slots were the 3rd run, which was the previous week episode leading into a new SGA episode. The 11pm one, was the 2nd airing which airs right after the new episode airs. Does that make sense?

 

[Briangate78]

Hey Briangate, a few times you were able to get your hands on a minute by minute ratings breakdown for an episode. Do you think you'll be seeing one for Twin Destinies? I'd like to know whether there was a measurable reaction by the viewers after the aforementioned McKay comment...

Those numbers take time to get, and are not easily accessed. sorry.

 

[johnsheppard]

Caprica was a failure, SGU is just not as successful as the last 2 series. I think calling it a failure is too extreme since it did make it for 2 seasons. But it is no way in hell a success. I doubt any show that only goes 2 seasons is a success in any country.

Briangate I'm sure you know if sgu got 2 seasons it's only cos the 2 years contract signed since the beginning. Without this contract sgu would never get 2nd season cos the rates. So I or we can say sgu is also failed show.

 

[johnsheppard]

Yes, 8pm slots were the 3rd run, which was the previous week episode leading into a new SGA episode. The 11pm one, was the 2nd airing which airs right after the new episode airs. Does that make sense?

Thx for the answer. Yes that makes sense to me by now

 

[johnsheppard]

I have a great slogan for sgpoo : Universe: bringing Stargate to new LOWS!!!!!



sgpoo has done NOTHING but rehash previous sg1 and sga storylines. Deliverance was a rehash of SG1's serpents venom with a wee bit of unending - the ursini committing mass suicide! tptw of sgpoo has no originiality left in them. And remember- these are NOT the same people who did sg1 or even sga- they are the ones who couldn't find another job so stayed with the franchise. BW had to share with glassner and rcc was a writer for sg1 long before he got the big boy's chair. same with Loretta.

ITA

 

[Tropicana]

On a related note -

As some of you may be aware, the UK ratings for SGU are less than stellar, only receiving less than 200,000 viewers.

I was reading the Daily Mail newspaper today (as it was on some table) and on one page, it was talking about Peaches Geldof's show "OMG Totally Peaches" where Peaches Geldof is some sort of agony aunt/advice columnist, has been receiving poor ratings, at times receiving less than 250,000 viewers and that, the show will more than likely won't be renewed for a 2nd season.

Based on this, if SGU was a British TV series and with the overnights figure it has been receiving here being less than 200,000 viewers, then SGU would have been cancelled anyway.

 

[johnsheppard]

If you don't like sgu atleast support the franchise and sgu is apart of it. It may be the red headed step child but it still is

SRY I love SG1 and more SGA cos their characters. I followed SG franchise for 15 years but I will not watch a series that don't bring me any pleasure or entertainment and trust me I give a fairly chance to sgu.
SG deserves more than sgu and didn't deserve to end like this.
I will not come in the BW blackmail watch sgu and you will save SG and you will get your SG 1and SGA movie I promised if you watched my new series.
But I will more follow his another statement: if you don't like it don't watch it.

 

[Inara]

Save for the horrible McKay reference, I liked this episode. Probably more than almost everything else I have seen on SGU.
I'm giving it a B or B+ on the Syfy poll. No, a B just because of the McKay dissing and the failure to mention Zalenka among the smart people on the SGC program.

Wait. They were dissing McKay? What did they say? I'm sure it's a set up the upcoming appearance of not-McKay, but still, that bites.

 

[Inara]

If you don't like sgu atleast support the franchise and sgu is apart of it. It may be the red headed step child but it still is

Short answer: No.

Longer answer: Do you expect everyone who likes one version to Law & Order to like all of them? You've got to like both flavors of NCIS and Criminal Minds, as well as three flavors of CSI? Does someone have to like every series of Star Trek and/or the movies? Or do those count differently due to differences in the canvas allowed in film vs. TV?

I support shows, not franchises, and if one version has characters I like and/or better storylines, I'll watch. Otherwise? No.

 

[Overmind One]

This.

SGU had a guarantee of 2 seasons. This has been confirmed (Craig Engler I believe). Just because they had a cushion of 2 seasons that doesn't mean they didn't fail, they did. You may have liked "Twin Destinies" but one little victory in 2 seasons worth of dross doesn't save SGU from being branded an overall failure. SGU is a failure, on many levels.

THAT is a huge game-changer in the scheme of things. Fans speculated that SGU had gotten its two seasons from the beginning, but the showrunners denied that. Joseph Mallozzi denied it outright, even when Chris Engel tweeted publicly that this was the case. Many SGU fans hun on to that and tried to imply that Stargate Universe was "renewed" for a second season (as if it had earned it). Technically, SGU was NEVER renewed. It only played out its original two year agreed upon contract.

If the show had been forced to truly earn its second season by demonstrating success in the ratings or by some other positive measure like DVD sales or a steady trending up of popularity within the fandom, it would never have gotten a season 2.