The wait is almost over! Exactly four months after “Justice” left us hanging, Stargate Universe fans are eagerly anticipating the show’s return to Syfy Channel in the U.S. this Friday at 9 p.m. (8 Central). But many want to know: Why was the mid-season break so long?
We asked Stargate fans via Twitter what their ideal length would be for the mid-season break, and got a variety of responses. But we also heard straight from Syfy’s Craig Engler, Senior V.P. of Syfy Digital, who said, “No mid-season break could mean [32] weeks or more between full seasons. Basically, every schedule choice has a trade-off. … We split seasons so there are not huge gaps between full seasons.”
If the network were to run the entire, 20-episode season without a break, fans would be left with nearly 8 months of no new episodes. But that’s nothing that fans of 24 or LOST aren’t used to — and they keep coming back for more. Because those series are so dependent upon a single story arc spread over a season, major breaks only frustrate viewers (as ABC notoriously learned in the third season of LOST, airing six episodes in the fall and holding the rest for the spring).
Is SGU arc-driven enough to warrant such a plan?
“You’re comparing a broadcast network to a cable network, though,” Engler said. “Scheduling for each is much different.”
It’s definitely not a strategy meant to increase DVD revenue with multiple releases each season, he stressed — since MGM, not Syfy, is the one that sells the show and makes that money.
The challenge for the network is to bring viewers back after a break — and the longer the break, the tougher that is to do. Casual viewers make the ratings, not hardcore fans. So forgetfulness sets in and it’s up to the marketing teams at Syfy and MGM to let people know when the show is back on the air — and to entice those more casual viewers to keep watching.
Syfy’s strategy for most years of Stargate has been the half-season approach: 10 episodes now, 10 episodes later, with approximately the same stretch of time in between. The result is that the mid-season break is about as long as the break in between seasons.
The last two years of Atlantis were the exceptions. Season Four ran from September to March with only a short holiday break. Season Five aired from July to January with the same holiday break.
The longest break in Stargate history, as we figure it, was the third season of Stargate Atlantis and the tenth season of Stargate SG-1, which aired at the same time. The first half aired from July to September, 2006, and the second half from April to June of the following year. That made for a 25-week hiatus (six and a half months) between “The Return, Part 1” and “The Return, Part 2,” and between “The Quest, Part 1” and “Part 2.”
How did Stargate fans answer our question? The average response suggested a mid-season break around six to ten weeks, making for a significantly longer gap between the season finale and the next season’s opener.
“Six to ten weeks is ideal to me,” mescutia said. “I prefer mid-season breaks that are significantly shorter than between-season breaks.”
“Two months tops,” Tanith0709 said. “Personally, [I] would have liked for SGU to come back after the Christmas period.”
A few fans, however, suggested that they’d still prefer little or no break at all.
The ideal break would be “six days,” EliteAceman concisely suggested.
For the next 11 weeks (expect an SGU break Memorial Day weekend), though, we have lots of new Stargate Universe to enjoy! Season Two will likely premiere in October. Catch “Space” Friday at 9 p.m. (8 Central) on Syfy.
Agree with mescutia there, mid-season breaks really should be shorter than the break between seasons. Though the ‘Hiatus Project’ did help to pass the time, would suggest any fan of SGU to check it out when it returns at the end of the season.
What if networks just aired episodes every other week, so there would be 14 days between episodes, and the season would stretch out over 39 weeks (or more, if it was preempted by something else, say…the Olympics, or Halloween monster movie marathons) with a short break between full seasons.
Personally, I love the 24-style way of doing the show with all episodes airing at once and then a longer break between seasons. If I watch a whole SGU season I’ll be satisfied for a long time, compared to being relatively unsatisfied with SGU’s first half-season run. Plus if you air the whole season at once and then have a longer break, you could attract viewers to other good sci-fi shows (not that Ghost Hunters crap) to pass the time in the break between seasons.
IMO the mid-season breaks should not be longer than 1month…
Just to be slightly nitpicky, it’s not just season 3 Atlantis that had the loooooong break, since season 10 of SG-1 aired alongside it.
Battlestar Galactica had a full season between the Stargate season halves.
