Sanctuary Ratings Discussion

[Backstep]

People follow habits though. Friday night has been established as the sci-fi night for some years now. For some reason it's just easier to watch a show live on Friday night for a lot of people than on a Monday night.

I managed to catch Sanctuary this Monday but that was a fluke. Monday is the day when all the week's stuff hits me so watching TV isn't really on my list. I'm usually "in motion" all day long and can't stop to sit down in front of the TV. By Friday I've handled most stuff and then I can relax a bit. I think a lot of people are that way, they get busy early in the week and then have more time come Friday night. This is totally unscientific though and simply off the top of my head.

I agree to a point, by 8pm on weekdays i was ready to sit back and relax (retired now) for the next day of work. Friday and Saturday nights were filled with meeting friends, i mostly caught sci-fridays on the second viewing.

 

[Backstep]

What if there are a lot of casual viewers who like the show but simply aren't interested enough to follow it? That seems to be the case here. I'm talking convenience. I'm not going to change my schedule to follow a show anywhere. TV is just not that important to me. Am I alone in this? Probably not.

And yes, people DVR shows but that ratings count isn't that important yet unfortunately.

IMO it's more than the loss of casual viewers, a 0.600 mil live viewers seams like a loss of core viewers to me.

 

[Lilith]

For me, I find it hard to believe the day of the week and time of the year have that much to do with how a established show preforms. People still work all year, the 18-30 crowd still goes out at night (even more so during the summer months). If Monday is the problem day for syfy we will see it reflected in W13 and Eureka in a couple weeks when they start.

Do you really think that they are hitting their demograpic with that age group? I would have thought the age would have been much younger for the day of the week not to have changed viewers habits.

 

[Lilith]

At this point in time, not sure, look at the first two ep's this season, they are in the 1.1 mil range then drop off suddenly. Why? Is it really Mondays? If you like a show you will follow it to the new day and time slot, right? If Fridays are the only day of the week syfy can place scifi related show on air, that means the rest of the week will be filled with even more wrestling and reality shows further pushing syfy out of the scifi business.

Yes but Scifi Fridays was what I had for near 20 years and I planned alot around it. So if the rest of the week is loaded up with wrestling and reality shows it wouldn't have fazed me since I only watched SCIFI for stargate anyway. Don't tune in at all now since they cancelled stargate I wasn't paying the extra money for the channel. Back when dirt was young they use to put on mini-series like Shogun, Centennial, Rich man Poor man, the thorn birds. Never missed an episode and it took weeks to finish watching it all. My point is, if you like something you watch even if you have hundreds of channels. I never watch the game or music channels or sports but because I'm not that gifted with the remote I ususally have to scroll through them and I find interesting things to watch. I don't need to be reminded to be entertained. If my program moved I'd find it.

Around here we have been having graduations and end of school year parties and awards banquets so maybe that has contributed to the decline.

 

[Backstep]

Back when Syfy was Sci-Fi anyone remember SG1-Mondays? 4 hours of reruns of SG1 on Mondays starting at 6pm for years. The ratings must have been good for them to keep it running for a couple years.

 

[Graybrew1]

Being a Scifi geek, I consider myself an exception, not a casual viewer , so I don't know. I look for the Scifi shows, find them and watch them.

 

[Mr. A]

What if there are a lot of casual viewers who like the show but simply aren't interested enough to follow it? That seems to be the case here. I'm talking convenience. I'm not going to change my schedule to follow a show anywhere. TV is just not that important to me. Am I alone in this? Probably not.

And yes, people DVR shows but that ratings count isn't that important yet unfortunately.

I think you are right in pointing that out, Shaved. Perhaps Sanctuary is the kind of show that pulls in a lot of casual viewers but doesn't have that loyal fanbase core that will follow the show around whenever it airs. Especially - and I think this is more important here that the actual timeslot - if the show keeps moving around!

Hello, I'm new here.

Oh, and welcome to GateFans, Rocky. I remember seeing you a lot on the SGU and Sanctuary threads at GW.

