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.
After four months, viewers will learn Rush's fate when "Space" premieres this Friday.
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.
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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 fans enough, they will leave the show.
Show the whole season back to back with minimal breaks, Holidays. This give the opportunity to put other great shows on at other times.
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 seasons like a trilogy, so I can wait a while for the next book, but not for the next chapter. I don't like "WIP's" in fanfiction either.