NBC/Universal: Sci Fi Sizzles - Best Summer Performance:

[morjana]

From NBC/Universal:

http://www.nbcumv.com/release_detail...zzleswith.html

SCI FI SIZZLES WITH YOUNG VIEWERS TURNING IN BEST SUMMER PERFORMANCE EVER IN ADULTS 18-34

Published: August 30, 2007

Season Brings Year On Year Increases in Key Demos

New York – August 28, 2007 – SCI FI Channel had its best summer ever with viewers 18-34 and enjoyed year over year increases for the season in all key demos.* The Channel was also up among all key female demos. Overall this summer SCI FI averaged a 0.96 HH rating, 586,000 Adults 18-49 (up 4%), 657,000 Adults 25-54 (up 5%), and 1,208,000 total viewers (up 3%).


Ratings Highlights

This is SCI FI's best summer ever among Adults 18-34 averaging 229,000 (up 9% vs. 2005) and 103,000 female Adults 18-34 (up 18% vs. 2002).

SCI FI is up year over year among key female demos: Females 18-34 up +32%, Females 18-49 up +11% and Females 25-54 up 8%.

SCI FI ranks 7th for the summer among basic cable entertainment networks in Adults 25-54.



Programming Highlights

SCI FI's original series are the driving force behind this success with several premieres and season finales leading the charge:

The 2nd season premiere of Eureka on July 10th averaged a 2.03 HH rating, 674,000 Adults 18-34, 1,492,000 Adults 18-49, and 1,579,000 Adults 25-54. Eureka is ranking as SCI FI's top series in 2007 to date averaging 1.44 MM Adults 25-54 and 2.53 MM total viewers

The August 10th series premiere of Flash Gordon averaged a 1.7 HH rating, 1,159,000 Adults 18-49, 1,417,000 Adults 25-54, and 2,382,000 total viewers.

Ghost Hunters continues to be a juggernaut delivering the program's best performance to date, averaging 1.34 MM Adults 18-49 and 1.24 MM Adults 25-54. Ghost Hunters peaked with its July 18th season finale, which delivered a series-high 1.53 Adults 18-49.


With the pairing of Ghost Hunters summer season debut of Destination Truth, SCI FI's Wednesday night lineup produced four of the top ten Wednesdays for Adults 18-49 in the network's 15-year history. The best performer among these was the July 18th season finales for both shows averaging 1.04 MM Adults 18-49 in prime -- the network's #4 best P18-49 delivery for any Wednesday ever.

SCI FI Channel is a television network where "what if" is what's on. SCI FI fuels the imagination of viewers with original series and events, blockbuster movies and classic science fiction and fantasy programming, as well as a dynamic Web site (www.scifi.com) and magazine. Launched in 1992, and currently in 89 million homes, SCI FI Channel is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies.

[Pitry]

Nitpicking the obvious, these numbers are nowhere near the numbers of July 2004.... and the increase year-by-year only goes as far as last July vs. the current one....

"we call it spinning!"
~Martin Lloyd.

[prion]

Nitpicking the obvious, these numbers are nowhere near the numbers of July 2004.... and the increase year-by-year only goes as far as last July vs. the current one....

"we call it spinning!"
~Martin Lloyd.

Well, Stargate wasn't even in the summer numbers, so it's hard to compare. i mean, what, SciFi is pushing FLASH GORDON more than anything and that's not going to have a long life unless they radically revamp it, or have giant snakes eat people every other episode

[morjana]

Nitpicking the obvious, these numbers are nowhere near the numbers of July 2004.... and the increase year-by-year only goes as far as last July vs. the current one....

"we call it spinning!"
~Martin Lloyd.

Please note that this press release is defined by "viewers 18-34" -- that's a KEY demographic that vendors everywhere are seriously courting.

Morjana

[FoolishPleasure]

Please note that this press release is defined by "viewers 18-34" -- that's a KEY demographic that vendors everywhere are seriously courting.

Morjana

The article doesn't mention that Trash Gordon's audience fell off 50% by episode 2.

BTW, didn't Flush Trash Gordon get a 1.5, not 1.7 for its debut?

[PG15]

The article doesn't mention that Trash Gordon's audience fell off 50% by episode 2.

Really? Where did you hear that?

[Briangate78]

Wow are those numbers off. Makes me laugh. Why don't they announce how well Flash is doing now. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm???

Anyway Eureka had it's series low with a 1.5, and Flash's premiere scored a 1.5 not a 1.7 and it was only 2.1 million viewers. Eureka premiered with a 1.9 not a 2.0!

[Briangate78]

Really? Where did you hear that?

Here is the source. 1.1 million viewers is like a 0.8 HH rating, that is really bad. They called Flash Gordon another Sci-fi loser.

http://www.accessatlanta.com/blogs/c...08/22/823.html

[Briangate78]

Please note that this press release is defined by "viewers 18-34" -- that's a KEY demographic that vendors everywhere are seriously courting.

Morjana

The Stargates pulled in high for those demographics right? So that is another good sign for SGA.

[PG15]

Wow...half the viewers are gone after the pilot?!

It really must've sucked.

[Pitry]

Please note that this press release is defined by "viewers 18-34" -- that's a KEY demographic that vendors everywhere are seriously courting.

Morjana

True.
However, considering what BSG's numbers in the key demo were, and if I'm not mistaken sopmewhere around it's 3.5 or so million viewers for Rising SGA had them as well, I still find it implausible.
Also.... as Briangate said, their numbers are off, Flash Gordno's official numbers were 1.5, not 1.7.

