How SyFy killed SGU

[Stargate Universe Online]

Know I been around and seeing people ask how did SyFy set SGU up to fail so let me tell you how they did that.

When season 1 rolled out they did advertise it, but not too much. They had a promo Ad here and there, but not too many. Season 1 started playing on Friday night at 9:00pm (Eastern Time) on October 2, 2009 and went in to its season break on December 9, 2009 with an average of 2 million viewers. The show came back on April 22, 2010 and finished up season 1 with an average of 1.8 million viewers.

The first half of season 1 had set the story up; the search for food, water, power and supplies. It also set the crews’ back-stories. This is the same for any starting out TV show. It would have been to the 2nd half of season 1 when the action starts.

When season 2 came back it was moved to Tuesday night at 9:00pm (Eastern Time) with little warning to it viewers. This move was done to make room on Friday night for WWE. SyFy is saying they did the move to help SGU because its ratings were dipping. This chart shows that season 1 was doing will and was stable. Yes it did dip from the start but that is normal in any new show.

Screen Shot 2011-12-28 at 9.37.58 AM.jpg


The first half of season 2 ended on November 30, 2010 with an average of 1.078 million viewers, almost half of the viewers it had in season 1 before the move that was to help save SGU.

During the season break SyFy announced on December 16, 2010 that it would not be picking up Stargate Universe for a 3rd season. This was only two weeks after SGU finished up its first half of season 2 with 10 episodes and still had 10 more to go. Also it is likely they made the decision much earlier before the 2nd half of season 2 finishes due to the fact how SGU ended. The last episode of SGU ended in a way that it would not really be a clip hanger but was. The crew may be safe in space, will fly in FTL out and around the drones and we all know Eli will find a way to save himself.

The 2nd half of season 2 airs on March 7, 2011 with no warning to its time change (again) till a week before the first episode aired and during that week they had little promo spots for it. The show was moved to Monday night at 10:00pm (Eastern Time) (this is the time slot they put shows to die and be forgotten). SGU finished up its 2nd half of season 2 with an average of 0.958 half of its season 1.

MGM asked SyFy for permission to make a movie and on April 17, 2011 it was said that the SGU movie was not going to happen.


For the repeated time change and lack of advertisement SyFy failed SGU. It is good to note that MGM has no part in the cancelation of SGU, that is all SyFy or NBC Universal. I hope this clears things up for anyone.

[AlexanderD]

Your point being? You can only beat a dead horse so many ways.....

[jelgate]

Ah the good ol' blame the network for the cancellation. That one never gets old

[Snowman37]

The show's cancellation was obvious. A lack of viewership due to it's departure from the SG-1/Atlantis formula lead to cancellation. Simple, really. A lot of people will fight me on this, but everyone I know who loves Stargate didn't bother with Universe. Obviously, people here (the fans) liked the show, but how many casual viewers (the bulk of the audience) can you name who watched the show?

[jelgate]

The show's cancellation was obvious. A lack of viewership due to it's departure from the SG-1/Atlantis formula lead to cancellation. Simple, really. A lot of people will fight me on this, but everyone I know who loves Stargate didn't bother with Universe. Obviously, people here (the fans) liked the show, but how many casual viewers (the bulk of the audience) can you name who watched the show?

You don't know that. Obviously SGU was cancelled due to lack of viewers but the reason was unknown. As for the people you asked a few people does not make enough for an impact in the ratings. Never mind these things are rarely monocasual.

[Lockon Stratos]

Know I been around and seeing people ask how did SyFy set SGU up to fail so let me tell you how they did that.

When season 1 rolled out they did advertise it, but not too much. They had a promo Ad here and there, but not too many. Season 1 started playing on Friday night at 9:00pm (Eastern Time) on October 2, 2009 and went in to its season break on December 9, 2009 with an average of 2 million viewers. The show came back on April 22, 2010 and finished up season 1 with an average of 1.8 million viewers.

