Mid-term election night turned out to be no help for Stargate Universe, as viewers voted with their remotes for network and cable news coverage. “Trial and Error” drew an estimated 967,000 viewers (Live + Same Day) in its 9 p.m. time slot.
That’s a drop of 4 percent from the previous week, and SGU‘s second dip under the 1 million mark for the Tuesday night broadcast.
It was an unusual week for the show’s competition, with most of the broadcast networks preempting their usual Tuesday programming to air live news coverage of election results. ABC started the night with a 90-minute Dancing With the Stars before starting its election coverage, drawing an powerhouse 19.39 million (fast nationals, not final numbers) during the 30 minutes it was up against SGU (9 to 9:30 p.m.).
A repeat of NCIS: Los Angeles drew 11.07 million viewers, off from its usual 16 million for new episodes.
Stargate Universe lost viewers in the older, “concerned voter” demographic of viewers over 55, according to a GateWorld Forum source. But among adults under 55 the show actually improved slightly over the previous week, and 30 percent among men 18 to 49.
The show also went without its companion series this week. Syfy Channel pulled Caprica off the air this week, after announcing its cancellation a week ago (story). SGU is now followed by classic episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (which is also its lead-in show) at 10 p.m.
Finally, Sanctuary improved 7 percent to 1.479 million viewers last Friday, with its third episode of the season.
New episodes of Stargate Universe continue every Tuesday night in November, leading to the big mid-season finale at the end of the month! “The Greater Good” premieres next Tuesday at 9 p.m. (8 Central).
I hope, for SGU’s fan’s sakes, that they let the writers plan a satisfying ending for this tale.
So it’s the fault of the Tea Party geezers? This is a young hip audience from what I was told. Go figure. Hat’s off to A Nonny Mouse this week.
Why does -everyone- keep taking Darren out of context when he simply states facts in these ratings posts?
@Metat He never said that, all he said was the 55 viewership was down, and the younger audience was up. If you don’t like SGU, I have no problem with that, but please stop picking on the messenger.
In other news, it really sucks this one is so low in ratings since it was a freakin’ sweet episode! Hope more like this are coming in the next few weeks.
I kept an eye on the election AND watched SGU at the same time, thanks to my access to the internet. I’m not sure why others didn’t do the same, since it seems to me that keeping track using the internet is more useful and efficient than watching it on TV. But, oh well …
Well isn’t there always something better to watch when this show is on. I tried tuning in at the beginning but I lost interest fast and turned to History channel(not elections). I even stopped my dvr from recording it cause it did not look like that great of an ep.
@kenny – That’s a shame, because it turned out to be one of the best episodes. You stopped watching too fast. All you had to do was wait a few more minutes.
It’s a shame the ratings for live are so poor, but live ratings are largely irrelevant anyway. Live+7 is where the true gauge is at in the age of PVR devices. As I mentioned in a comment on another story, I almost never watch programs live. I’ll watch the show when *I* want, not when some suit wearing out of touch exec at SyFy (or Sky1 in my case) decides to schedule it.
@Ryster: Err, you got it wrong, buddy. Live+7 are irrelevant, both for the network and for the advertisers. It was repeated many times – if people want to gauge the chances of a show getting renewed, they should pay attention of Live+SD ratings.
And even Live+7 ratings are nothing to write home about: 500k viewers added. The same as the year before. Lost viewers didn’t timeshift, they just dropped the show.
A show that does poorly on live would most likely do poorly on Live+7. It’s not like SGU is the only show out there where people don’t watch it live. But to SGU’s defense NCIS also dropped in Ratings so it’s fair to say that this week was hard for everyone.
@Ryster To be honest that thinking on a large scale can get a show cancelled.
@Emily: Both NCIS shows were in repeat. And even in repeat, they managed to garner 10+ mil. viewers and 2.0+ demo.
@asecooper222 No one is taking Darren out of context, it has long been common knowledge that this “new” show was re-worked to capture a younger demographic. Nor is Darren making things up but (promptly I might add) reporting the opinion of another analyst. But it is pure doubletalk to be blaming the ratings loss on a market segment that these wizards turned their back on in the first place. The bottom line is there doesn’t seem to be a perfect set of conditions for this show to air at this time and receive respectable ratings.
