Syfy Channel has dropped the axe on Caprica, the prequel drama series it once hoped would carry the mantle of its critically acclaimed Battlestar Galactica franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“We appreciate all the support that fans have shown for Caprica and are very proud of the producers, cast, writers and the rest of the amazing team that has been committed to this fine series,” Syfy programming head Mark Stern said. “Unfortunately, despite its obvious quality, Caprica has not been able to build the audience necessary to justify a second season.”
The news comes on the heels of Syfy’s announcement that it has greenlit a 2-hour backdoor pilot for a third Battlestar series, Blood and Chrome (story).
The show has struggled on Tuesday nights since returning with the second half of its first season four weeks ago, with ratings starting at just 889,000 viewers and falling to 718,000 a week ago. Caprica has been following Stargate Universe in the 10 p.m. time slot.
SGU has also had a tough time in the ratings on Tuesdays, but is still drawing significantly higher numbers than the BSG spin-off. News on its renewal isn’t likely to come before December or January.
As of press time, Syfy had not yet updated its schedule or announced Stargate‘s new lead-out show.
The network had originally intended to wait until January to bring back the show, but moved up the mid-season premiere to October. Together with SGU, the show represented Syfy’s first attempt to extend its original dramatic programming into the Tuesday night during the competitive fall season.
The final five episodes of Caprica will be yanked off of Tuesday nights effective immediately, and rescheduled for sometime early in 2011.
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wow, not too surprising. But I don't get why they are taking it off tuesday nights... to replace it with what? Just let it run out on tuesday
I'm disappointed, but not at all surprised. Caprica was a very good show. Shame...
Actually, SGU's ratings are NOT significantly higher. Want to compare? Latest ratings:
SGU: 1.01 mil., 0.4 demo
Caprica: 0.84 mil., 0.3 demo
That's a difference of 170k and 0.1 demo. Saying it's "significantly higher" is wool pulling, plain wool pulling.
Caprica had a decent concept, but it seemed to reach fever dream status by this point. It sucks it won't get a second season cause with it's concept I could see it getting better. The -only- silver lining I see here is that, since Blood and Chrome has been greenlit just before this happened, is that it isn't meant to replace SGU, only Caprica. Which means, as long as SGU can build up to an average of above 1 million, will hopefully hold out for a third season. Now I just have to hope we don't hear news of SyFy greenlighting an SG-like program over the next month or so.
This doesn't suprise me. I actually half expected it when Syfy announced they would move the show(s) to Tuesday. To think they would do as good on a Tuesday as they were on Friday was a bad assumption.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Personally, I won't lose any sleep over it. However the concept was good, really good in fact. I just wish they didn't focus on the Gods damned STO. If they focused on the Cylon model 0005 and the incessant drama of the greystones, Adamas and the STO this news could have been a announcement of a second season renewal instead of a cancellation. Ron and David really fumbled. My hope is that blood and chrome is on par with Battle star Galactica
@katikatnik: 1.01 is 20 percent higher than 0.84. Though both shows are having a tough time finding viewers on Tuesdays (as the article states), I think a 20 percent relative advantage is "significant."
It was an interesting concept as others have said but executed poorly. NOT what I expected and not what the show was originally advertised as. The show was originally advertised as a prequel focusing on the creation of the Cylons and a family drama between the Adamas and the Greystones. So far it's mainly been STO and religion. Not what I was expecting.
I agree with katikatnik, if you ever thought a few years ago that we'd be thinking a 1.01 million viewers for a SG show was anything but a disaster you would have though yourself delusional. The cost of running the show and not making the ad goals was too much for Caprica to even be kept on the air. With SGU being not much higher, it might not be bad enough to pull, but I doubt they are making the promised numbers and are having to "make good" to the advertisers.
Sorry to say, I think this is the first but not the last cancellation to be announced by the network this year.