How many episodes will there be?

[Daniel Jackson]

SG-1 had 22 episodes every season until Atlantis came along. Then both shows had 20 episodes per season. I've read that the season length was reduced for budgetary reasons. Since Atlantis Season 4 will be the only SG show on for the 2007-08 TV season, is there a chance the number of episodes could bump up to 22?

I remember when a typical show had 26 episodes a season. 20 seems so short.

[PhatChance]

SG-1 had 22 episodes every season until Atlantis came along. Then both shows had 20 episodes per season. I've read that the season length was reduced for budgetary reasons. Since Atlantis Season 4 will be the only SG show on for the 2007-08 TV season, is there a chance the number of episodes could bump up to 22?

I remember when a typical show had 26 episodes a season. 20 seems so short.

Doubt it. This IS cable, typically, they see 13 eps a season for most shows.

[SaberBlade]

Plus it's also Scifi, and if they think SGA will have low ratings, they'll not give it a full season. They've ordered 13 BSG episodes for the next season, with the option for more and considering BSG and SGA were around the same when it came to ratings I could see them doing the same thing.

[Daniel Jackson]

Doubt it. This IS cable, typically, they see 13 eps a season for most shows.

13? How do these shows keep an audience?

Plus it's also Scifi, and if they think SG1 will have low ratings, they'll not give it a full season.

SG-1 was cancelled, because it got to be too expensive to produce. The low ratings played a factor in that they weren't high enough to warrant such an expensive show. They weren't low, but rather not high enough.

They've ordered 13 BSG episodes for the next season, with the option for more and considering BSG and SGA were around the same when it came to ratings I could see them doing the same thing.

As I asked PhatChance, how does a show keep an audience with only 13 episodes a season? That's an average of one episode per month or forcing the audience to wait months at a time for new episodes. Most people I know would forget about it before the next new episode came out.

[SaberBlade]

13? How do these shows keep an audience?

well having a short season like that is a good way to keep a low rating show around longer or to at least experiment or make expensive shows cheaper. However, typically it doesn't help unless they want to keep costs down instead of blowing lots of money on low ratings.

SG-1 was cancelled, because it got to be too expensive to produce. The low ratings played a factor in that they weren't high enough to warrant such an expensive show. They weren't low, but rather not high enough.

That was a typo on my part, I meant SGA. If they think SGA will have low ratings, they'll not give it a full season.

[Daniel Jackson]

SG-1 did fine with 22 episodes per season for seven seasons. Why should SG:A settle for 13?

[SaberBlade]

SG-1 did fine with 22 episodes per season for seven seasons. Why should SG:A settle for 13?

Well BSG is doing fine with 20, why should it settle for 13? 13 was fine in the start, but this is season 4 coming up. In the end, it will always come to down to money verse ratings and ratings needs to come out on top, which it hasn't lately because they broke up the scifi fridays. Maybe when they air the second half and they do something right ratings will get higher and make them consider doing 22

[Daniel Jackson]

Well BSG is doing fine with 20, why should it settle for 13? 13 was fine in the start, but this is season 4 coming up.

No comment, never watched the show.

In the end, it will always come to down to money verse ratings and ratings needs to come out on top, which it hasn't lately because they broke up the scifi fridays.

In the old days, they would just reduce the budget per episode rather than the number of episodes per season.

Maybe when they air the second half and they do something right ratings will get higher and make them consider doing 22

I hope they consider 22 episodes for Season 4.

[ToasterOnFire]

I think the chances of a s4 with 22 episodes are slim to none. Plan on a 20 ep season.

13? How do these shows keep an audience?

Most HBO series (Sopranos, Wire, Six Feet Under, Rome, etc) have 13 episode seasons and they've done just fine. Of course, those episodes run almost a full hour compared to the paltry 42 minutes given to most network and regular cable shows.

[ussrelativity]

I would definetely be in full support of a number greater than 20. On the product front, if there were 22 or 24 episodes done for Season 4, then there would need to be 6 discs for the DVD set. I'm just not comfortable with putting 5 episodes of a show on one dual-layer disc. I'd like to keep it to 4.

[Daniel Jackson]

STARGATE: ATLANTIS is the only show I'm going to watch for the 2007-08 TV season. That's why I want to see the season length bumped to up to 22, where SG-1 used to be.

[doylefan22]

Well it seems the press release from Sci-Fi may have confirmed that it'll be 20 episodes as usual (with Amanda in 14 as previously heard and Jewel only in 8 - much fewer than the 15 we'd previously heard).

As I asked PhatChance, how does a show keep an audience with only 13 episodes a season? That's an average of one episode per month or forcing the audience to wait months at a time for new episodes. Most people I know would forget about it before the next new episode came out.

In the UK our shows often have seasons of around 13 episodes (Doctor Who is a prime example) or even less. Of course we don't do the hiatus thing so when a series starts it runs week after week until it ends.

[Ripple in Space]

I think the chances of a s4 with 22 episodes are slim to none. Plan on a 20 ep season.


Most HBO series (Sopranos, Wire, Six Feet Under, Rome, etc) have 13 episode seasons and they've done just fine. Of course, those episodes run almost a full hour compared to the paltry 42 minutes given to most network and regular cable shows.

If Atlantis goes down to 13 episodes I might forget about it . Entourage only does a few eps per year, but you can tell the writers/actors put a ton of effort into every single line of the script; as opposed to SGA where entire episodes seem to be thrown together a few minutes before production ("The Ark"), lol.

[PG15]

Joe mentioned making 24 hours of TV this year. With the 2 SG1 movies each taking up 2 hours, we're looking at 20 episodes.

[Daniel Jackson]

I don't care about the grand franchise total. I'm speaking soley of Atlantis. They toss around the number 24 to make it sound like more than it is.

Ripple in Space, I agree. I'd already forgotten about the 2nd half of SG:A Season 3 until I saw the commercials on TV. I have two friends who've given up on both shows, telling me they've waited too long for new episodes.