Ratings for the second season of Stargate Universe are finally on the rise, with the third episode of the new season turning in the show’s best Tuesday night performance so far.
“Awakening” drew 1.222 million viewers at 9 p.m. on October 12, according to reports at PIFeedback.com. That’s an improvement of 14 percent over the previous week’s series low (1.07 million) and the best of the season to date.
Caprica, however, didn’t fare so well in the 10 p.m. time slot. The second episode of the new fall season dropped to an estimated 840,000 viewers, down from last week’s 889,000 (down 5.5 percent). Hopefully that show will also tick upwards in its third episode, as SGU did.
On the big networks, Dancing With the Stars continued to dominate the 9 p.m. hour with 16.079 million viewers, followed closely by NCIS: Los Angeles with 16.045 million viewers. Fox’s comedy hour is currently sitting at 6.015 million for Raising Hope and 3.280 million for Running Wilde.
Stay tuned all week long for our full coverage of “Awakening!” We have plot analysis and Omnipedia updates, a complete transcript and episode summary, high-res screencap gallery, and next Monday’s podcast — all dedicated to this week’s new episode.
New episodes of SGU continue next Tuesday at 9 p.m. (E/P) with “Pathogen,” directed by series star Robert Carlyle! Find out more about this and other upcoming episodes in GateWorld’s Season Two episode guide.
aww… I don’t get to see the episode until Friday here in Canada.. kinda didn’t want to see the full view thumbnail of the new alien on the main page :/ Not a huge huge deal… buut still..
Now that I’ve seen what it looks like, I think they definitely lifted it and its outfit right out of District 9 lol.
Anyway about the ratings: Great! I’m hoping the new few episodes are heavy on the Ancient/Lantean lore as that will be a really big deal for those of us who aren’t into SGU’s direction/writing so far.
Well at least the ratings are starting to rise. I think the fact that there are some new aliens in this ep might have helped with that. As much as I love the character drama in SGU, they really do need to add some more excitement (aliens, space battles, strange new worlds, etc.) to balance out the show.
Thats what we wanted to see 1.222 million viewers totaling a 14% increase in viewership since last weeks episode looks good for the show not to mention the numbers for the people who recorded it lets hope it goes up again next week another 14% would be great
It is the 4th lowest ranked episode of the series. And still much worse than SGA in its last season, which got on average 1.6 million viewers.
It’s the first sign of good things to come, though i’m not too confident about the next episode it’s a stone and chloe based episode and alot of people seem to hate both.
Better than worse is still pretty bad. They need to do better yet next week, I would think, if they are to get a third season.
@psw
maybe so but its a step in the right direction isn’t it ratings need to go up a little bit more if they can hold steady at 1.3 or 1.4 SGU should get a renewal and ultimately thats what every stargate fan should want because if it doesn’t then there’s no more stargate which would be a shame as in my opinion SGU is a really good show
The extensive stats they keep reflect a trend that the show falls a few episodes, recovers partially for the next and then declines again for a couple more. Eventually following this pattern they will reach a point where the show (especially being so much more expensive to produce than SGA) where it will no longer be profitable to produce and simply become a charity. Based on the long term trend of course. And we know how long that situation will last, don’t we?
Keep in mind, when considering a renewal, SyFy does more than just look at the direct number, they also look at what other programming they have on Tuesdays that would perform better than 1.0-1.2 million. If they don’t have anything they think will perform significantly better on a Tuesday night, why rock the boat? Stargate, while it’s been in up and down since Season 9 of SG-1 and Season 2 of Atlantis, it’s always been a pretty solid moneymaker for the network, and unless it drops to something dramatically crappy like 500,000-700,000 I don’t think they’ll up and cancel it.… Read more »
And, how well have TV shows done on Syfy on Tuesday nights before? I mean if Caprica is doing even worse i’d say that the lower ratings are more due to the move to Tuesday than anything. I know that sounds overly optimistic. But it really is all relative to that night.
watch the numbers go down again this means nothing.
Tuesday nights have been pretty successful for SyFy with scripted shows Eureka and Warehouse 13. However, those are summertime shows, and don’t have the heavy competition that SGU and Caprica have. I’m far happier with this season of SGU than last year, and I do make a point of watching it live. I have to dvr Caprica.
Comparing SGA and SGU based solely on the live viewers is stupid. Technology has changed alot over the years and DVR’s are becoming almost as common as TV’s. Why watch SGU live by yourself when you could just record it to watch later so you spend time with your family watching a show that would be more appealing to them like Dancing with the Stars or NCIS?
SGU, in my opinion, has really been turning out exceptionally great episodes this year. I’m really glad to see a deserving rating increase. Let’s hope that trend increases.
Finally some good news! Episode is great Stargate episode – with spaceship, aliens and getting out of trouble. Need MORE of these…
@grif
Stay positive now!