I’m going to be really disappointed if SGU gets cancelled; especially since Caprica just got cancelled. There’s not going to be much left on Syfy that I’m interested in if it does. Warehouse 13 is ok, but it’s not nearly as good as either SGU or Caprica to me. The new BSG that Syfy just greenlit doesn’t sound as appealing as Caprica. It sounds like they are just trying to take the main character from BSG and write new stories about him from when he was younger. The concept behind Caprica is much more appealing to me. Hopefully Caprica has… Read more »
Ratings below 1 million again? Early season 2? If the ratings don’t improve it will actually be ridiculous to renew it for season 3. Especially when Atlantis and SG1 were cancelled and were doing better ratings wise after being on the air for a lot longer. Every week when there are poor ratings there are always excuses about competition. Well yes isn’t that the nature of television? In the end if people are interested they will watch. SGU is losing a lot of long term fans. We need the stargate we know and love. With SGU its easy to forget… Read more »
Although these ratings make me nervous, I still have a hard time thinking that syfy would just go and cancel this show without trying it out on wednesday, thursday, or back on friday. I don’t think they would up and cancel it. Am I the only one who is thinking this?
@Natasha
I agree 100% with all of what you just said.
@Natasha (and everybody really) – Perhaps the live ratings are down because people REALLY ARE watching the show using alternate methods at different times? There are so many ways to watch television shows nowadays – DVR, on repeat, I-Tunes, etc… – that it’s impossible to account for them all within the framework of the current ratings system. Perhaps Syfy’s decision to move the show to Tuesday nights REALLY IS affecting people’s viewing choices? It’s obvious why the network decided to take the plunge and move the show into a more commercial time slot, but it’s a gamble that clearly isn’t… Read more »
I feel I should point out that my above comment is NOT a personal attack against anyone, fan of SGU or otherwise. It is merely a response to the ratings debate and an observation of, and response to, opinions, attitudes, and perceptions of SGU. A point for discussion, and NOT intended as a personal attack against anyone.
Are these ratings a new franchise low?
Second lowest.
It is a new franchise low, i was wrong.
Well, obviously Election Night will take people away. But when you take away just a few percentage from these small SGU numbers it hurts. It hurts bad. When SGU gets cancelled (it’s a matter of when not if) Syfy won’t be high on my radar. Any of the s*** you see on Syfy at other time will be stupid and worse than Jersey Shore on a REALLY bad night.
I’m gonna stop worrying about the ratings. Nothing I can do about it. I just hope SyFy picks it up for a third run based on sheer quality, longevity and potential. What a great show.
These are the ratings TravisYanan posted:
Stargate Universe (9pm)
– 0.967 million viewers
– 0.7/1 HH
– 0.4/1 A18-49
I really hope it will get a 3 season!
@Klinjon No offense taken (I know your comment wasn’t meant as a personal attack). We are are all different people with different opinions with the right to express them. :) I guess I’m (and other fans) dissapointed with SGU. I want to like like it because its Stargate and I loved SG1 and Atlantis. As for the ratings things haven’t changed that much since Atlantis (and SG1) went off the air. There have been other ways other than live viewing to watch TV for years. This isn’t a sudden new thing that SGU is facing. As for the cost of… Read more »
These ratings are very worrisome. Caprica’s last episode on the air had over 800,000 viewers. That’s not that far below SGU at this point. It was pulled from the schedule…I wonder which show is more expensive to produce.
With SGU being in a serial format, when an episode ends each week I can’t wait until the next. With SG-1 and Atlantis, I didn’t need to watch it on Friday. With SGU, I find my self in front of the TV every tuesday night, compelled to watch.
Another below 1 million drop?
It’s like, the execs at SyFy are purposely trying to murder the Stargate franchise.
Moving it to a night with more competition and not promoting it enough. Is the SyFy channel run by a group of chimps?
@Billz No, but maybe by Evil Snow Monkeys
@ Klinjon: Thumbs up. I sm actually baffled. A couple of season 2episodes were some of the best episodes of the series so far, and it almost seems like the better the ep, the lower the ratings 0.o Trial and error was an amazing ep –> series low. I don’t think the show itself can do much more. Quality is going forward with leaps and bounds from episode to episode, and every week I can’t wait to see the new ep, yet ratings stay low. It can’t entirely be the show’s fault as it has drastically improved in my eyes… Read more »
If the ratings can manage to get to 1.3 million next week, asking a lot,and stay there until the midseasin finale, it has a chance of getting a third season.
