The series premiere of the new U.S. version of Being Human posted strong numbers for Syfy Channel on Monday night. The show about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost sharing a Boston home drew nearly 2 million viewers in the 9 p.m. time slot, and 3.8 million over all three, back-to-back broadcasts.
Being Human‘s premiere earned a 1.6 average household rating and 1.961 million total viewers (just over 1 million in the important demographic of adults 18 to 49) at 9 p.m. That’s the channel’s most watched scripted winter series launch since 2005 (Battlestar Galactica).
Syfy is particularly excited that 58 percent of those 1 million adults 18 to 49 were women — the highest percentage of female viewers ever for a telecast of a Syfy original scripted series.
It’s also the network’s first foray into Monday nights with an original drama, which so far is shaping up much better than the Tuesday fiasco that ended in the cancellation of Stargate Universe and Caprica in the fall.
Being Human is a remake of a popular BBC series, which starts its third season on January 23 in the United Kingdom. The new U.S. version stars Sam Witwer, Meaghan Rath, and Sam Huntington. It airs Mondays at 9 p.m. (8 Central) on Syfy.
NEXT: The full press release
How is this Stargate news?
BTW SyFy is dead to us…unless they bring back SGU…but I’ll still have grudge :P
Yes, how is this SG news? I understand Sanctuary and Caprica cuz it’s paired with SGU but this? Is this the SyFy news now?
SyFy doesn’t care what programing they bring in now, because they don’t need ‘scifi’ fans anymore. This show is obviously pilfered from the BBC to try and attract fans of Twilight. The upcoming cooking show is for more women, and smackdown of course was merely to transfer their auidence over to SyFy; this and other changes were most likely ordered at the NBC level.
Why couldn’t they have aired SGU on Monday nights instead of Tuesdays? I bet it would have done better.
“a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost sharing a Boston home”
Seriously? Hasn’t the vampire/werewolf thing been beaten to death already, why are people still attempting to cash in on that? THis sounds incredibly lame. If its even a single percentage point similar to twilight, then I would prefer to wax my legs every morning than watch this.
Yeah, 3.8 million… see what happens when you properly advertise a show? I heard radio ads, it was all over the internet, and tv. Even in the magazines. That is how you advertise a show. Not just the occasional commercial on your own network.
I think Gateworld is starting to post more general sci fi news since the cancellation of SGU. And I think it relates peripherally, anyway. The fact that SGU had such an incredibly low female viewership as contrasted to BH perhaps is one reason why the show did not succeed in the ratings. BH is the direction that Syfy wants to go, more evenly distributed viewership amongst the sexes.
I guess when you properly advertise a show and place it on a night that isn’t an automatic death sentence, a TV show actually has a chance. I’ve heard about Being Human from all kinds of media. Print, web, Television, etc etc. What kind of ads did SGU get? Next to nothing. “It’s also the network’s first foray into Monday nights” Huh…How about that? SciFi actually knows it has to avoid Tuesday nights now. Too bad they canceled SGU instead of MOVING IT OFF OF TUESDAY. I mean come on! They moved it off Friday, I’m sure they could have… Read more »
SGU’s first season was adverstised heavily and had more people tune in to their first ep (that 3.8 million figure is for all 3 airings combined). It just lost a lot of viewers over the course of its’ run. Being Human may or may not continue to hold these numbers, it remains to be seen if people just tuned in to see the premier and won’t be back in weeks to come.
Another thing, how can this show be called a remake if its couterpart on the BBC is still running. What this is is just blatant and desperate plagarism on the part of SyFy to not only maintain a fantasy aspect, but to attempt to appeal to Twilight fans by saying “Looky what we’ve got, vampires and wearwolves!”
I love how SyFy calls this a SyFy original and changes the names and places of the main cast, but uses the same story arc, LOL. Anyway, I’m really up to boycotting most of SyFy. I tried to email SyFy about the cancellation of SGU and i got mailbox full or it kicked it back and i tried emailing NBC Universal and they kicked it back as well. They don’t give a F about us and that sucks. Maybe the CW will take SGU who knows? Give them one damn season to at least wrap it up cause I wanted… Read more »
Vampires and Warewolfs,ha,ha!Ok let’s just see how low they can stump.
