'Defiance' (Rockne S. O'Bannon/Syfy) -- speculation/discussion/spoilers

[Spimman]

Am I the only one who still doesn't get a western vibe from this show?

I can see it in some ways, but not nearly as much as I was expecting.

[Spimman]

Here's a quick comparison of Live +SD Total viewers for Defiance & SGU:

..........Defiance............SGU
15-Apr-13 2,727,000 02-Oct-09 2,346,000
22-Apr-13 2,400,000 09-Oct-09 2,447,000
29-Apr-13 2,289,000 16-Oct-09 2,099,000
06-May-13 2,150,000 23-Oct-09 2,015,000
13-May-13 1,980,000 30-Oct-09 1,974,000
20-May-13 1,947,000 06-Nov-09 1,626,000

Interesting, I wonder what the cost comparison would come to? I guess we could figure out the average cost per episode.

[aretood2]

Interesting, I wonder what the cost comparison would come to? I guess we could figure out the average cost per episode.

Then add in the advertisers and commercial rates and then take the network's budget into account and future projections, and cast and crew issues. That stuff can get complicated.

[techs]

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...f-more/185651/

The June 4 episode ratings are in. Defiance drew 1.69 live+SD.

How does that compare to episode 7 of Stargate Universe?

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/200...nly-one/33088/

Stargate:Universe ep. 7 1.626 million viewers (live+SD).

Almost identical

[Gatefan1976]

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...f-more/185651/

The June 4 episode ratings are in. Defiance drew 1.69 live+SD.

How does that compare to episode 7 of Stargate Universe?

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/200...nly-one/33088/

Stargate:Universe ep. 7 1.626 million viewers (live+SD).

Almost identical

ouch

[jelgate]

ouch

I wouldn't put much stock in it. Its an apples to oranges comparassion

[Gatefan1976]

I wouldn't put much stock in it. Its an apples to oranges comparassion

Still a painful drop, I will note however that the NBA play-offs scored a massive 11.97, and the closest competition was WWE at 3.8.
It will be interesting to see if it rebounds. I think it will, but you never know.

[techs]

I wouldn't put much stock in it. Its an apples to oranges comparassion

Well, yes. Universe was shown on a Friday up against new network shows on day, Friday, that has far fewer viewers than the Monday Defiance was shown. So Defiance should have done much better numbers than Universe.

So, yeah, the ratings for Defiance are clearly worse than Stargate: Universe.

[jelgate]

SGU premiered in October. A time period that is known to have a lot more people watching than May. Thier are too many varables and differences to make an accurate comparasion

[Gatefan1976]

Well, yes. Universe was shown on a Friday up against new network shows on day, Friday, that has far fewer viewers than the Monday Defiance was shown. So Defiance should have done much better numbers than Universe.

Huh??

So, yeah, the ratings for Defiance are clearly worse than Stargate: Universe.

nope, they are just bad.

[techs]

Huh??


nope, they are just bad.

The point is that the total number of people watching on Mondays when Defiance is on is far greater than on Fridays when Universe is on. Shows that get moved from Mon-Thur to Friday always show a drop in viewership. So, if Defiance aired on Friday the number would drop a lot. Hence, Defiance is doing worse than Universe.

[Gatefan1976]

The point is that the total number of people watching on Mondays when Defiance is on is far greater than on Fridays when Universe is on. Shows that get moved from Mon-Thur to Friday always show a drop in viewership. So, if Defiance aired on Friday the number would drop a lot. Hence, Defiance is doing worse than Universe.

You are forgetting that there is far more competition on Monday nights, especially for the "much loved" 18-24 demo who are normally out partying
Not trying to stereotype here, but Friday nights are usually great for Sci fi (and Syfy) because the viewers are usually home on Friday nights (both the younger and older viewers)
If you wanna talk "trend" then yeah, they do track relatively similar, but IIRC it is after SGU: Earth, that SGU took a mighty wallop, will this ep do the same? I dunno.

[techs]

You are forgetting that there is far more competition on Monday nights, especially for the "much loved" 18-24 demo who are normally out partying
Not trying to stereotype here, but Friday nights are usually great for Sci fi (and Syfy) because the viewers are usually home on Friday nights (both the younger and older viewers)
If you wanna talk "trend" then yeah, they do track relatively similar, but IIRC it is after SGU: Earth, that SGU took a mighty wallop, will this ep do the same? I dunno.

Actually shows like Fringe, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, etc all lost a lot viewers when they moved to Fridays because far fewer people watch tv on Friday nights.

I am looking at chart of SGU's numbers and actually the episode Earth was number 7 if you count the two hour premiere as one episode, which I am doing. Earth was actually the bottom of the ratings dive from the beginning of the show. The ratings actually did a tad better after Earth for a couple of episodes. The bottom dropped out with Justice, ep.10. Then the show bounced back a tad and hit its baseline which it held despite the four month layoff after Justice.

[Gatefan1976]

Actually shows like Fringe, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, etc all lost a lot viewers when they moved to Fridays because far fewer people watch tv on Friday nights.

I am looking at chart of SGU's numbers and actually the episode Earth was number 7 if you count the two hour premiere as one episode, which I am doing. Earth was actually the bottom of the ratings dive from the beginning of the show. The ratings actually did a tad better after Earth for a couple of episodes. The bottom dropped out with Justice, ep.10. Then the show bounced back a tad and hit its baseline which it held despite the four month layoff after Justice.

What result are you looking for dude?
SGU was a "Ratings failure"?
Defiance is ALSO a "Ratings Failure"?
All this indicates is that SYFY will give a rating cr*p show another season, contrary to the popular "It's syfy, they will axe it after one season" BS that likes to get peddled about. DOES Defiance represent "more to lose", hell yeah, at least in "right now" numbers. I would wager that the 12 seasons of Stargate made *more* for Syfy than Defiance EVER will for Syfy. (not NBC or Comcast mind you) however.

[techs]

What result are you looking for dude?
SGU was a "Ratings failure"?
Defiance is ALSO a "Ratings Failure"?
All this indicates is that SYFY will give a rating cr*p show another season, contrary to the popular "It's syfy, they will axe it after one season" BS that likes to get peddled about. DOES Defiance represent "more to lose", hell yeah, at least in "right now" numbers. I would wager that the 12 seasons of Stargate made *more* for Syfy than Defiance EVER will for Syfy. (not NBC or Comcast mind you) however.

I'm not sure that Syfy expected to break even on Defiance. Other cable networks have mostly gone for the one or two big shows model. That's where you take a loss on making a quality show that draws people to your network. Getting people to turn to your channel increases the effectiveness of your advertising and lets people see what else you have that they might never have known about.

Syfy was actually one of the first networks to do this, with their Taken miniseries. It cost a huge amount of money and Syfy lost a ton of money on it. But it basically made the network. In fact, for years, Syfy made the big budget yearly miniseries.

The problem with Defiance, for Syfy, is not how much it loses for the network, its the hit the reputation of network is getting by putting out something mediocre to poor.