 

[mzzz]

Don't know why they messed with a good thing. I mean, they moved SGU from Friday cause it was bleeding viewers and was going to be canceled if it stayed there. Why the move for Sanctuary? Wasn't bleeding viewers too much. Unless they wanted whatever show they replaced it with to gain in viewers. But one has to assess if the move netted a surplus of viewers than from the previous arrangement. Of course, there are issues involved where different days have different values for the number of viewers. But is the other show that's in the friday slot now getting better ratings than what Sanctuary was getting?

 

[Rocky89]

I think you are right in pointing that out, Shaved. Perhaps Sanctuary is the kind of show that pulls in a lot of casual viewers but doesn't have that loyal fanbase core that will follow the show around whenever it airs. Especially - and I think this is more important here that the actual timeslot - if the show keeps moving around!

Oh, and welcome to GateFans, Rocky. I remember seeing you a lot on the SGU and Sanctuary threads at GW.

Thank you for the welcome.

Don't know why they messed with a good thing. I mean, they moved SGU from Friday cause it was bleeding viewers and was going to be canceled if it stayed there. Why the move for Sanctuary? Wasn't bleeding viewers too much. Unless they wanted whatever show they replaced it with to gain in viewers. But one has to assess if the move netted a surplus of viewers than from the previous arrangement. Of course, there are issues involved where different days have different values for the number of viewers. But is the other show that's in the friday slot now getting better ratings than what Sanctuary was getting?

No, Sanctuary NEVER went below 1.2 or 1.1 I think.

SGU was doing better than Sanctuary on Friday, at least in the 18-49 area, SGU had a younger audience, speaking of which, some episodes were reaching 0.6, 0.7 in the 18-49, where as Sanctuary was getting 0.4 – 0.5 most eps with the occasional 0.6. Thats with WWE as a lead in, SGU had no such thing.

Stargate Universe (9pm)
- 1.587 million viewers
- 1.0/2 HH
- 0.6/2 A18-49

Sanctuary
- 1.574 million viewers
- 1.0/2 HH
- 0.5/2 A18-49

I want those ratings back.

 

[Joelist]

It was typical dumb SyFy thinking. Sanctuary was very reliable in its slot, It got a consistent 1.5+ million viewers. So of course they move it and don't really advertise the move, All this to try to save Urban Legends. Basically Sanctuary is running about what UL did in the Monday slot and UL is not getting what Sanctuary did. So SyFy is out that roughly 500,000 viewers.

 

[Bluce Ree]

[...]

Rocky! Rocky! Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!

I just watched a Rocky marathon on AMC and was caught up in the moment.

 

[Overmind One]

WELCOME to GateFans!

Hello, I'm new here.

Seeing those low ratings only fuels my frustration for Syfy, and breaks my heart for the show. I'm disgusted that Syfy would do that to Sanctuary, how they'd ruin the show, only to help another show that did way worse. Syfy is not only hurting the shows reputation, but the cast and crew, and us fans. I hope Syfy knows what they did was wrong, and I hope they move the show back home in S4, or else there will be no S5.

What Syfy is doing is beyond insulting and disgusting. Amanda came off at GttS as not to impressed that Syfy had the Sanctuary theme cut a bit for the US audience. I wouldn't be surprised if she also isn't happy about this. Syfy is killing not only the show, but what sci-fi means/is. Sanctuary was doing well, no problem o Fri, and 5 eps on Mon, and it crashes. This is not the shows fault, but Syfy. Unless they want another fan uproar on their hands, like they did with Caprica and SGU, they’d better put Sanctuary back on Fri, in it’s normal time slot.

Syfy is ruining the show, embarrassing the cast and crew, and hurting us fans. If Syfy cared one tenth about the fans, as they do about money, they'd be better off.

First of all, WELCOME to GateFans!


I agree with you regarding Syfy's meddling with Sanctuary. But I think the real weakness in the show this season has been the stories (writing). The characters are very well defined, the premise is still intact and they are on track. But without a compelling arc, the show has become less interesting. The night of the week matters, sure...but fans of a show will follow it to whatever night they need. Perhaps this show will benefit more from DVR numbers than when it was on Fridays...I dont know.\

I havent seen Briangate here recently to give us feedback, but Im sure he will be around. Welcome!

 

[EvilSpaceAlien]

Sooo... What do you guys think that Syfy will replace Sanctuary with once it's inevitably cancelled after season 4? I'm betting on Ghost Hunters: Kids.