My paitence level with the breaks seems to be getting shorter and shorter. With the advent of the DVR, they could show the whole season week after week, right through holidays. The issue is the antiquated rating system. I just watched all 10 episodes this last weekend to get a quick refresher for Friday’s show. I can’t believe how much more I picked up on and had forgotten. Craig Engler maybe correct that it is the casual view that controls the ratings, and not the die hard fans. But as ABC found with Lost, if you upset the die hard… Read more »
what a lame excuse. they should be on season 2 by now.
I really like the idea of airing episodes once every two weeks.
(Also, on an unrelated note, “You’re comparing a broadcast network to a cable network thought,” <– there's a typo. If it was in the original tweet, maybe a [sic] indication should be added. Sorry… I'm a bit of a grammar nut…)
grif, I am not a fan of these long mid-season breaks either. But it’s not true that they “should be on season 2 by now”. Not a by a long shot. In TV, one season is typically one year. SGU season 1 started in the fall, so SGU season 2 should start in the fall as well. The question is how to best distribute the 20 episodes among all those weeks from one year to the next.
I absolutely would like an entire season to play out at one time. These half seasons just whet my appetite for the story and then leave me hanging for far too long. Enough time that sometimes I don’t care to see how it ends anymore. An entire season feels like reading a book, it has a beginning, middle and end. I don’t read a book by reading the first 8 chapters, setting it down and then coming back 4 months later and reading the rest. If I am enjoying it, I want the whole thing at once. I’d consider the… Read more »
The break in battlestar galactica’s final season was longer.
The more the producers try to make excuses I get the feeling that they can sense the impending doom of SGU.
hey thats me! If they could bring back a series, we wouldn’t need a break! They would just have to overwork the crew.. unless they had crews for each show…Atlantis was still in its prime! 2 shows working together, and no one will forget to tune in…
If the casual viewer sets the rating then they should play the hole season through. I have every ep. TiVo’d like most of us do and we can watch anytime we want. SciFi just likes to piss people off. SGU is the ONLY show I watch on SciFi and Battlestar pissed me off so much I won’t even get into another SciFi show.
I would definitely prefer no break at all, or at least a short 2-3 weeks tops. Worst case scenarios at this point for SGU considering the criticisms are that the bulk of the casual viewers aren’t marking their calendar’s for the show’s return. Since it’s being marketed at “the episode” to make it all worth while (us getting to know the characters ‘intimately’ etc), I worry that many casual viewers will miss it and so miss out on whatever future potential the show COULD have. The casuals who miss its return might notice after a week or three that SGU… Read more »
[…] Az évadközi szünetről A GateWorld készített egy kis összefoglalót az évadközi szünettel kapcsolatban. https://www.gateworld.net/news/2010/03/syfy-talks-sgus-scheduling-strategy/ […]
52 weeks / 20 episodes per season / 2 weeks for a holiday break
I think they should interlace Stargate with Eureka. Have both show on alternating weeks. That way, there would be a 10 week break during the summer when ratings are down anyway.
I think a lot more show should do this too. No more waiting for new seasons, and always something good to watch.
The only breaks during a season should be the holiday breaks. USA does the same thing with Psych, and it’s annoying. At least Psych isn’t arc-driven like SGU. Give me a long break between seasons any day. Hell, I waited more than a year for the Sopranos.
This is a good explanation of the problems faced by the producers of the show on how best to retain viewers. Thank you, Darren for gathering this info and presenting it here. This is the kind of inside, behind-the-scenes thinking that hard-core fans appreciate receiving. Thank TPTB for us for being so forthcoming and giving you permission to publish their thoughts on this forum. Please do more of this. I think fans would be more tolerant of decisions made by the producers if we are given the rationale behind them. We may not always agree, but at least we would… Read more »
Oh, I should weigh in with my opinion about breaks: I would prefer a shorter break within a season and a longer break between seasons. That said, if two shows are run “simultaneously” like SG-1 and Atlantis, then the breaks should be dovetailed between shows. That way, the fans are always getting their “fix”. This looks like what SyFy is doing with SGU and Caprica since there’s a lot of crossover of the fan bases between those two shows, I would guess.
Darren, perhaps a GateWorld Poll question could be for fans preference in mid & between season breaks. The information gathered might be of interest to TPTB.
