Hatred towards Syfy and among other things

[MattSilver 3k]

Who Shot the show dead!? TELL ME HIS NAME!!!

I don't know, but he was on a grassy knoll, and there might've been two of them!

[Briangate78]

For me Briangate SGU is the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was shoddily treated and not given enough support. Nevertheless it was undeniably doing very badly in the ratings. However I look back, at stuff like Farscape and SG1 that got canned while Wrestling and Ghost Hunters replace them and I see a network that is in a continual search for the lowest common dominator, which struggles to decide what audience it actually wants and seems to have no faith in many of the shows it produces.

In the end, I don’t live in the U.S, so I can’t change ratings for shows anyway, but if I did I wouldn’t watch Syfy anymore. Not out of hatred, but because you no longer produce anything I, as a fan of high quality dramatic tv, am interested in. SGU might have many other factors that caused its failure, but bluntly, it was the last decent thing to come out of your channel. I think many people would be less angry if you had many other high quality shows that replace SGU, but you don’t. You have wrestling, abominably bad movies, reality tv and the odd light hearted adventure show (some of which like Sanctuary also seem to be veering close to cancelation). I think you are seeing more than ever that people aren’t dissatisfied with Syfy over SGU, they’re dissatisfied with the whole channel.

It sucks because reality shows are taking the place of scripted drama. It's happening on Cable and Broadcast. Reality shows tend to be cheaper so even if they don't pull in the same amount of viewers they are likely still making money. I think the overall TV viewing has put a damper on things. Syfy is looking to make money like everyone else so they are going to invest into the cheaper programming, but they are sill sticking by their scripted shows, and maybe we'll see a show like SGU down the road. Who knows.

[ColdZero]

After having a night from hell with dealing with people bashing the network and calling their employees so many names in the books I had to stress this to one of the biggest Stargate fansites. A lot of folks blame Syfy for SGU's cancellation, but pointing that finger might be pointed at the fans or viewers who gave up on the show. Granted, a day change was made but the damage had already been done when SGU only averaged 1.4 Million viewers in Season 1.5, even that was not enough to get the show renewed. It had fallen below it's prior series SGA and was more expensive to produce. Syfy made the change to help the show. For people to think Syfy wanted SGU to fail really don't know how the TV industry works. Syfy did not even have to give SG-1,SGA, or SGU a greenlight. Stargate would of ended after Season 5 on showtime if Syfy/Sci-Fi did not take interest.

Getting to the whole Wrestling thing that Darren brought up. Excellent article btw. I look at when ECW was around and getting the top numbers. That was until a scripted drama series called Eureka came into the picture, by SGA's 5th season SGA was doing better than Wrestling most weeks. Syfy uses wrestling to get a younger crowd attracted to the network. A lot of these drama series need a younger age demo. This summer there will be 4 drama series running, and I think all 4 of them will be pulling in promising numbers. I think as per "space" shows go, people have lost their imagination, and only care about reality shows like Jersey shore and American Idol. However, shows like Fringe have proven that there still is a strong audience that want to watch the show that is out of the reality spectrum. There is hope, I don't think Wrestling on Syfy is going to destroy Science Fiction but maybe attract the younger generation to it.

I think the only blame should go to the show itself, maybe it was not everyone's cup of tea, maybe it was too serial and not casual viewer friendly enough. I think the blaming Syfy excuse is petty and people need to look at the bigger picture of things. But in the end I don't really blame anyone or anything, such is life, and it is what it is. Everything is bounded by it's own fate. Maybe it is a good thing Stargate is going away for now, the fandom is way too divided and although people think the internet is a small portion, I think it has an even bigger impact than people think. The internet has become a powerful tune in almost everyone's life.

So again, blaming Syfy for killing SGU is just far-fetched because the network is not in the business to air failed shows. They are not in the business to lose money, and will do everything they can to keep the shows from going under.

I think blaming SyFy for taking a working formula and ruining it is more than justified. Moving SG off Friday nights in the summer was the worst decision ever made for the franchise.

SGU started getting very good towards the end and I believe could have continued. Moving it to a Fall show and have it compete with heavy hitters on the broadcast networks is completely and totally SyFy's fault. This is now 2 shows, Caprica and SGU that their last episodes, last few episodes, were amazing.

