Stargate vs. Battlestar

[nukechuck]

Although I never watched the miniseries of battlestar galactica I heard it was quite good. Since BattleStar is being made into a series with about the same budget as both the Stargate Series Sci Fi is gonna be a little cheap with its spending. Now my question for all your brilliant minds is:

If Battlestar gets better ratings than Stargate will Sci Fi cut Stargates budget in order to better keep their bank accounts full?

[Elwe Singollo]

Battlestar did get quite well ratings... Haha... But i doubt that they will cut Stargate budget because another show will do better in ratings. The only reason why a network would cut a budget of a show if the ratings went down, and never improved.

[Torley]

I know one thing: head to head the Replicators would beat the Cylons in a drag-down, knock-out battle-of-the-bots!

[Darren]

Battlestar's budget is most definitely higher than Stargate's, according to the recent Multichannel News article. Probably a big part of why they got a 13-episode order instead of a full season.

[Elwe Singollo]

Battlestar's budget is most definitely higher than Stargate's, according to the recent Multichannel News article. Probably a big part of why they got a 13-episode order instead of a full season.

I'm still wondering the actual budget number, in a recent article, Stargate average 1.9 million dollars per episode, so it must be in the 2-3 million area...

[SGSlugger]

Look at the following Stargate has. It would be suicide for them to cut it...in fact, they should increase it.

I know a lot of people that weren't quite that pleased with the "reimaging" of Battlestar. I thought it was alright, enjoyable.

I agree too that the Reps would kick some serious Cylon butt.

[Elwe Singollo]

I didn't watch the original Battlestar, so i couldn't comment on the 'reimaging' of the series, but it looks kewl, although i may not watch it on a regular basis.

Yes, if Stargate does even better in season 8 for ratings, Sci fi should raise the income for each episode, although currently, Stargate already looks good enough (visually)

[bcmilco]

Yes, but Scifi only ordered 20 episodes for s8. Stargate may look "good enough", but if we want to see a full season Scifi has to constantly put out more moeny per episode each year. They obviously weren't willing to put out the extra money this year and only order 20.

[Elwe Singollo]

I agree with everything you said BC, but i think the reason for the '20 episode' season is because Scifi is comming out with all these new original things, such as a new season of Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, the mini-series 5ive Days to Midnight, the remake of Battlestar, and thats going to be quite expensive, and some other shows/specials... But i'm still agreeing what you originally said

[bcmilco]

I agree with everything you said BC, but i think the reason for the '20 episode' season is because Scifi is comming out with all these new original things, such as a new season of Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, the mini-series 5ive Days to Midnight, the remake of Battlestar, and thats going to be quite expensive, and some other shows/specials... But i'm still agreeing what you originally said

SG-1 pulls in consistantly high ratings, all that other stuff is not garanteed to do the same. There had to be a reason beyond, 'we have lots of other stuff planned' IMO. I think they just weren't willing to put out for the new season, maybe it was because of the the first half of s7 didn't do as well as they had hoped and they were nervious, I don't know, but if they wanted 22 episodes of SG-1 they would have found a way to make it work, and IMO they should have... then again I'm biased

[Elwe Singollo]

Don't worry BC, i'm biased as well Haha... I also think they are doing a 20 episode run for two things, RDA and if ratings aren't as good. I was looking over season 7's first half ratings compared to seson 6's first half... Season 7's first half was off by a decimal, 1.7(S6) - 1.6 (S7), but i think Sci-fi looks at the 'whole' season, not just half of it, because it turned out that S7 did better in the second half than S6 did. 1.6 (S6) - 1.8 (S7). In the season in whole, Season 6 got 1.65 million viewers and Season 7 got 1.7 million viewers, so it seems Stargate is consistant.

(All ratings are in millions of viewers and are from Yahoo Spoilergate)

[joshing123]

... but i think the reason for the '20 episode' season is because Scifi is comming out with all these new original things,... and thats going to be quite expensive, and some other shows/specials...

From what I'd heard the 20 episodes had a lot more to do with RDA and scheduling then it did with money. But I do think that Sci-fi would be more likely to reduce the # of episodes (or cancel a show) than to cut money from a show's budget. They've been known to do that in the past - Invisible Man, Farscape, probably others.

They can probably afford more new and original programming because Stargate and their original mini series like Dune and Taken have given them higher ratings which means they can charge more for ads which means they have more money to spend on new programming.

[Elwe Singollo]

Yah i did state that Stargate's 20 episode season is probably RDA, but i think they are just doing that because it maybe their last season, like what Friends last season did, and what Everybody Loves Raymonds going to do its last season. Only difference, Scifi/Stargate people aren't sure if S8 will be the last.

[bcmilco]

Don't worry BCM, i'm biased as well

I think we all are

I also think they are doing a 20 episode run for two things, RDA and if ratings aren't as good.

You think RDA has something to do with the fewer number of episodes? I'm interested, what led you to believe that?

but i think Sci-fi looks at the 'whole' season, not just half of it, because it turned out that S7 did better in the second half than S6 did. 1.6 (S6) - 1.8 (S7).

Yes, but when they renewed the show for s8 the second half of the season hadn't aired. So all they had to go on were the ratings of the first half of the season. Thus if the ratings are looking disapointing, which they were, they may have been more leary about speanding more for the next season.

Of course this is all just guess work

[Elwe Singollo]

I think we all are

Yes BC(M)

You think RDA has something to do with the fewer number of episodes? I'm interested, what led you to believe that?

I led to believe that (as well as some other people) because i think maybe they want to save money on episodes that actually have RDA in them? I dont know, but my main reason for the 20 episode was is the fact that S8 maybe the last season

Yes, but when they renewed the show for s8 the second half of the season hadn't aired. So all they had to go on were the ratings of the first half of the season. Thus if the ratings are looking disapointing which they were they may have been more leary about speanding more for the next season.

The first part of S7 practically did the same as S6's first half, and they gave a full 22 episode order for Season 7, so thats why i'm sounding a little bit 'weird' and maybe a tad bit 'aggressive'. But i'm sorry, haha...