Stargate Universe will have a lead-out show for its final three episodes, starting on Monday, April 25. Syfy Channel announced today (via Twitter) that Sanctuary will be moving to Monday nights at 10 p.m. (9 Central) after tonight’s new episode.
The series stars former Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis cast member Amanda Tapping, who also executive produces the show. Amanda also directed Monday’s new episode, “One Night.”
The move may help those final ratings numbers for Stargate, though the show has already been cancelled. But while Sanctuary and Stargate always did well when paired together in the past (due to the high crossover in the audience) the move to Mondays is not likely to do Sanctuary any favors. It currently follows Syfy’s highest-rated show, WWE Smackdown.
Sanctuary returned from its mid-season hiatus with just 1.217 million viewers on April 15, its lowest of the season and losing a crippling 59 percent from Smackdown‘s ratings that night (2.98 million). The show has already been greenlit for a fourth season, though.
Syfy’s reality series Urban Legends, meanwhile, will take up the anchor position at 10 p.m. on Fridays. That series just debuted this past Monday after SGU, turning in 420,000 viewers (less than half of Stargate‘s lead-in).
SGU airs Mondays at 9/8c on Syfy, with the series finale planned for May 9.
Aww that stinks, I like this show. I wonder why Syfy is getting rid of it?
No Hanlon’s razor is applicable anymore. I think they have a saboteur in their management.
Another one bites the dust… sry-fly will kill avery sci-fi show on the network.
Extremely depressing yet completely unsurprising. After Sanctuary is gone I can say I don’t watch anything on SyFy, and I don’t plan to ever start again.
2Piernik. This channel is called SyFy. What in this letters indicate it is about science fiction? :)
Gotta make room for more wrastlin’! Perhaps they are making room for some NASCAR reality shows? Maybe a game show called “I Bet My Family Tree Forks Less Than Yours”? At any rate, yeah, I like(d) that show too. That will leave me with Haven, which is mediocre, but still fun – kinda X-Files-y, unless I missed the memo and that one has been canceled? Then there’s Warehouse and Eureka, which are also fun, but those are a bit different kind of show. Too bad. I didn’t think when “ya’ll” said you wanted to take your country back, you were… Read more »
I guess syfy wants to wash its hands of Sanctuary now too. Such a shame
Haven, AFAIK, was renewed. But I don’t care because I don’t watch it.
Dang I hope Sanctuary sticks around. Sanctuary, Eureka, Warehouse 13, and Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen are my favorite shows these days (on any channel) along with The Event and Glee.
You all do realize that Monday is the new scripted-series night for Syfy, right? In the summer, “Eureka”, “Warehouse 13”, and “Alphas” will all be on Monday night. The only scripted show not on Monday will be “Haven”, which is supposed to remain on Fridays.
And “Sanctuary” already got renewed for another season (it says it right there in the news article), so I don’t think it matters if its ratings drop a little.
They need room next year for the NHL playoff games.
Kyle, those programmes may do well on that night, in the Summer time when the Network Television industry shuts down for the season. An Cable ratings come alive, that why all the big hits like tru blood, fallen skies and so fourth launch in the summer. Even Syfy ratings goes up. Even SGU ratings are going up the close we get to the summer, again because the networks start shutting down there programming. Unfortuantly this is not the summer and there some mighty tough competition on Monday, both for Sanctuary and SGU. But this will finally prove or disprove what… Read more »
Wow. I’m going to laugh when Sanctuary tanks too, and then Syfy starts wondering what they are doing wrong.
*awkward*
If shows like Urban Legends and Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen get renewed with the ratings the way they are for those shows then it will show once and for all that SyFy deliberately killed SGU by sending it to Monday and Tuesday. While this won’t help the franchise in the long run, at least the SGU haters will loose some ground in their arguments.
@AsFarAsLarry
LOL that’s a funny thought! The teabaggers took over SyFy ;)
I wonder, once SyFy kills off all the science fiction shows and replaces them with wrestling and other frat aimed ventures, will they change their name and release the idea of a SciFi channel back into the world where someone who wants to create a channel just for science fiction conceivably could.
