Close ratings for September 9 SCI FI Friday

Only fractions of a ratings point separated The SCI FI Channel’s three original series on Friday, September 9. Rounded off to typical tenths of a point, SG-1 and Galactica held a slight lead over Stargate Atlantis.

Stargate SG-1 kicked off the night at 8 p.m. Eastern/Pacific with “Babylon.” The episode earned a 2.0 average household rating, up from the 1.9 rating earned by the last new episode two weeks previous.

Stargate Atlantis followed at 9 p.m. with “Conversion.” The episode lost a few viewers with a 1.9 rating, a significant drop from the 2.2 earned by “Instinct” two weeks ago.

Battlestar Galactica finished out the night with “Final Cut,” which earned a 2.0 rating in the 10 p.m. time slot. This is down one-tenth of a point from the previous new episode.

SCI FI ranked in the top 10 cable networks for the week among adults 18-49 (#8) and adults 25-54 (#10).

The week was somewhat unusual for U.S. broadcast television. Hundreds of thousands remain homeless or without power following Hurricane Katrina. And all major broadcast networks and all NBC-owned cable stations except SCI FI showed the charity program “Shelter From the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast” in SG-1‘s time slot. That program was watched by nearly 24 million viewers over 29 networks, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The SCI FI Channel is hoping to beat the broadcast networks’ imminent season premieres with a 2-hour Stargate SG-1 event this week. The back-to-back episodes, including the mid-season finale, air Friday, September 16, at 8 p.m. Eastern/Pacific.