GIVE ME MORE SGU!
ahhh.. that feels better.
This show needs a third season.
Again, another example of why Tuesday night was a stupid idea from the get go.
How about the network uploads a legal bittorrent with ad breaks included, then count the downloads as part of the ratings. This could be an in-house thing, as obviously the ratings system is massively flawed as it stands.
But I suppose that will never happen.
Here is another idea, how about they repeat it on a Friday night, and count that as an addition to the Tuesday ratings.
SGU is a great show, season 3 please.
It’s important to remember that other shows also allow their fans the ability to watch online, DVR, itunes etc…Yes, the amount of people that watch SGU is greater than the live, but that applies to ALL shows not just SGU. Attempting to move the show back to Friday, Wednesday, Monday whatever will only loose fans in the entanglement. Going on a different night will not change the results, it will only hurt SGU. Election nights are pretty big in the US and I do believe that SGU lost some viewers to that.
I actually liked this episode quite a bit… At first I was a little annoyed that this was a ST:TNG story rehash but the Col. Young twist was clever if not entertaining! Like I said last week, more ‘splosions will = better ratings!
Much better than last week’s weaksauce!
:( They can’t cancel SGU. There’d be no SG at all… :(
This was a great episode, one of the best :)I don’t really understand the ratings thing, but SGU needs another season! Yesterday I read about MGM’s bankruptcy and I’m pretty sure they will make an SG1 & SGA movie! But SG fan can’t possibly want to cancel an SG series…
Cannot cancel sgu, just when it’s getting better and better…
So far four episodes of SGU got worse ratings than the least successful episode of SGA. And the worst SGA episode was in season 4 and not at the beginning of season 2.
From this moment I’m going to ignore SGA fan comments (like psw’s). I DO NOT care about how much better was Atlantis than the SGU series. I know that Atlantis was far better, and I’m sure it’ll get the greenlight for the movie. But now, sg fans should save universe. I know it’s not the same as the previous series. But I do not want it to end.
oh sorry psw. misunderstood you…
@Imperious Repeats on Friday night would get very low ratings. Lower than the show SyFy pulls to replace with SGU. Reruns on Friday would cost SyFy money. And that is what matters.
@ib1117 I doubt you are alone. With ratings this low SyFy is under pressure to find something, anything that will do better. The only thing that will save the show is more people watching SGU live.
Me? I’m hoping we get to see all of Season 2.
@dendu: “sg fans should save universe” Why? I don’t like it. Not the story, not the characters. Why should I feel obligated to support something I don’t like? I don’t owe the creators anything. I watched for 15 years faithfully, I bought the DVDs and books and merchandise and it didn’t save SGA, it didn’t give SGA a movie to finish its storyline beyond a rushed, nonsensical series finale ep. For me, the franchise ended when SGA ended. And it really irks me when some people suggest that I am a bad SG fan because I don’t watch SGU. When… Read more »
@katikatnik
I agree. And when the producers created the show it openly said it was going for the younger generation. I’m 36, watched every epp of stargate through SGU season 1, bought the DVD’s and books as well. I don’t owe anyone anything and don’t owe it to everyone to watch something that is very un-compelling and un-interesting, and pretty much un-stargate when comparing to the standard it has to live up to (SG1 and SGA).
And if the producers turned their back on a lot of the die-hard fans, and boasted about it and said “we aren’t going to change” then why in the heck can’t I turn my back on what they created in turn?!? To say I am wrong for that is pure arrogance.
@redfox000: Exactly. I know that what I said sounded harsh but this show’s simply not to everybody’s taste. I loved both SG-1 and SGA and I was sad when they were canceled. Bummer. I understood why the writers tried something different with their new toy – but the show is simply not good (IMHO, of course). It failed to capture the interest of “masses” on Live+SD AND Live+7 basis. It’s not the fault of a bad timeslot – if it were, the lost viewers would have timeshifted, but they haven’t, they simply dropped the show altogether so the bad timeslot… Read more »
…and to clarify. I watched all of SGU season one to give it a fair chance.
@Mentat — I agree. The title of the article pretty much blames the election for the poor numbers.