SciFi Wire: Official SciFi Channel ratings for season three

[Cpt. Ritter]

Sateda was an example of what Stargate Atlantis can be at its finest, gritty dark, full of action and drama. Jason Momoa stole the show, Joe Flanigan and Rachell Luttrell were also at their finest. Paul McGillion and David Hewlett, comedy duo extrodinare. I don't know exactly how these ratings work, but SGA should not be cancelled in its prime, especially after an episode like this.

I was expecting ratings to sore.. but they're not based on the quality of the episode, they're based on the number of people watching it at said time, this doesn't count Tivo or DVR etc... which is probably part of the problem.

I think the ratings system needs and overhaul... Tivo and DVR need to be counted, because they are viewers all the same, right?

[FoolishPleasure]

BSG consistently had the highest ratings for SciFi on Fridays last season. In the battle of season finales, SGA came in last, which meant people were watching SG1, tuning out for an hour, and coming back for BSG, which doesn't look good.

Last year I found SG1 to be reinvigorated with new characters and new story arcs, and the first few episodes this season have been good, especially "Pegasus Project". SGA, on the other hand, seemed to fall into a black hole in the back half of season 2, with little or no character development at all. A lot of fans, including my husband, quit on the show.

Season 3 has started out strong and interviews with TPTB show they understand where they went wrong in season 2 and that they will develop the SGA characters more this season, but it may be too late. The interesting character improvements that we saw in "Sateda" should have been done early in season 2, and the whole "babe magnet" push during season 2 was a huge mistake, IMO.

[ToasterOnFire]

Average ratings

BSG - s2: 2.0 (http://www.gateworld.net/galactica/s2/ratings.shtml)
SGA - S2: 1.9 (http://www.gateworld.net/atlantis/s2/ratings.shtml)
SG-1 - s9: 1.8 (http://www.gateworld.net/sg1/s9/ratings.shtml)

Ah, so SGA did have slightly higher overall ratings than SG1! And that trend is continuing - SGA has higher ratings than SG1 so far for s10/s3. Thank you for finding that!

Odd though - at the end of last season SG1 was consistently pulling in higher ratings and now SGA is higher. So that means SG1 has lost more of its overall viewership compared to SGA?

I still can't see SG1 and SGA being cancelled simultaneously. I imagine SG1 will bow out first, end of this season or next, and SGA will go as long as it can afterwards.

[N8ball88]

I still don't think the shows will be cancelled yet. They need to do something to get the ratings higher though. I felt we should have better technology by now, and be more of a force in the galaxy. Instead we're back to square one against the Ori. I would have liked to see them skip the Ori for a season. Where are all of the Nick Ballard, Nox, Tollen, Mini-Jack, Cassie, etc shows? Also, we haven't found enough in Atlantis yet. They said they've searched half of it so far, but what do they really have to show for it?

[Mattathias2.0]

I think the low ratings are due to many different factors...

(1) Advertising. I would figure with SG-1 meeting it's 200 mark within a couple of weeks - they would be advertising the heck out of it. But what do they do? They air a sneak peak during one of their new shows, Eureka. Whether others may be interested in this show, I have no interest myself.

(2) Time slot. I notice that even with BSG not airing with SG-1 and SGA, they pushed the time slot back for both shows. The time slot it currently is in now makes it difficult for me to watch both, esp. SGA.

(3) Cast changes. I emphisize this all the time.

Mattathias

[Noneareleft]

You know another thing to consider, well at least where I live in Myrtle Beach SC.
School started a week ago last year, this year they are starting two weeks later.
Myrtle Beach is a popular tourist destination, so I think a lot of people are still on summer vacation. We are still extreamly busy around here normally it is slowing down by now.

I still say they should show the shows on NBC as well, show them a week later on thursday or something. That way we can watch the shows on back to back days. They should at least advertise them on NBC.
Bring back SG mondays as well. They could do 2+2 episodes each.


Just a thought.

[pattirose]

You know another thing to consider, well at least where I live in Myrtle Beach SC.
School started a week ago last year, this year they are starting two weeks later.
Myrtle Beach is a popular tourist destination, so I think a lot of people are still on summer vacation. We are still extreamly busy around here normally it is slowing down by now.

I still say they should show the shows on NBC as well, show them a week later on thursday or something. That way we can watch the shows on back to back days. They should at least advertise them on NBC.
Bring back SG mondays as well. They could do 2+2 episodes each.


Just a thought.

I totally agree, it needs to be on network tv with reruns on cable and more advertising. I see hardly any advertising of it anywhere mainstream.

It wouldn't surprise me if they cancelled it, they cancel everything I like and I think SG1 and STA are the best shows that have been on tv in the past 20 years.
It's all reality tv now, the episodes are cheap to make and that seems to be what people want. More people voted in American Idol than the US election - that says alot.

[lily]

So that means SG1 has lost more of its overall viewership compared to SGA?

Well, I can't talk on the behalf of other fans. I can only say what happened to me.

I used to be an SG-1 fan. I watched SGA's pilot because it was an SG-1 spin-off, but wasn't sure what to expect. Man, it blew me away! I loved Shep since the very first second, and I loved the story, and got hooked on SGA from that very first second.

At first I loved both shows equally, but as the time went by, I started to lose interest in SG-1 until I finally got to the point where I didn't care for ANY of the SG-1 characters (even the ones that used to be faves of mine), the actors, the stories, anything. So I stopped watching SG-1. And I should add that I don't think it's just the new stuff. I own the seasons on DVD, and tried to watch earlier SG-1 seasons after I got hooked on SGA. I realized that I had lost interest in earlier SG-1 seasons as well.