Big surprise seeing the same two people yet again chirping on about Atlantis, jeez get over it, its done, it aint coming back! Anyways, back to THIS episode, all in all i thought it was pretty solid, i would have liked to have seen more of the gate building part, after what, 16 years of the show we finally get tos see how they are built, but only for like 5 seconds, i was a little disapponted with that. The aliens were very cool indeed, to say they were completely cg they showed more personalality then the actors from a… Read more »
I dunno, if there is an uptick for next week’s episode Pathogen (which has those bloody STONES in it), and with it centering around Chloe and Eli going home to mommy with the stones just after they have visited a seeder ship which downloaded data to Destiny’s computers…it seems lame. The stones should have been somehow damaged or destroyed by now. I thought they listened to the concerns from season 1, but I was wrong. Why arent scientists being stoned in to analyze the data? Why did Rush act so nonplussed when he saw the stargate manufacturing facility? The very… Read more »
I love every single one of you who watched thank you!!!
I still think SGU should be on during the summer on Friday. SGA did so well more then likely because there was nothing else to watch. But maybe thats just positive thinking!
Yay! Maybe now I can finally get to sleep without nightmares of SGU ending. :)
“Captain, There be stargate” In the form of DVD movies. Maybe if SGU goes the way of the Dodo, then they will do the movies they promised us.
@psw
thats what every stargate fan should want because if it doesn’t then there’s no more stargate which would be a shame as in my opinion SGU is a really good show
I am worried about the show, I do not think it will last past season 4. The 3rd episode was so much better but thats comparing the last two which frankly were not good enough. This episode though had so much potential and i think everyone thought the same. Yet I am sorry it didnt mean my expectations. I really am not enjoying the pace of this season so far and they could of done so much with episode 3 and seemed to waste so much time on other little things instead of giving the fans more stargate story and… Read more »
There are some really easy things they could do to make this series much better. 1. Kill Chloe 2. Kill the Camile Wray Then, lose some of the drama and replace it with more action. Then they would have a Sci-fi Action series (which is what attracted fans & keeps them), instead of a Space Opera (soap opera + sci-fi in space). Sure a tiny bit of drama is ok, but it’s not what draws fans. The writers & producers seem to have a hard time understanding that 1. Girls watch Drama 2. Girls generally don’t watch Sci-fi unless their… Read more »
Hey folks, if you’re in the US, go see it live.
I’m on the old continent and i was up until 4 in the morning waiting for the scene release.
Many people around the world download the show. that i can tell. The torrent had more than 16.000 seeders just minutes after teh p2p release and the’re more than 20 different copies in the so called direct download sites.
If scify could just launch a live channel over the internets tha would be cool.
Who would have thought that if you add something _actually_interesting_ to a show, that more people would want to watch it?
maybe we’re finally departing from the awful soap opera drama, babies, “he cheated on me”.
We want StarGate, not As the World Turns.
I agree with lonix. I was really looking forward to the potential of this episode, but even though it was better I was still disappointed. I didn’t find myself shocked, excited or my thoughts provoked. I did however want to fast forward through the slow bits, not as much as the first season. Plus the women have less of a role and its all feeling and stuff. Bit sexist. I want strong women characters. I checked with a sc-fi loving pal in Canada about the show. He feels if it was a stand alone show it may do better, ie… Read more »
SGU is the same Genre than the former Shows
It’s coming time where Stargate fans are going to have to take action to keep the franchise alive. Those whom feel that watching and showing interest in SGU are the way to do it just aren’t getting the bigger picture. This was supposed to be their ‘breakout’ show. The one that was going to draw in a younger and larger audience….well, it’s not cutting it. The BS about people not finding the show is just that. The ratings weren’t that much better towards the end of last season. They were expecting BIG numbers for this show. Much bigger than what… Read more »
@Overmind One- That’s pretty negative and self centered point of view. Just because this isn’t your vision of Stargate doesn’t mean there aren’t those that do like the new show and would like to see it go on. The writers you’re referring to are the same writers of SGU. If it wasn’t for them you would have had nothing at all to QQ about. There’s room enough in the world for another version of Stargate it doesn’t have to be the same as the previous incarnations. I would venture a guess that we’re more likely to see future incarnations of… Read more »
I have a feeling that if SGU gets cancelled, then it will go the way of Star Trek with “franchise fatigue”. Even “Enterprise” was better than nothing. Why can’t you be happy with what you have? Greedy greedy makes a hungry dog, as the saying goes.
I very much agree with mythos, nail on head there.
Is it sci-fi or a drama that happens to be in space?
Im sure altera will have a correction or opinion on this.
Hopefully the trend will continue upward. That’s to bad about Caprica’s ratings…I like that show too. To the naysayers who say SGU isn’t real Stargate, maybe you should try to watch it and not think of it as Stargate. Try to think of it as something else that’s similar to Stargate…and just watch it for what it is instead of what you think it should be. Maybe, just maybe, you might like it then.