So….if fans of the show aren’t the ppl who make the ratings, does that mean if the fans stopped watching the ratings wouldn’t be impacted negatively? I don’t know, but to me that statement seems to be a slap in the face to fans….yea, you’re loyalty really doesn’t matter. If a casual viewer became a fan, do they no longer matter? Lately I’ve been getting the impression that TPTB treat the fans as not relevant to their big picture. I’m sure I’m taking this way to personally. I mean really, it’s just a darn TV show for goodness sakes but… Read more »
This might have made sense to discuss several years ago, but networks do what they want for various reasons, mostly to do with money and keeping audience.
And as for a poll… well, you can ‘stuff the ballot box’, so to speak, at polls here, unless things have changed. ;)
I was thinking they should something similar to what TV Junkie and RemyMichael have suggested. But instead of Eureka, alternate SGU with Caprica. I’ve enjoyed watching Caprica in SGU’s absence, and am disappointed that I’m going to have to wait until this Fall to see the rest of the season. It seems to me that, instead of alternating the shows by season, they should just alternate them week to week with an occasional holiday break (not lasting more than one or two weeks). So if they produce 20 episodes each, the two shows would run nearly all year long, and… Read more »
I agree that they should alternate SGU and Eureka. Show a half season of one than switch to a half season of the other. Both are great shows and more than likely share alot of the same viewers.
Personally, a 6-8 week break is good for between half seasons, while a 4 month break is good for between seasons. Why can’t they do like the networks do and have a few new in a row and then mix in one or 2 weeks every now and then of reruns to allow the season to run longer
I’ve never really had to put up with Hiatuses before because here in the UK, for the whole run of SG-1, Sky One waited until October and ran the show for its full season, with only a 4 week break for christmas. We usually overtook the USA airings 2 weeks before they started up again. Then we had to wait for 8 months before new episodes kicked off. UK tv dramas usually run from between 6 and 13 weeks, so gaps between seasons are 9 or 10 months sometimes, although most shows usually have a one off special around Christmas.… Read more »
We want more Science Fiction as well as Fantasy swords and sorcery action on our collective screens. I’m with override24’s interlacing concept. It would be a heady mix Lengend of The Seeker, and something like Stargate Universe on SyFy/Space 24/7 year round. CGI & Greenscreens and technology for nearly any possible special effect is allready here, what are we waiting for?
I hate the span, The new episode comes on tonight and I did not care about the show that much to start with.
It was a struggle to spend time with the first half I was forciing my self to watch.
That huge gap just makes me care even less. My DVR is full now and IF it records it I would watch if it don’t I don’t care that much anymore. A gap for a dull season of a new show in not a smart idea.
I thought it would have been cool, back when SG1 and Atlantis were both in production, to air them seperately, so that Atlantis would air during the SG1 break. Then I’d have continuous new episodes of Stargate to enjoy year-round. Obviously that can’t work with just SGU, but I since I rather enjoy Caprica, its been nice having that air during the SGU break. As long as I have something new for SciFi Fridays I’m a happy guy. :) Still think they should ditch the DVD-movie idea and retool them as miniseries to air in the middle of each mid-season… Read more »
I agree with those who say an interlaced set of shows would be a nice idea.
Say a group of 2 or 3 related shows that alternate weeks throughout the year.
Then there would always be something new to look forward to. If one started falling behind in the ratings they could always replace it.
Well lets not forget these people have cut the average length of a series down from 26 episodes (around the time of Star Trek TNG, VOY and DS9) to just 20 episodes. 26 episodes would leave only need 26 weeks of the year where no episode was showing. So the maximum break would be 6 months, and that’s with no mid-season break at all!
Make more episodes per season, and cut the mid-season break down to just a couple of weeks, with say a 5 month gap between seasons, and I think most fans would be happy.
I like the present set up. As long as good shows fill in that time slot, the breaks don’t bother me much. Putting “Caprica” in at 9 pm Fridays worked well for me. Since I enjoy “Sanctuary,” “Warehouse 13” and “Eureka,” the breaks between halves and seasons are okay. Don’t the pauses between season halves give the actors and crews time off, as well? If that’s the case, then I mind waiting even less.
In Britain, TV seasons (or series, as they’re called in the U.K.) are handled quite differently than in the United States. I think American TV could greatly benefit from the British system.