[morjana]

True.
However, considering what BSG's numbers in the key demo were, and if I'm not mistaken sopmewhere around it's 3.5 or so million viewers for Rising SGA had them as well, I still find it implausible.
Also.... as Briangate said, their numbers are off, Flash Gordno's official numbers were 1.5, not 1.7.

Where's Media Savant when you need MS to explain ratings more coherently that I possibly could? Or Darren...Darren could explain this!

There are several types of ratings for TV shows.

There are the overnight Nielsen ratings that the major broadcast channels use.

The SciFi Channel doesn't use these.

They use the Nielsen Galaxy Report for their weekly top ten shows, which uses the HHR ratings. "Flash Gordon" did receive a 1.5 HHR rating.

Here's the explanation for a HHR rating:

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/hhr.html

"Our Top 10 list is based on the Nielsen Galaxy report. The HHR, or household rating, is the average number of households that watched a specific show expressed as a percentage of all television households. Nielsen data is subject to qualifications to be supplied upon request.

For SCI FI Channel and syndicated shows that regularly run more than once per week, we only count the highest-rated individual episode in our Top 10 results.

Because TV shows are often pre-empted, moved to different time slots or shown at special times, we may occassionaly list some series more than once or list fewer than 10 shows during a given week."

Now, the article refers to: 1.7 HH rating. AN HH rating is for the TOTAL number of households, and not the average like the HHR ratings are.

How they determine the difference - I have not a clue.

Are you dizzy yet?

Geez.

Morjana

[Briangate78]

Wow...half the viewers are gone after the pilot?!

It really must've sucked.

When I watch shows like Eureka and Stargate, you expect the same or at least close quality. I'm not saying it's horrible Flash, but it's not great. This show will NOT carry the network. Yet another reason for Sci-fi to fork over the money for another season of SGA. Still the 1.5 for the SGA finale has to be a good sign. BSG only got a 1.2 for their finale!

Where's Media Savant when you need MS to explain ratings more coherently that I possibly could? Or Darren...Darren could explain this!

There are several types of ratings for TV shows.

There are the overnight Nielsen ratings that the major broadcast channels use.

The SciFi Channel doesn't use these.

They use the Nielsen Galaxy Report for their weekly top ten shows, which uses the HHR ratings. "Flash Gordon" did receive a 1.5 HHR rating.

Here's the explanation for a HHR rating:

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/hhr.html

"Our Top 10 list is based on the Nielsen Galaxy report. The HHR, or household rating, is the average number of households that watched a specific show expressed as a percentage of all television households. Nielsen data is subject to qualifications to be supplied upon request.

For SCI FI Channel and syndicated shows that regularly run more than once per week, we only count the highest-rated individual episode in our Top 10 results.

Because TV shows are often pre-empted, moved to different time slots or shown at special times, we may occassionaly list some series more than once or list fewer than 10 shows during a given week."

Now, the article refers to: 1.7 HH rating. AN HH rating is for the TOTAL number of households, and not the average like the HHR ratings are.

How they determine the difference - I have not a clue.

Are you dizzy yet?

Geez.

Morjana

Hi morjana,

Yeah it sorta makes sense. The 1.7HH is a rounded up rating I guess? But I think they are more concerned with the actually viewers. 2 million for a cable network is very good. 1 million is not the best.

[prion]

Wow...half the viewers are gone after the pilot?!

It really must've sucked.

Only half? Wow, I would have thought it would be more

[MediaSavant]

Where's Media Savant when you need MS to explain ratings more coherently that I possibly could? Or Darren...Darren could explain this!

Sorry, since Comic-con, I haven't really been thinking about SciFi TV much.

There are several types of ratings for TV shows.

There are the overnight Nielsen ratings that the major broadcast channels use.

The SciFi Channel doesn't use these.

Actually, they really use the same ratings. Sometimes journalists use something called "Major market overnights" or "fast overnights" which are preliminary and not final, but eventually everyone uses the same final overnight ratings.

They use the Nielsen Galaxy Report for their weekly top ten shows, which uses the HHR ratings. "Flash Gordon" did receive a 1.5 HHR rating.

"Galaxy" is Nielen's software for accessing the ratings. All the networks use Galaxy to access them.

Here's the explanation for a HHR rating:

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/hhr.html

"Our Top 10 list is based on the Nielsen Galaxy report. The HHR, or household rating, is the average number of households that watched a specific show expressed as a percentage of all television households. Nielsen data is subject to qualifications to be supplied upon request.

I've always found that to be inaccurate. It's a true footnote for their network and syndication rankers, but the ranker for their own shows is always a "coverage" rating. Instead of being a percentage of all TV households. It's a % of households that can get SciFi.

Now, the article refers to: 1.7 HH rating. AN HH rating is for the TOTAL number of households, and not the average like the HHR ratings are.

No, the 1.7 is an average. The press release says so "premiere of Flash Gordon averaged a 1.7 HH rating." However, that does disagree with the SciFiwire. One or the other is a mistake on someone's part.

How they determine the difference - I have not a clue.

Unless they use the word "cumulative" or "cume", it's always an average. Ratings are a measure of what the average minute in a program delivers.

My interpretation of the press release is that they had a good summer for reaching younger viewers. I think it's because they had a lot of shows doing decent numbers. In the past they may have had just one strong night or just a few strong shows. This summer, they had a lot of shows doing fairly decent numbers. Plus, reality shows like Ghost Hunters and Who Wants to Be a Superhero do well for younger viewers. That's why all networks love the reality shows. The Stargates skew a little older--to baby boomers.

I think if you are only concentrating on Flash Gordon and its performance, you are missing the bigger picture of what's happening.