Hatred towards Syfy and among other things

[randyored]

wow just finished watching it. How can they end the series like that? no closure at all. utter failure

The last episode was only supposed to be a season ender, not a series ender.

[randyored]

Yeah, but the good thing is, we have someone to blame.

Not really, There is plenty of blame to spread around. SYFY,MGM,TPTW and yes the SG1/SGA fans that rejected it. It was the perfect series killing storm.

[nub]

The ep was filmed and all finished before the cancelation came down.

I know mate and as an episode or season finale it was great but man, SGU had so much potential, we never learned of destiny's meaning i.e the secret it was traveling towards (probably bigger than the whole ascension thing) and that was the whole point of the show. unbelievable

[Adub]

I think the OP should have the courtesy to remind those reading the post of his ties to SyFy? Just for the matter of bias.

Considering his first line said he spent the night "dealing with people bashing the network and calling their employees so many names in the books" and his location says "Global Moderator for Syfy.com" I think everybody knows who he is and what he does.

[Keeper]

The only one I can blame for the whole disaster is SyFy. They are the once who make the decisions. What to renew, what to cancel, what to give one more try.

And everyone is saying that SyFy don´t make money with SGU, well I do not believe that. Can anyone proof that statement? Maybe they do not cash in as much as hoped, but the channel have Wrestling and some pretty laughable B-movies for that.

check the ratings on Gateworld, and i understand SGU costs a lot to make.

particularly, check ratings for Season 1's first half. i specify this, as people like to whinge on about the day change, then when reminded S1 aired on fridays they like the idea of the 5-month break damaging it.

Viewers walked away in the first 10 episodes, and SGU didn't recover. cancellation does not come for a show making massive profits, and SGU numbers never recovered. the day change was in an attempt to revitalise the show - since it had already suffered on fridays. it didn't pan out as expected, and there's not much else to do.

not one official source has ever stated that SGU was doing well - and even before the cancellation came out, J Mallozzi posted this at his blog:

"Most would probably consider ['Gauntlet'] a cliffhanger while I would consider it a touching, bittersweet end to the series (if it comes to it)."
(Executive producer Joseph Mallozzi, in a post at his blog)

Source at gateworld.

while undated on the gateworld link, it shows that cancellation was not entirely unexpected. i realise there is a more recent interview where he states his surprise, but there you have it.



of course, you can choose to disregard it if you like. don't much care, myself. i know SyFy did what they could. i know they're a business, who depend on other businesses. those other businesses will look at the numbers, and tell SyFy what they're prepared to pay. or, in the case of MGM, what they want SyFy to pay. can't run a business which depends on others, if the income won't be enough to offset the outcome.

[wabbit42]

The ep was filmed and all finished before the cancelation came down.

I believe they learnt the news during filming of episode 17 or 18 actually.

[myhelix]

Not really, There is plenty of blame to spread around. SYFY,MGM,TPTW and yes the SG1/SGA fans that rejected it. It was the perfect series killing storm.

True, but SyFy gave it the death blow. They should have shown a bit more faith in a franchise that existed for so long and make SyFy a spot on "TV land."

[Keeper]

I believe they learnt the news during filming of episode 17 or 18 actually.

incorrect - gateworld has this article dated 19 november about the wrapup of filming.

news of the cancellation is dated 16 december.

[randyored]

incorrect - gateworld has this article dated 19 november about the wrapup of filming.

news of the cancellation is dated 16 december.

I am sure if Brad knew of the cancelation they would have done some sort of script surgery for the last episode, at the very least.

[BuckeyeDave]

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 believe that Syfy can and should be blamed for the cancellation of this and other shows, ie SGA. They have abandoned their core audience. They have strayed from the ideas on which Mitchell Rubenstein and Laurie Silvers founded The Scifi Channel and which Gene Roddenberry and Issac Asimov advised. It is clear from the changing of the brand to Syfy and their tag line of "Imagine Greater" that they are wanting to move away from scifi. In doing so they are abandoning their base.

The move from Scifi Friday and from "off season" programming turned off much of the base. Moving shows around from one night to another in some vain hope that some magical elixir would be found showed no fore thought. Going up against the major networks and their prime time schedules was a stupid business decision. They are niche network just like DIY, HGTV, Food Network and Speed. The same thing would happen to those channels if, for example, HGTV started running automotive repair show or Food Network started airing home repair shows. Syfy's niche is SCIFI, putting fake wrasslin and cooking shows on detracts from that niche and runs off its core audience.