Rather than think of original ideas, the SyFy execs decided to be part of the herd and work wrestling into their schedule rather than their own original programming. The lack of confidence in SGU and Caprica was more than apparent when a show is moved around between days and times all in the middle of a season. How is a moving target of a time slot something that attracts viewers? I'm a huge stargate fan and there were weeks that I had to hop on the SyFy site just to confirm when it would be on that week. Do you really think a casual viewer would do that?

This exact thing is happening with Sanctuary right now, they lost something like 400,000 viewers in 3 days because of a time change and this is not somehow a direct result of SyFy's decision?

About all the fans who you say were complaining about the show. They say that when you like a product you tell one or two people about it but when you don't you tell seven or more. Even with all the SGU bashing you'd see on this site, the posts about where people praised the show far outweighed them.

[Gate Traveller]

I think blaming SyFy for taking a working formula and ruining it is more than justified. Moving SG off Friday nights in the summer was the worst decision ever made for the franchise.

SGU started getting very good towards the end and I believe could have continued. Moving it to a Fall show and have it compete with heavy hitters on the broadcast networks is completely and totally SyFy's fault. This is now 2 shows, Caprica and SGU that their last episodes, last few episodes, were amazing.

Rather than think of original ideas, the SyFy execs decided to be part of the herd and work wrestling into their schedule rather than their own original programming. The lack of confidence in SGU and Caprica was more than apparent when a show is moved around between days and times all in the middle of a season. How is a moving target of a time slot something that attracts viewers? I'm a huge stargate fan and there were weeks that I had to hop on the SyFy site just to confirm when it would be on that week. Do you really think a casual viewer would do that?

This exact thing is happening with Sanctuary right now, they lost something like 400,000 viewers in 3 days because of a time change and this is not somehow a direct result of SyFy's decision?

About all the fans who you say were complaining about the show. They say that when you like a product you tell one or two people about it but when you don't you tell seven or more. Even with all the SGU bashing you'd see on this site, the posts about where people praised the show far outweighed them.

Just because they moved it doesn't mean they ruined the formula of the show. Everything about SGU remained the same, as it was written anyway... people stopped watching. People say openly that they hated the show, hated where it was going and what the franchise had become... that is not SyFy's fault, they just cancelled the show.

[techs]

The anger is not only directed at the cancellation of Universe but the way they cancelled Atlantis.
To leave viewers without a satisfactory conclusion left most fans embittered. Some of that anger was transferred to Universe.

While SyFy is not in the business of continuing shows that are losing money, at times a business should invest in their product and their customers.

I own a business. I repair computers. I have been in business for 12 years. In my relatively small town I have seen 15 computer repair shops come and go. The reason I am here is because I don't try to get every penny possible every time a customer walks thru the door. At times I do work for little or no money, because it buys good will.

What SyFy has done at the cost of a relatively small amount of money, is alienate a lot of its fan base. Even if doing a series ending two parter to Atlantis would have lost money, it would have been in SyFy's best interests. Having a season or two overlap between Atlantis and Universe would also have been in SyFy's best interest. Doing a low budget Universe series ending movie would have been in SyFy's best interest.

Today I am seeing SyFy mentioned in the "mainstream" media more than I ever have. And its universally critical observations. More people have become aware that SyFy has seriously changed direction away from SyFy than in the entire last year. The Friday night wrestling is now a joke showing up up in forums other than science fiction forums. The analogy about alienating your customers is now being referred to as, "What SyFy did".

Now, I think I am more realistic about the "bottom line" than some people. If SyFy were to develope and show good science fiction shows, not many people will avoid watching because of how the Stargates situation was handled.

The real loss is the denigration of the SyFy "brand". It has become a joke.
And it has become a joke for what would seem to be a relatively small amount of money.

[ColdZero]

Just because they moved it doesn't mean they ruined the formula of the show. Everything about SGU remained the same, as it was written anyway... people stopped watching. People say openly that they hated the show, hated where it was going and what the franchise had become... that is not SyFy's fault, they just cancelled the show.

Yea I guess 400,000 Sancutary viewers decided they didn't like the show anymore in 3 days too.