The first half of season 1 had set the story up; the search for food, water, power and supplies. It also set the crews’ back-stories. This is the same for any starting out TV show. It would have been to the 2nd half of season 1 when the action starts.

When season 2 came back it was moved to Tuesday night at 9:00pm (Eastern Time) with little warning to it viewers. This move was done to make room on Friday night for WWE. SyFy is saying they did the move to help SGU because its ratings were dipping. This chart shows that season 1 was doing will and was stable. Yes it did dip from the start but that is normal in any new show.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33385[/ATTACH]


The first half of season 2 ended on November 30, 2010 with an average of 1.078 million viewers, almost half of the viewers it had in season 1 before the move that was to help save SGU.

During the season break SyFy announced on December 16, 2010 that it would not be picking up Stargate Universe for a 3rd season. This was only two weeks after SGU finished up its first half of season 2 with 10 episodes and still had 10 more to go. Also it is likely they made the decision much earlier before the 2nd half of season 2 finishes due to the fact how SGU ended. The last episode of SGU ended in a way that it would not really be a clip hanger but was. The crew may be safe in space, will fly in FTL out and around the drones and we all know Eli will find a way to save himself.

The 2nd half of season 2 airs on March 7, 2011 with no warning to its time change (again) till a week before the first episode aired and during that week they had little promo spots for it. The show was moved to Monday night at 10:00pm (Eastern Time) (this is the time slot they put shows to die and be forgotten). SGU finished up its 2nd half of season 2 with an average of 0.958 half of its season 1.

MGM asked SyFy for permission to make a movie and on April 17, 2011 it was said that the SGU movie was not going to happen.


For the repeated time change and lack of advertisement SyFy failed SGU. It is good to note that MGM has no part in the cancelation of SGU, that is all SyFy or NBC Universal. I hope this clears things up for anyone.

Addressing each paragraph in my response to you.

If you look at the ratings they dipped below 2 million quite a few times during season one, even as low as 1.3 million before the first half the season was over, it seems people were unsure of the show, what didn't help the show was the midseason break, in my opinion it should of aired all 20 episodes without a break, which Syfy didn't do.

The audience had no way of knowing the action would start in the 2nd half of season 1, people formed their opinion of the show in the first 10 episodes, some stuck around, some left, this isn't Syfys fault or the creators.

Actually your chart proves nothing, Craig Engler was correct when he said the ratings were dipping, they were obviously concerned with the way it was going up and down like a Yoyo, they were anything but stable. They moved the show to help it, they don't intentionally kill shows, especially Stargate, they wanted Stargate Universe to succeed and thought a change in days would help it.

Your point about the show having half the viewers is true, but not the meaning, the drop in viewers in my opinion was lack of interest in the show, this again isn't Syfys fault or a conspiracy, people lost interest, it happens.

Every Stargate show has been renewed during/after its first 10 episodes, the creators even said this, they thought that Season 2 would be better in terms of ratings than the first season, they had no idea it would of dropped like that, I think everyone thought it would be a change in fortunes and things would improve and they'd get the 3rd season, it's standard in television to renew after the first dozen episodes. The fact the show ended on a cliffhanger isn't Syfys fault. They even said they'd renew any show that had the viewer figures to make it sustainable, it didn't.

They advertised Season 2, and as said above the timeslot was due to the more adult nature of the show if anything, everything else you've said is matter of opinion with no facts to back up, pretty much everyone including Syfy and the creators said the move in days was to help improve the shows chances of survival and as said above no one knew it'd fail on that day, the fact it was moved again to try and get more interest negates your it was left to die arguement.

MGM didn't ask Syfy for permission to make a movie where did you get that nonsense from? After SGU was cancelled they shut down production on Stargate on a whole and pulled the plug, if anything if Brad is to be believed he tried to get funding and ultimately failed, this isn't Syfys fault, the money wasn't there from MGM to make the movie, Syfy had nothing to do with it, if you follow their twitter they're intrested in Stargate still.

