Atlantis ratings improve slightly

Stargate Atlantis gained a bit in the ratings its third week back, but Stargate SG-1 and Painkiller Jane stayed even with the season-low ratings of the previous week.

SG-1 started off the night of Friday, April 27 with “The Road Not Taken” at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. The episode improved by 1 percent, earning another 1.1 average household rating (Live + Same Day).

Stargate Atlantis regained some of its lost viewers at 9 p.m. “Irresponsible” earned a 1.3 rating, up 10 percent from the previous week.

SCI FI’s new original series Painkiller Jane ended the night with a 1.0 rating, equal with the previous week.

Though SCI FI Channel viewers are using digital video recorders more and more, they are apparently not watching the late-night reruns. SG-1 and Atlantis‘s 11 p.m. and 12 a.m. airings earned 0.7 and 0.6 ratings, respectively.

The television industry has seen soft ratings numbers across the board, leading to speculation about how the increasing number of DVRs will impact the networks’ ad rate negotiations this year. According to Nielsen Media Research (reported at MediaWeek, more than 5 percent of broadcast network viewers watch DVR-recorded programming within seven days. Among viewers age 18 to 49, the number jumps to more than 8 percent.

Brand new episodes continue this Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern/Pacific with the highly anticipated SG-1 episode “The Shroud,” featuring a guest appearance by Richard Dean Anderson (“Jack O’Neill”), and Atlantis‘s “Tao of Rodney.”