Ratings for Stargate Universe grew in its second week, with the final hour of the 3-part series premiere drawing 2.4 million viewers. This according to Syfy Channel, who first announced the info today via Twitter.
“Stargate Universe grew in its second week, with a massive 22 percent gain in Adults 18-49, 13 percent in adults 25-54, and about 2.4 million total viewers,” Syfy’s Craig Engler wrote. Engler is the senior VP of Syfy Digital.
The network followed up with an official press release, confirming the 1.8 average household rating.
“I can’t emphasize enough how impressive it is for a show to grow from its premiere,” Engler said. “That’s pretty rare.”
It is rare indeed, as the general rule for television series is to have a higher season or series premiere — thanks in part to the additional advertising dollars spent. With some notable exceptions, ratings typically start to fall off immediately. For a show to improve on its premiere numbers is a great sign.
SGU also beat a new episode of Dollhouse, for the second week running.
The 2-hour premiere averaged 2.35 million viewers on October 2, for a 1.7 Nielsen rating. DVR-delayed numbers are expected to boost this significantly when they are released in another week or two.
In other news, the season premiere of Sanctuary — which followed SGU on Friday night — was up 18 percent in adults 18 to 49 and 7 percent in adults 25 to 54 from its first season average, according to Engler. 1.85 million viewers watched “End of Nights, Part 1.”
Stargate Universe airs Fridays at 9 p.m. (8 Central) on Syfy. Learn more about this week’s episode, “Darkness,” in GateWorld’s Season One episode guide!
NEXT: Read the full press release
©2006-2009 GateWorld.net. All rights reserved. This material may not be reprinted without written consent from GateWorld. Click here to learn more.
AWESOME NEWS! While it may not be a great increase, it didn’t drop AT ALL. That is a great accomplishment. Great to hear this. :D
Orion Coran | October 12 @ 7:02 pmSeems like the show is safe.
sebimeyer | October 12 @ 7:15 pmAwesome! Fantastic news! Well done SGU!
Alan | October 12 @ 7:35 pmWell I guess the naysayers got it wrong.
Glad and to see see an increase in ratings, word must of gotten out at how good the premiere was resulting in more tuning in to see part 3.
Tanith | October 12 @ 7:55 pm-see
Tanith | October 12 @ 8:03 pmConsidering that Part 3 (imho) was even better than parts 1 and 2, this is a great sign! The curious stayed, a few new people came in, the show delivered, and I’m fairly certain people will be coming back for more. Heck, I know I will be and a whole group of friends I know (+20).
AscendedTauri | October 12 @ 9:52 pmSeason 2? Sounds good from the likes of this!
jer007 | October 13 @ 2:34 amSeason 2 is a given. Not just for ratings but also because SyFy is a minor cable channel, and nothing has proved to work better than Stargate on Fridays, so they’re gonna keep it for three seasons at least, IMO.
Also, 2.4! Eat that haters! SGU is amazing. Not not lose anyone from the premier but instead have the ratings grow is just amazing. Period. And it’s Fall season, not Summer, let’s all remember this! SGU on summer would have been even a biggest blast, but that fact that it’s gathering 2.4 live audience on Fall just shows you how big Stargate is, and how awesome SGU is. :-D
Noitatpmet | October 13 @ 2:56 amWhilst I am pleased to hear this, fan from it’s genesis, I will reserve judgement on ratings for a few months when we are in the middle portion of the show.
higgo_allstar | October 13 @ 3:11 amI am a fan, since the beginning, and will continue to watch SGU, however, it isn’t blowing my skirt up… as for that character Greer – He annoys the living daylights out of me, and that is enough to actually put me off a show.
vanity01 | October 13 @ 3:47 amGreer annoys anyone, but I think we’ve all got someone who is just like him, don’t we? lol Btw, I forgot to add something to my reasoning, and it is that, if they kept the last three seasons of SGA with 1.low ratings, they’re definitely gonna have three seasons (at elast) of SGU. :)
Noitatpmet | October 13 @ 4:33 amI watched Air 3, because I wanted to like it, but it still has not blown my socks off. The ratings are not suprising tbh, they did pretty good on promoting with some good sg1 characters and actors talking in favor of the show. I give it 3 maybe 4 seasons for them to pull the plug. after all this is Stargate Galactica Universe. They will never go all the way.
stargatecommand | October 13 @ 8:33 amJust wish they had an opening sequence set to the music from the last few moments of the show. The techno-beat was interesting and the music conveyed the urgency of the scene very well.