Lastly, your final comment is matter of opinion, what killed the show was the simple fact it was a huge step in a different direction and some people didn't like it, not enough people stuck around. Stargate has an audience, just some people didn't want an SGU type program.

In conclusion your whole arguement is a thinly veiled attempt to pin the blame on Syfy with nothing but circular arguements and conjecture, the death of the show is just one of these things, it sucks we didn't get a Season 3 but coming out with comments like that make the rest of us seem like crybabys unable to let something go.

All we can really hope for is MGM looking at Stargate again and getting some of the old producers together in the future.

[Snowman37]

Obviously SGU was cancelled due to lack of viewers...

Bingo.

...but the reason was unknown.

How can it be unknown? SG-1 went strong for ten years. Atlantis went strong for five years and could have gone on to a sixth. Universe comes along and boom, viewers drop, cancelled. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out.

[lordofseas]

It could have been because of bad acting. It could have been because they switched hours and days. It could have been because the plot was boring, or displeasing, or whatever. It could have been a whole multitude of issues, or just one. You cannot blame SGU's cancellation on what you feel was the problem. The fact is, we don't know why people stopped watching. We can speculate until the end of time, but that is all it is. Speculation.

[Hyndara71]

Know I been around and seeing people ask how did SyFy set SGU up to fail so let me tell you how they did that.

When season 1 rolled out they did advertise it, but not too much. They had a promo Ad here and there, but not too many. Season 1 started playing on Friday night at 9:00pm (Eastern Time) on October 2, 2009 and went in to its season break on December 9, 2009 with an average of 2 million viewers. The show came back on April 22, 2010 and finished up season 1 with an average of 1.8 million viewers.

The first half of season 1 had set the story up; the search for food, water, power and supplies. It also set the crews’ back-stories. This is the same for any starting out TV show. It would have been to the 2nd half of season 1 when the action starts.

When season 2 came back it was moved to Tuesday night at 9:00pm (Eastern Time) with little warning to it viewers. This move was done to make room on Friday night for WWE. SyFy is saying they did the move to help SGU because its ratings were dipping. This chart shows that season 1 was doing will and was stable. Yes it did dip from the start but that is normal in any new show.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33385[/ATTACH]


The first half of season 2 ended on November 30, 2010 with an average of 1.078 million viewers, almost half of the viewers it had in season 1 before the move that was to help save SGU.

During the season break SyFy announced on December 16, 2010 that it would not be picking up Stargate Universe for a 3rd season. This was only two weeks after SGU finished up its first half of season 2 with 10 episodes and still had 10 more to go. Also it is likely they made the decision much earlier before the 2nd half of season 2 finishes due to the fact how SGU ended. The last episode of SGU ended in a way that it would not really be a clip hanger but was. The crew may be safe in space, will fly in FTL out and around the drones and we all know Eli will find a way to save himself.

The 2nd half of season 2 airs on March 7, 2011 with no warning to its time change (again) till a week before the first episode aired and during that week they had little promo spots for it. The show was moved to Monday night at 10:00pm (Eastern Time) (this is the time slot they put shows to die and be forgotten). SGU finished up its 2nd half of season 2 with an average of 0.958 half of its season 1.

MGM asked SyFy for permission to make a movie and on April 17, 2011 it was said that the SGU movie was not going to happen.


For the repeated time change and lack of advertisement SyFy failed SGU. It is good to note that MGM has no part in the cancelation of SGU, that is all SyFy or NBC Universal. I hope this clears things up for anyone.

Where you got this info from? I never heard something like that - and it would make me wonder. MGM is the OWNER of Stargate, when they want to put money in a movie no one wants they won't ask, they would hire a TPTB, a cast and a stage and would offer the script to several networks, not only SyFy - or would take the risk for a direct DVD-release.

What cancelled SGU was the lack of interest in a poorly written, poorly acted show with lots of poor camerawork and very expensive CGI along with an expensive cast.