@ Fort
It would be great, if Stargate will go the way of Star Trek! There was only a franchise pause for four years with Star Trek and then we got a great huge blockbuster movie in the cinemas!!! And they will made at least one sequel, maybe more. :-)
I somewhat agree that SGA and SGU’s times are different and more people may be watching it nonlive etc. That doesn’t take away the fact that SGU isn’t faring well to other shows.
@ sgfan You said: “That’s pretty negative and self centered point of view. Just because this isn’t your vision of Stargate doesn’t mean there aren’t those that do like the new show and would like to see it go on.” Perhaps. But just because a relatively small audience of 1.1 million like the show doesnt mean that its enough to make money for Syfy. And make no mistake, the ONLY purpose of broadcast TV is to deliver advertising. Shows are produced as “traps” or “bait”, and the goal is to make you stay tuned so that you will watch the… Read more »
I think SGU has been a total disappointment and failure ratings-wise. I feel it should have been delivering ratings very much in excess of its predecessors – certainly with the ‘names’ in the cast, the big budget, massive publicity drive it had prior to its season 1 premiere. Yet, it’s not reached expectations, and has since slid further and further down. For the money it’s cost? I think it’s been a total failure with the viewing public, which is a shame. I see 1.222m as still very poor. It may be an uptick, but for such an expensive show? It’s… Read more »
As it was posted in the SyFy forum, the male/female viewership ratio of SGU is 75/25! And the S2 premiere was even more male skewing. That in itself is bad. Also, uptick is better than yet another nosedive, but people need to remember that this uptick is still way, way, WAY below the S1 average or even SGA’s S5 average. It’s nothing to write home about. At least, the show’s holding steady in the demo. But that doesn’t mean much when it’s getting the average demo of Haven – a MUCH cheaper show. SGU can’t afford to bring in “cheap… Read more »
I find it funny that people keep saying that if this show gets canceled then MGM will make the movies. How would that work exactly? MGM has major motion pictures, films that it knows it could make even more money from than just the Stargate Franchise films but they can’t because of the gigantic financial hole that they’re in and getting even less money back due to no longer having a Stargate show running is supposed to somehow give them more money?!? Where’s the money gonna come from? The magical Furling Bank of Movie Funds? Get real. MGM doesn’t profit… Read more »
As always @ Emily is spot on. I DL NCIS but that doesn’t mean the show is a dismal failure in the ratings because of it. It should be evident by now if the creators took a different approach to the show than they have we wouldn’t be discussing the ratings at this point.
Im sorry or Sgu ! … This is a great show. I never liked watching Sg1 or Sga. Those werent Sci-fi shows, maybe fantasy. Lets face it people : english speaking aliens, human looking aliens … laugh at the face of danger or death … happy campers sga …. Those were comedy shows.
I like watching sci-fi shows, not fantasy ones. Sgu has a lot of drama, I know. But this is something I can watch at least.
@ mnewton…. The Original Scifi was about Relationships between People and between Situations like the situation we have in SGU. OK this was almost 70 – 80 years ago, but this were the Originals.
@ overmind one…. Yes, and you really do think that this 1.1 million are the true audience of SGU?? I did not think so. The Real audience is probably much bigger. They only didn´t count.
SGU is a terrific show! It’s a big step up in Production quality, story and acting. Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, but come on. All the haters have said it, we’ve heard you. Now can you stop crying about it please? Atlantis is not coming back.
Well this is certainly in the right direction, but SGU is not out of the woods yet, imo.
@captain-bazz And it’s very possible SGU’s not coming back either, that is what this discussion is about.
I really have to disagree with a few of the posters here, who I will not address by name but I think they know who they are. I really don’t think Stargate is dead. Just because you are not happy with where it has gone doesn’t mean anything really as to weather this IS Stargate or not. Stargate isnt about Jack, Daniel, Sam, or Even Rodney, Beckett, or any of them, which is too bad cause I like them all too, but they are characters on Stargate. The show is about how this device has impacted the people who came… Read more »
@sgfan
Well Said!
People are right, if SGU fails than so won’t STARGATE! So if you really want to see those SGA Movies, or the last SG-1 movie, then you guys are going to have to start supporting what is here somehow.
That was actually a good episode! And yes, I am surprised :-) And it would have been an even better episode without the (by now) standard ending… music with shots of depressed people whining about their fate… what would have been wrong with a last scene where the aliens close in on Telford? Maybe a bit conventional, but I am really tired of the music/depressed people part. Plus, I am still missing a good lead character and see too many despicable characters. Young is not only psychologically unsound, he also is morally so off and has no idea how to… Read more »
@altera I teach media history at university and quite frankly you are obviously talking out of your comfort zone.
People seem to be under the impression that if SGU dies, then the old stargate style will be back, or that focus will shift to the movies. This is not the case, the fact is, SGU is keeping interest in those movies alive. if SGU dies, so do the movies. SGU is a great show, but people seem determined to be negative about it. Yes, judging ratings based on live viewers is an archaic and terrible way of judging a shows success. But for tv stations like SyFy, they care not for dvr recordings, as advertisers want to go with… Read more »