That being said, a massive improvement that was deserved as the episode was a massive improvement over the first two parts. Give me more subtle character development and less recycled Sci-Fi melodrama. Hopefully the BSG-ification is over.
zackwbrandon | October 13 @ 8:57 amAm I missing something here? Did everyone take a codeine before they watched that last ep? Seriously!… I want to like this show… I had very high hopes for it, but good god, come on already. The FX blew, the black guy is a worthless antagonist waste of space, the planet was sand, Jack didn’t crack 1 joke, the dying guy uses the body switch device(give me a break), noone has any regard for teamwork (and I realize that was a point the writers wanted, but it sucks!!), and the air thing was underwhelming… everyone is breathing fine until the end when the get the scrubbers running and then they breath like its the first time.
BLAH!!!!!!!!!
Cheapshot | October 13 @ 11:44 amThe FX blew,
Why not the best, they are adequate enough for the show. I rather they spent the FX budget on the aliens and environments.
the black guy is a worthless antagonist waste of space,
An so was Ronon when he came to Atlantis, they never actually did stories around it.
the planet was sand,
Better than the Canadian forests, I square I can even recognise which trees appears in which episode now.
Jack didn’t crack 1 joke,
About bloody time, you do not rise to one of the most important posts in the US military by cracking jokes every five seconds.
the dying guy uses the body switch device(give me a break),
He was the one in command, it his responsibility to brief stargate command. An he is not in immediate danger of dyeing.
noone has any regard for teamwork (and I realize that was a point the writers wanted, but it sucks!!),
knowles2 | October 13 @ 12:37 pmGeer and Rush work well as a team to take down the scientist who was running towards gate. Those three scientist work well as a team to gang up on Eli. Even Geer and scot work as a team to bring back the lime.
Just because they are not all best buddies in five minutes like SG1 and Atlantis does not mean they did not work as a team. It just like real life, it going to take them a little while to get to know and use to work together.
Am I mistaken that ATLANTIS was cancelled for better ratings than 1.8? And that was episode 1. HA, HA, HA……. Crash and Burn. But I’m still watching. The character interaction sux.
flmatthew | October 13 @ 1:37 pmand…. syfy is still premiering Caprica which sold only 50K DVD’s by telling a story which THE OUTER LIMITS already told and Atom Boy already told etc.,etc.,etc… I’m glad BBCA is gearing up for some more sci-fi….
flmatthew | October 13 @ 1:41 pmGreat. Acting. end of story.
Greer = great acting. I would not like the guy in ‘real life’, but he plays his character perfectly.
Characters don’t interact? These characters are actually believable! (case in point being Rodney McKay being able to solve everything in 2 minutes…. c’mon).
It’s funny, we’ve been watching a show about the military for 15 years, but when we actually get REAL military characters like Greer, Young, and Scott, everyone gets up in arms!?
AscendedTauri | October 13 @ 2:40 pmIt’s also really hard to beat Dollhouse LOL.
They only want to get a lot of people to watch the show because they have done 20 episodes and they need to get the money in.
Outbreaker | October 13 @ 2:42 pmLets see if it get a Session 2 for now it looks not good.
@ flmatthew You’re mistaken indeed. GW has ratings summary, and there you’ll see SGA was cancelled for getting around 1.0 on both 4th and 5th seasons. 1.0 in summer is very low. 1.8 in Fall is absolutely astonishing coming from SyFy.
Noitatpmet | October 13 @ 2:47 pm