Blaming Syfy for the cancellation of SGU is not "far fetched" it is quite logical. If the network is not going to cater to it core then its core cannot be blamed for not watching. Just a reminder, its core is SCIFI fans! If this is not who they want as their core then they need to be honest enough to admit that and move the channel and it's name completely away from that. BTW, according to the numbers I have seen fake wrasslin has had little to no viewer lead in or carry over for shows air just prior or just following it on the network. Why is that? Simply put, it's viewers are not the type to watch scifi. Expecting otherwise shows a clear lack of understanding of the audiences of wrasslin and scifi!

[JakiChan]

Choosing to no longer watch Syfy can be a consumer decision, in the same way as choosing to no longer patronize a restaurant or store that no longer values you as a customer.

This times a thousand. A million.

I'm sad to see the show end, and I understand it was just business for SyFy. But SyFy has lost me as a viewer. Other than Star Blazers reruns they literally have NOTHING I want to watch. This is a pretty big change from a network that had made Friday "event televsion" for me, back from when they had some combination of great SciFi shows on.

So, as I said on Twitter, I'll let wait for SyFy to let me know when they want me back as a viewer. They can do this by running programming that I actually want to watch.

As a fan of certain types of entertainment, and as someone who doesn't like other types of entertainment, I have nothing left to watch on Syfy, and I won't be their "customer" any longer. Other people will be.

It isn't personal. It's just business.[/QUOTE]

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

I have yet to see them admit it was a mistake to cancel them. Any statements to that effect are just lip service at this point. HBO hasn't exactly made an effort to give Deadwood a decent ending, the miniseries talk was just PR in my opinion.

Rome was very expensive but the writers were given enough notice to speed up the story and give a decent ending Carnivale just didn't garner a large enough audience and the showrunner still had four seasons left in his planned story. HBO has done a poor job with regards to Carnivale and Deadwood, at least in giving the fans closure. I won't be subscribing to HBO again unless they finish up deadwood or allow GoT to air til completion. I briefly stopped my HBO ban to watch the last four episodes of the Sopranos but mainly so that I wouldn't get spoiled.

HBO is still a business, it's still mainly a money making venture and they will cut things that are too expensive and not making enough money. They aren't a charity, what is clear however is that they are a better business than Syfy, they make better shows that make much more money.

You do seem to think HBO is a charity, as evidenced by your utterly ludicrous assertion that you won’t subscribe to HBO until they finish Game of Thrones. If the show is to survive to the 7 or 8 seasons then it needs people to actually watch the show, not sit on their high horses for about 8 years. If we all took your attitude they wouldn’t make any decent tv.

You are never going to find a network that does not cancel stuff. The major difference between HBO and Syfy, is that when HBO cancels something there is always an interesting new show to replace it. Whereas on Syfy the pickings get increasingly slim, something that has annoyed a lot of people I think. Nor to HBO shows have to play second fiddle to things like wrestling or reality shows, they get a fair chance, sink or swim. And yes some shows deserve to go on longer and don’t get the audience they dersve or the budget goes sky high, as happened with Rome when the BBC pulled out of funding, or Deadwood, which had the added complication of David Milch buggering off to film John from Cincinnati. As I said, HBO, Showtime, AMC and the rest aren’t perfect, they do cancel stuff, but they do give their shows a fair chance, don’t muck them around and don’t replace them with reality tv.

[J-Whitt Remastered]

Off Topic:

I have yet to see them admit it was a mistake to cancel them. Any statements to that effect are just lip service at this point. HBO hasn't exactly made an effort to give Deadwood a decent ending, the miniseries talk was just PR in my opinion.

Rome was very expensive but the writers were given enough notice to speed up the story and give a decent ending Carnivale just didn't garner a large enough audience and the showrunner still had four seasons left in his planned story. HBO has done a poor job with regards to Carnivale and Deadwood, at least in giving the fans closure. I won't be subscribing to HBO again unless they finish up deadwood or allow GoT to air til completion. I briefly stopped my HBO ban to watch the last four episodes of the Sopranos but mainly so that I wouldn't get spoiled.

Good news for you is that if HBO does cancel GoT you can just pick up a book and see how it all ends. Assuming G.R.R. Martin ever finishes the whole series himself.

[Keeper]

Off Topic:



Good news for you is that if HBO does cancel GoT you can just pick up a book and see how it all ends. Assuming G.R.R. Martin ever finishes the whole series himself.

if he doesn't finish it, then hope that he leaves enough notes (a la Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time) for someone to be appointed the position.

[Perelandra]

I'm not blaming SYFY for cancelling SGU but I do wish they'd given it a bit more of a chance -like a short 3rd season(10 episodes).
I won't stop watching SYFY as long as they keep running SG1, SGA and SGU re-runs-but- and here's the thing:
SYFY is showing fewer and fewer programs that I care for.
I'm sorry but I don't care about wrestling or Ghosthunters or Face off or most of the reality shows they're airing now.
As they show fewer and fewer shows I care about-I'm watching less and less.