The original BBC british is way more interesting then this US version!
The original british BH is not only more interesting,but also more authentic,rooted in tradition and subculture of that part of Britain,capturing the atmosphere and the feel of it all.
This feals as nothing more than another “cheep” and chezzy copy of the real thing,completely unappropriate for the US.
And I refuse to believe that we don’t have enough of our own sci-fi and fantasy tradition to draw inspiration from..oh that’s right,I forgot,this isn’t a sci-fi programme anymore.
My bad!
I suppose a show will also do well, when you pander to the dumb masses, mainly teenagers who are willing to believe that a vampire may want to date them in high school. Try to be smart, then your demographic is cut down considerably. If the types of tv shows available are any indication to IQ scores, then we are all in trouble.
Look what happens when you actually advertise a show ON NBC! They NEVER advertised SGU on NBC. Not only did they advertise ON NBC, but they did it during THE NFL PLAYOFFS! – One of the most watched events in the country on any given year.
Thank you SyFy for giving SGU the advertising shaft.
@AscendedTauri Well Season 1 premiere of SGU got over 2.346 million people I’d say that’s a lot of people. I’m sure this show will dip below 2 million at the end of the season :P People weren’t interested in SGU I gave it a chance for season 1 and season 2 as well but it wasn’t for me.
I couldn’t make it through the first episode of this. I’ll wait for season 4 of True Blood, thanks.
A strong debut on a network that has wrestling as it’s main thing is a real “compliment”!
Sci-Fi R.I.P.
@junebug I’m afraid you’re absolutely right.When I read your comment,my first reaction was to laugh,but then I thought,man it’s not even funny,it’s a very sad truth!
And @Xyla I also tried,but seriously couldn’t make it..and I didn’t even get to start thinkink how awful the show was,because it was just too boring to even watch it to the end,not to mention think about it at all!
True Blood on the other hand is a brilliant and smart show,with many layers,social commentary and a depth of characters,unlike this “original” SyFy series..even Vampire Diaries is Faulkner compared to this!!
And obviously any criticism toward the SyFy is subjected to comment moderation!
So,I’m gonna try again!
@junebug You’re right.
@Xyla I tried twice to say that I agree with you,I found Being Human boring as well,while on the other hand True Blood is an awesome,smart show with many layers and the depth of characters..maybe this time my comment will not be censored,for expressing an opinion without caling anyone names!!
Of course the show had a strong start. There isn’t anything else new on the networks or TV in general right now. The SYFY executive fools just don’t get it. Bring back SGU.
I love this show. Can’t wait until the next ep.
The UK original version of this was really good.
But I’m so accustomed to US adaptations being miserable failures that I can’t bring myself to watch it yet.
And I agree with asindro. Big premiere numbers are only indicative of potential interest in the kind of show viewers think it might be. I’ll be more interested in seeing what the ratings six or so episodes in.
The UK Being Human is generally a very good show. One of the BBC shows we bother to watch. I wasn’t expecting much from the remake but the pilot is free on iTunes so I gave it a try. Much to our surprise the remake is better. It is very much the same story as the UK version but darker. Better production values (more money?). There is still a comedy element but it is very dark and just plays better. We like the NorthAmerican cast. UK series 3 just started up. We will be watching that too. If you haven’t… Read more »
SGU, SGA and SG-1 are cancelled. Sign the petitions, hope for a continuation, move on.
High ratings for a decent scripted show on SyFy is a good thing. Do we really want more wrestling?
Being Human pilot free o n iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?i=414544684&id=413322708&s=143441
@AndrewDebbie: Except that it DIDN’T get “High ratings”. In fact it got much LOWER ratings than SGU for the first 3 episodes. SyFy clearly have no idea how to run a Science Fiction network any more, as evidenced by their focus on Wrestling on their prime time night.