 

[Joelist]

Don't be so sure they will cancel it after Season 4. For all we know with a proper lead up and no stupid midseason break (which hurt here because it came right in the middle of the arc and totally destroyed the continuity) the ratings will perform better.

As to writing, the main problem is that the move came right when they plugged in a group of "filler" episodes. The last 2 episodes were much, much better. And Season 4 is back to the 13 episode norm, so no filler episodes.

 

[EvilSpaceAlien]

Don't be so sure they will cancel it after Season 4. For all we know with a proper lead up and no stupid midseason break (which hurt here because it came right in the middle of the arc and totally destroyed the continuity) the ratings will perform better.

I dunno, the show has lost almost half of their viewers since the midseason premiere and I think that even that 1,2 million was close to cancellation territory. But I guess we'll see if the show will be able to recoup some of its viewers in S4 with perhaps a better storyline and timeslot, but I'm worried that it just won't be enough for Syfy.

 

[YoshiKart64]

Stargate Universe (9pm)
- 1.587 million viewers
- 1.0/2 HH
- 0.6/2 A18-49

Sanctuary
- 1.574 million viewers
- 1.0/2 HH
- 0.5/2 A18-49

I want those ratings back.

Me too

 

[Rocky89]

Since the day the move came up, many things have explained why this is a bad idea.

1. MANY fans on Gateworld and on other sites expressed how bad this would be.
2. The Gateworld homepage has a few articles on why Sanctuary belongs on Fri, and not any other day.
3. Amanda herself tweeted 3 times in one night how she was unsure of the move.
4. Syfy moved the show in such a SHORT period of time, giving very little advertising of the new day.
5. The show moved in only 3 days, giving people little time to know about the move.
6. Syfy paired Sanctuary with SGU, a dying show that's already cancelled.
7. More news articles hoping they'll move back to Fri.
8. The show has, like, no lead ins now.
9. All fan promotion, tweets and RTing on twitter isn't helping.
10. 5 bad ratings episodes in a row, and ratings seem to be getting worse.

Nothing, at all, not not one good thing has come out of this, and the only hope Sanctuary has is by moving it back to Fri.

 

[Backstep]

With all the talk of Sanctuarys move to Mondays is killing the show is giving credence to the sgu squees argument that the move from Fridays killed sgu. Are viewers of syfy channel so indoctrinated, so entrenched in thinking, scifi is a Friday only slot? Outside of summer when Monday and Tuesday can be added? If the Friday only day holds water then sgu if it stayed on friday would have a 3rd season by this reasoning.

 

[YoshiKart64]

With all the talk of Sanctuarys move to Mondays is killing the show is giving credence to the sgu squees argument that the move from Fridays killed sgu. Are viewers of syfy channel so indoctrinated, so entrenched in thinking, scifi is a Friday only slot? Outside of summer when Monday and Tuesday can be added? If the Friday only day holds water then sgu if it stayed on friday would have a 3rd season by this reasoning.

Looking at these numbers I honestly think this could have been the case. All the show needed was good enough numbers for Syfy to consider a farewell season for Stargate; Friday could have given it that bumb. But yeh, we'll never know now.

EDIT: Although I should say this is all in retrospect. Syfy trying such a move is hardly a bad thing, it could have turned out great for all they knew.

 

[Mr. A]

Since the day the move came up, many things have explained why this is a bad idea.

1. MANY fans on Gateworld and on other sites expressed how bad this would be.
2. The Gateworld homepage has a few articles on why Sanctuary belongs on Fri, and not any other day.
3. Amanda herself tweeted 3 times in one night how she was unsure of the move.
4. Syfy moved the show in such a SHORT period of time, giving very little advertising of the new day.
5. The show moved in only 3 days, giving people little time to know about the move.
6. Syfy paired Sanctuary with SGU, a dying show that's already cancelled.
7. More news articles hoping they'll move back to Fri.
8. The show has, like, no lead ins now.
9. All fan promotion, tweets and RTing on twitter isn't helping.
10. 5 bad ratings episodes in a row, and ratings seem to be getting worse.

Nothing, at all, not not one good thing has come out of this, and the only hope Sanctuary has is by moving it back to Fri.

What is Syfy showing at 9pm before Sanctuary?