Yeah, we all know Sanctuary was renewed for a season 4 but this does not bode well for the series. You generally don’t move a show to a new night in the middle of the run. Of course, there’s the problem of an incredibly long break that SyFy always does. I’m sure that’s hurting ratings these days, I almost forgot it was on and I barely remembered what happened in the finale from December. Its almost like we’re getting two seasons instead of one whole, season. The fact that SyFy cut the episode order from 20 to 13 is BS.… Read more »
The WWE will soon be starting their own network, Once there is no more wrestling, it might have only cooking programs and nothing to do with Science fiction. I hope someone out there creates a SCI FI network with science fiction programs on it.
Well, I prefer 13-episode seasons, although this may be just a fallacy of attributing loss of my enjoyment of the show to increasing number of episode and they are actually capable of making 20 good episodes. Or worse, they lost their ability to make good episodes at all.
Hello everyone. I’m here to tell you not to despair the potential end of Sanctuary. The SyFy channel is not entirely responsible for Sanctuary’s creation or continued well being. Read this article from SPACE here in Canada. This is a REAL science fiction channel.
[…] http://www.spacecast.com/article/SPACE-Orders-Fourth-Season-of-Original-Production-SANCTUARY […]
@Browncoat1984: 13 episode seasons is not just a BBC thing, its also quite american as all of the extremely successful HBO/Showtime/AMC series have 13 episode seasons. It might just be for the best, as there will be no stupid mid-season break to confuse and irritate people… and shows like True Blood and Dexter have perfect pacing with their 13 episode seasons. I’m very interested to see what Sanctuary does with that format.
@Browncoat1984
“What’s this 13 episode season crap? That’s not even a season.”
That’s how HBO, FX, etc., do it.
@Slayme
if syfy ends up cancelling sanctuary, but space wants to keep it; would US folks be able to watch sanctuary too, like via it’s website or something?
majorsal you may need a canada dish then. Some people get them just to get better NHL Center ICE and CBC.
@ majorsal and everyone else:
SPACE posts full episodes on its website about week after TV debut. If you can go here you can watch them online.
[…] http://www.spacecast.com/ […]
Good luck! :)
Well, why not change the name of the channel from Syfy to Universal TV. If they’re going with something else than pure sci-fi and fantasy, it would actually be more coherent with whatever this channel has been transforming into for the last two years or so.
too close to Universal HD channel.
Why the hell are they putting Sanctuary in the time slot of death? Oh wait I know, they have to make room for more reality shows, WWE Events and more BS shows that no one will want to watch. After they the only thing on SyFy I will want to watch is Battlestar Galactica:Blood and Chrome. SyFy management must be ran by a bunch of ex Enron employees.
Would it really matter what day Sanctuary comes on? If you love the show you would watch no matter the time or day, unless there’s some kind of black out in your area? or record it, since I work nights I have to record all shows anyway.I would love to get Canadain channels here in the U.S. Then I’d get to see this Space channel and the awards shows,HOCKEY. I get one british channel BBC (but there is’nt much on it but boring news and few shows).Since all of my favorite actors/actress/shows are from Canada, Scotland, Brits and Japanese. PS… Read more »
I predict Monday’s episode will be the lowest ratings for Sanctuary. No one is going to be looking for it and will assume its a repeat if their flicking by. I haven’t seen any ads on syfy about the move but I only watch 1hour a week.
Being Human did well on Monday even with a full competition. Obviously, for some shows it doesn’t matter that they air during winter/spring or in summer. SyFy just wants to find out if the night works out for Sanctuary too. And they actually want to give a chance to Urban Legends and not cancel it outright. I don’t see the harm. If it doesn’t work out, they won’t air Sanctuary’s S4 in that slot. USA Network experimented with In Plain Sight the same way – they moved it to Wednesday, found out it wasn’t working there and moved it back… Read more »
I am very upset at this! why in the world would sy move this show to monday nights? the show is doing very well on friday with smack down! now i have to re adjust my schedule to see this show on mondays when i have other shows that i like to watch. sy keeps playing games with there programming thinking its going to help there beloved sgu. stupid move that’s all i got to say!!! good bye my beloved sanctuary!! ill miss you. ;(
Doe’s anyone know when Sanctuary will be comin back on UK TV? I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find owt.. help?!..