On the other hand, my love for SGA kept getting bigger and bigger. I loved seasons 1 and 2, and I believe season 3 is the best yet. I adore SGA: its feeling, the premise, the stories, the actors and characters. My top fave is Shep/Joe Flanigan, but I really love all the other characters VERY much. The show has a wonderful main cast as well as great recurring people.

No offense intended to any SG-1 fan, but personally I really don't care whether SG-1 is renewed or not. If there's a season 11, great for the show's fans. But I won't mind if SG-1 is cancelled.

All I want is the renewal of SGA.

[Pawe]

Beautiful words. I realise that the fans of the show (and by fans I mean people like us, who hang on the 'net and write things on forums, talk about characters etc.) are somehow upset by the low ratings of the tenth season of SG-1 and third season of SGA...

But I have to say one thing that you won't like. We're all biased about Stargate. Come on! Look at the weekly polls on Gateworld, it's almost 40% every single week that people think that the episode was worth full 10 points, which means it was excellent... Yeah right...

While I do like SG-1 myself and SGA a lot (more than SG-1 to be honest), SG-1 has been sub-par from season 8 onwards. I know, many of you will probably disagree with my opinion.. but ninth season sucked. I don't like Mitchell's character and I think that Vala is kinda "bleh". I almost placed a bet that the show won't be going for tenth season... but it did... somehow...

What am I trying to say? What's my point? Put away your fanboy/fangirl attitude and take a different perspective. Compare new seasons to the old ones. And then, in all pure honesty, say which ones of them were better.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see seasons eleven and four... but so far, season ten has been boring. Season three didn't offer anything new either. It's like "let's tell the same stories with different planets!" -theme has been going for the past few years.

Other than that, consider this option too. Last year they had Battlestar Galactica *after* SG-1, SGA, right? Perhaps people that used to watch Galactica, tuned in a couple hours before it (just because "there's some nice scifi going on") to watch SG-1 and SGA "for fun", so to speak. Now that Galactica will premiere in October... who knows, maybe then we'll get some boost to SG-1 and SGA.

Personally, if I would *have* to choose between SG-1/SGA and Galactica... I would choose the latter. But that's just me. Anyway. Not ranting, not trying to blame anyone here, nor trying to flame about fanboys/fangirls (hell, I'm one of them myself!). I'm just merely trying to point out a couple of things that *should* be taken into consideration while we watch our (favourite) show.

[Elinor]

Gotta agree with you there lily!

I loved SG1 right up to s7, but then it started to get a bit dull for me, although I did watch all of s8. Watched about 5 episodes into s9, but it really didn't grab me any more and, I must admit, I stopped watching it. I've dipped in a couple of times since, but it just doesn't entertain like Atlantis does.

I adore the characters in Atlantis, especially Sheppy for me as well, and the storylines have been excellent so far in s3.

It's really getting goin' now and I love the team feel to the episodes so far and 'Sateda' was just fantastic!

[Falcon Horus]

Fans -> people who love a certain show but never seemed satisfied about it.

Aren't we supposed to stick with our shows through the good and the bad episodes?

Of course, it is not up to us whether a show lives or dies but we can make it a hit and keep it from dying.

I think it's way too early to talk about cancellation, for either shows. We've just started the new seasons, shouldn't we see how they end?

Anyway, I'm not giving up on them...

[LORD MONK]

I think the Nielson rating system is one big joke. They give the high numbers to the shows they want to push for the advertising. It's all one big scam. First off do you know anyone on the nielson ratings system. I don't and I know a boat load of people from all over America. Not only do I not know of one person but I don't know of one that does. For something to be acurate don't you think I should know at least one person or know of one person that knows someone that is.

For the week that aired the Pegasus Project SG-1 scored an A rating and Ureka scored a C rating. It's like the Star System. (my brother told me this. He read it in a mag.)

[caty]

What's an A rating and a C rating???

BTW: I don't think it is too early to talk about cancelation... They make the decision whether to renew the Stargates soon and won't wait for the seasons to end.
Plus, I don't think they'll bounce back for the ratings to be satisfying over the whole season...
Not with no advertisement and the time spot they're airing...

[Arative]

I think the Nielson rating system is one big joke. They give the high numbers to the shows they want to push for the advertising. It's all one big scam. First off do you know anyone on the nielson ratings system. I don't and I know a boat load of people from all over America. Not only do I not know of one person but I don't know of one that does. For something to be acurate don't you think I should know at least one person or know of one person that knows someone that is.

For the week that aired the Pegasus Project SG-1 scored an A rating and Ureka scored a C rating. It's like the Star System. (my brother told me this. He read it in a mag.)

Well there is only about 5000 people that have a Nielson box, so that chances of you knowing one of the 5000 people out of 300 million is fairly slim. Plus there is another 10000 people or so with diaries that are hand written.

I don't think there is any one reason why ratings are down this year. I think it is a combinations of things, no BSG, different time slots, stiffer competition, no advertising, viewer fatigue. But I think ratings will have to sink lower for Sci-fi to cancel it.

[caty]

Well there is only about 5000 people that have a Nielson box, so that chances of you knowing one of the 5000 people out of 300 million is fairly slim. Plus there is another 10000 people or so with diaries that are hand written.

I don't think there is any one reason why ratings are down this year. I think it is a combinations of things, no BSG, different time slots, stiffer competition, no advertising, viewer fatigue. But I think ratings will have to sink lower for Sci-fi to cancel it.

5000? So that means, if every person that owns a Nielson Box watches - lets say - the Super Bowl, they'd count it as if 300 Million people in the US watch it?
That's just ridiculous! The ratio changes drastically if just one person that owns a box is indisposed...
Why don't they just issue more? I'll never get it.