[Tanith0709]

When you get down to it most people are just annoyed at the current state of the genre. Less & less sci-fi shows are successful anymore and reality shows are more profitable to networks.

From a business standpoint it makes complete sense for Syfy to put money behind the products that will return the biggest profit. But from a fan standpoint a lot are just sad that a network which used to be fully dedicated to the genre have been slowly moving away from it.

I don't blame Syfy for the cancellation of SGU but I do think they were a contributing factor. Looking back on it now the day change did end up doing more harm than good (same thing is happening now with Sanctuary). On that point I agree with Darren in his article that they could have worked out a better schedule.

[carmencatalina]

Yea I guess 400,000 Sancutary viewers decided they didn't like the show anymore in 3 days too.

There is no doubt in my mind that the sudden move is totally screwing with Sanctuary's numbers. I realize that, bottom line, it may be in Syfy's best interest to prop up the other show (whose name I'm forgetting, sorry, the one that got moved into Sanctuary's spot on Fridays after wrestling), but Sanctuary lost viewers because of the move, plain and simple.

[Gate Traveller]

Yea I guess 400,000 Sancutary viewers decided they didn't like the show anymore in 3 days too.

Ok guy... explain to me and others how SYFY ruined the FORMULA of the show? Since SyFy wasn't writing or directing SGU u can't blame the network for ppl losing interest in the show.

And If you say its cause they moved it to another day... I'm rlly gonna rip it open

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

GT,

Ok guy... explain to me and others how SYFY ruined the FORMULA of the show? Since SyFy wasn't writing or directing SGU u can't blame the network for ppl losing interest in the show.

And If you say its cause they moved it to another day... I'm rlly gonna rip it open

I, and others, loved the show all the way through.

[Commander Zelix]

Its a common reaction sadly. A show is cancelled and the fans always yell at the network

Yes, it's true. But the situation with Syfy and SGU is different than with broadcast network when they cancel a (sci-fi) show with 6 millions viewers. Because we know they should be making a profit with 6 millions viewers, even if it's not as great as dancing with the stars with 18 millions viewers or as other highly successful scripted series. TV should have something for everybody, not just the dumbest or with the lowest form of common denominator. So I understand more when people get mad at broadcast network for canceling shows watched by millions of people.

With Syfy and SGU the ratings are on another scale. I think they did their best to have a successful and long lasting Stargate series. I don't think it was the right way to go about it. Still it's worrying when it seems Broadcast network got more potent scripted sci-fi than a cable network like Syfy. I wonder how Syfy will look next year with no Stargate or any space shows.

[revo1059]

One of the things a have a real problem with is the fact that after 10 years and 3 series on Syfy they can't even be given a mini series/DVD/2 hour movie to wrap up the story. Would a wrap up 2 hour "movie" really have lost everyone $$$. I doubt it.

.....and it always seems to be with the SG series "let's wait until the 11th hour to decide if it get's renewed or not" which gives the writers no chance to plan for anything.

[Tanith0709]

One of the things a have a real problem with is the fact that after 10 years and 3 series on Syfy they can't even be given a mini series/DVD/2 hour movie to wrap up the story. Would a wrap up 2 hour "movie" really have lost everyone $$$. I doubt it.

It would be up to MGM to green light a movie, not Syfy. As Brad Wright said they couldn't get the money together for it in the time they had.

[Keeper]

One of the things a have a real problem with is the fact that after 10 years and 3 series on Syfy they can't even be given a mini series/DVD/2 hour movie to wrap up the story. Would a wrap up 2 hour "movie" really have lost everyone $$$. I doubt it.

.....and it always seems to be with the SG series "let's wait until the 11th hour to decide if it get's renewed or not" which gives the writers no chance to plan for anything.

high cost, low viewers...yep, great profits. maybe it would have gotten more viewers, but the current market potential of SGU isn't worth the risk, from a business perspective.

[UnknownXV]

It's not syfy's fault, or MGM really.. they made a great show and syfy has to consider the bigger picture.

The only people to blame are the majority of people who decided they didn't like the show for whatever reason. It's short-sightedness. Even if I didn't like the show, I would of tuned in and muted it so my "vote" so to speak counts, because I knew if SGU failed it's the end of stargate as a whole, at least for a good while.

Sigh. We've been screwed over by the majority, it's that simple.