[jelgate]

Bingo.


How can it be unknown? SG-1 went strong for ten years. Atlantis went strong for five years and could have gone on to a sixth. Universe comes along and boom, viewers drop, cancelled. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out.

Atlantis did okay in the ratings. Remember fans are in the minority and the viewers in large aren't "franchise viewers." They watch what they see when flipping through channels

[Dazzle foot]

IMHO, I believe Syfy let SGU down really badly, and didn't give the show the attention it deserved. Things like changing airing days, and showing the most boring clips of future shows was an epic way to loose loyal viewers, and not attract new viewers.
But, what's done is done, no point crying our selves to sleep about it. Hopefully WHEN stargate returns to our screens (be it 5, 10 or 20 years) it will be on a network it deserves to be on.

[Lockon Stratos]

IMHO, I believe Syfy let SGU down really badly, and didn't give the show the attention it deserved. Things like changing airing days, and showing the most boring clips of future shows was an epic way to loose loyal viewers, and not attract new viewers.
But, what's done is done, no point crying our selves to sleep about it. Hopefully WHEN stargate returns to our screens (be it 5, 10 or 20 years) it will be on a network it deserves to be on.

With all due respect, Syfy did everything possible short of forcing viewers at gunpoint to tune into SGU. Craig Engler also tried to drum up interest on Twitter with his little giveaways(The whoever RTs this by a certain time gets merc), in my opinion nothing Syfy did stopped people watching the show, to even suggest that implys you think people don't have a mind of their own and can't come to the conclusion wherever or not the show was any good.

Syfy have done a superb job on Stargate on a whole this past decade or so, it's unfortunate that SGU wasn't successful both on television and on DVD but that's just the way things are. I would be happy to see a new Stargate show on Syfy for the obvious reason that they will do everything humanly possible to keep it alive.

[Deevil]

Actually SGU was heavily promoted before it aired, whether you saw it or not. Your rationale in blaming Skiffy for killing SVU ignores the fundamental problem - people didn't want to watch *the show*. No ifs, buts or inbetweens. Casual viewers didn't tune in, eventually regular viewers tuned out.

As for the movies BS, well that's ALL on MGM, they didn't need Skiffy's okay to make the movie. They could have made it independent of Skiffy, they chose not too. For all we know they sabotaged to negotiations with Skiffy because the show was bleeding dollars for all involved.

I get it, you loved the show. The show was ultimately not loved by enough viewers to keep it on the air. It's not the only show to share a similar fate.

[Deevil]

Bingo.


How can it be unknown? SG-1 went strong for ten years. Atlantis went strong for five years and could have gone on to a sixth. Universe comes along and boom, viewers drop, cancelled. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out.

It's unknown because we can't possibly know. Comparing it to SG1 is ridiculous. That show started on a different network where it didn't need to rate exceptionally well to stay on the air. It also aired in a different time period, timing and trending have a LOT to do if whether or not a show will be successful. On paper it appeared that shows like SGU and Caprica were trending well, but they weren't. Kind of like on paper it appeared period dramas like Pan Am and Playboy Club would trend well given the critical success of Mad Men.

SGU didn't do well for any number of reasons to to pin point it's departure of SG1 and Atlantis is reaching. For all we know a show in the same stead would have been an abject failure.

[General Jumper One]

The show's cancellation was obvious. A lack of viewership due to it's departure from the SG-1/Atlantis formula lead to cancellation. Simple, really. A lot of people will fight me on this, but everyone I know who loves Stargate didn't bother with Universe. Obviously, people here (the fans) liked the show, but how many casual viewers (the bulk of the audience) can you name who watched the show?

I can name a couple casual viewers that watched the show.

What cancelled SGU was the lack of interest in a poorly written, poorly acted show with lots of poor camerawork and very expensive CGI along with an expensive cast.

I totally disagree with this entirely, the show was well written, excellent acted, and great camera work. The show was excellent, but time changes