The numbers are in for the premiere of Stargate Universe in the United States, Canada, U.K. and Australia, and MGM seems to be happy with the results. The studio celebrated the show’s worldwide launch in a new press release today.
As we previously reported, the 2-hour series premiere bowed in the U.S. with 2.35 million viewers and a 1.7 household rating for Syfy Channel (story). This bested a new episode of FOX’s genre series Dollhouse.
On SPACE in Canada, “Air” premiered to an audience of 565,000, making it the channel’s most-watched single episode ever (story).
In the U.K., Sky1’s premiere drew 1,042,000 viewers for the first hour and 961,000 for the second — the biggest audience for a Stargate series in almost five years, MGM said.
And last Friday in Australia, the pay cable network SCI FI premiered SGU to a 6.4% share, bettering the timeslot’s previous holder by 411 percent.
While ratings in the United States have always been pivotal for Stargate‘s renewal (since Syfy foots most of the bill for the show’s production budget), the franchise has always had a very strong international presence. SG-1 and Atlantis aired (and are still airing) in well over 100 countries.
New episodes of Stargate Universe continue every Friday at 9 p.m. (8 Central) on Syfy; Friday at 10 p.m. (Eastern) on SPACE in Canada; Friday at 8:30 p.m. on SCI FI in Australia; and Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Sky1 in the United Kingdom.
NEXT: Read the full press release
This is great, but I still think 1.7 on SyFy is very mediocre. So yes, the whole franchise was very tired with so many non-stop years and Atlantis falling ratings, but still, with the weak competition on Friday, and top-people like Lou or Carlyle, how can you score 1.7 only? I pray to God Air Part III figures are what the shows truly deserve: above 3.
Congratulations SGU!!! You’ve hit the ground running!!!
The ratings for Friday must have been very low if they’re touting international ratings to sell this thing.
Funny how thy want to overrate the show :)
And also with the international ratings they fail.
If they would take out the Name Stargate and the Ringtransporter then no one would now that this was a new Stargate Show ^_^
Honestly I wonder how Stargate really makes it on Friday nites. I would think a large portion of the audience would be out on Friday nites and watching by DVR or hulu
You call some englsih Speaking Countrys International?? I bet its already cancelt bevor it comes out in Germany or France.
Madwelshboy on the forums posted this link.
looks like the next week drew 765,000 viewers, still a strong showing.
you know it was on cable (foxtel) in Australia not free to air! thats a bad thing if no major network such as Seven wants to buy it. happy using p2p.