Some reduced competition from the major networks didn’t help Stargate Universe at all when Syfy aired the mid-season finale on Tuesday. “Resurgence” drew an estimated 1.094 million viewers, down 6 percent from the previous week.
The episode held on to last week’s slightly improved 0.5 rating in the all-important demographic of adults 18 to 49.
The show faced a very different line-up of competition on the major networks, following last week’s conclusion of Dancing With the Stars. ABC moved its new sci-fi/fantasy series No Ordinary Family into the Tuesday 9 p.m. time slot, where it drew 6.228 million viewers (below average for the series).
Instead of NCIS: Los Angeles CBS aired a repeat of the original NCIS, picking up a very healthy 15.049 million viewers.
NBC’s The Biggest Loser weighed in with a 8.309 million average for its two hours, while 6.653 million tuned into FOX for Raising Hope, followed by 3.363 million for Running Wilde at 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., respectively.
In other Syfy ratings news, last Friday’s new episode of Sanctuary (“Breach”) drew 1.483 million viewers, an 18 percent improvement over the previous week.
SGU has averaged 1.0782 million viewers in the first half of Season Two, which premiered on September 28. The show started with 1.175 million (“Intervention”), and peaked two weeks later with 1.222 million (“Awakening”). The season low was episode six, “Trial and Error,” with an estimated 967,000 viewers (Live + Same Day).
Ratings that factor in a week’s worth of DVR viewing typically saw an uptick of 40 percent or more.
The ten episodes maintained a perfect record when it came to never moving the same direction two weeks in a row. A drop in ratings was always followed by an increase, and vice versa. This illustrates the fact that, while the show did better in live viewership on Friday nights, its Tuesday viewership was rather steady, overall.
Check out our full chart of Season Two’s ratings here.
Syfy is expected to announce whether or not it will renew Stargate Universe for a third season later this month or in January, after the holidays. SGU returns with another 10 new episodes next spring! Stick with GateWorld every week through the hiatus for our coverage of the entire Stargate franchise.
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In my mind that makes sense. Even though I didn't really like "Visitation", and I saw a lot of positive comments on here about that episode, I think that "Malice" was really the reason that the ratings were up last week and now you are seeing the results of "Visitation". It's too bad though because "Resurgence" was a very good episode in comparison to most of the episodes this season.
Come on, MAN? Are you kidding me? Your mid-season finale and this is all you could muster? I estimated 1.4 at least! SGU is going to emerge from the break with some pretty crappy numbers. It's time to can this blackhole of show. If management is serious about emerging from Chapter 11 with a purpose they'll announce it's cancellation during the break.
Season 2 is really good but too bad season 1 sucked looks like the damage is done.
Great episode of great series. Ratings schould be higher.
"Syfy is expected to announce whether or not it will renew Stargate Universe for a third season later this month or in January"
If they don't, then hopefully MGM will cast around for another network to take it over.
Considering this is MGM's licence, then You would think they should have something to say about Syfy putting it on a stupid timeslot.
All the people complaining about too many filler episodes should go back and watch ST TNG, DSN, VOYAGER, as those are absolutely littered with them.
It's a great show, deserves better, and I hope it doesn't join a long list like Firefly, BSG Classic, etc that were killed off by those that should know better.
Thats great. I got mad when this episode was over. I hate breaks.
"aaaaaaaand it's gone"
Damn.. I blame episode 9, 'life' for this.
They should probably have aired visitation sooner to have trial & error, greater good, malice and resurgence ( all great episodes ) in a row.
I have faith though, at the very least the drop was minimal.
Maybe its time to start SaveStargateUniverse.com. How I'm still holding out hope that SyFy and MGM will do the right thing and give it at least another season to wrap it up. Let's face it SyFy isn't going to find much that will do better, ratings aren't what they used to be across the board for SyFy from what I've seen on this site.
I agree, the damage from season 1 is done. The writers explored their creative freedom at the expense of the franchise, and now that they finally realized what they did, no one cares.