The much-awaited Stargate Atlantis / Stargate Universe crossover event may have wowed long-time fans of Stargate, but it didn’t pull in any more viewers. SGU held steady in the ratings with Monday’s premiere of “Seizure” on Syfy Channel.
Universe drew an estimated 823,000 viewers (Live + Same Day), down 6 percent from last week. The Adults 18 to 49 demographic also lost a tenth of a point.
Being Human, on the other hand, rose in viewers in the 9 p.m. hour, widening the gap between Syfy’s Monday night originals with 1.442 million viewers. This is an uptick of 11 percent. This means that Stargate lost a whopping 43 percent from its lead-in.
The NCAA Basketball Championship Game won the night on the broadcast networks, bringing in over 20 million viewers to CBS during the primetime period. Castle drew 11.45 million on ABC, and 7.75 million tuned in to Harry’s Law on NBC.
On USA, WWE Raw earned 5.78 million viewers against SGU in the 10 p.m. hour.
New episodes of Stargate Universe continue next Monday at 10/9c on Syfy! Learn more about “The Hunt” in GateWorld’s episode guide.
I was hoping for a ratings spike for this ep, but guess the fans who looked forward to seeing McKay don’t really make a difference in the ratings game. :(
I’ve been reading around the net, this ep is not receiving the positive reviews I would have anticipated. Sad.
^^^^I didn’t like the milkyway part of it. I wanted to see something phenomenal, but instead I got a boring SG1 rehash. The Amanda/Rush G/Eli bit was different, and interesting. But the milky way clandestine boring **** **** killed the episode.
I want to save the show, but guys, you’re on the other side of the Universe, and we’re still dealing with story ideas that got addressed in SG1 and Atlantis. God, you’re on the other side of the universe—think THIRDSPACE Babylon 5, or the God Hand Babylon 5 legend of the rangers, or Lexx the end of the light universe and the beginning of the dark universe. Startrek search for god—Startrek Voyager, Fluid space.
Glad the ratings “held steady.”
Nah, I didn’t enjoy the episode at all. There was no real purpose in it, we didn’t gain anything from it at all. I think it’d of been far better if they’d gotten rid of the stones completely. Ah well, what’s done is done.
Can’t see any conclusion gonna happen in the form of a movie or whatever with these ratings, not to sound all ‘doom and gloom’ :P
@colin15watt MGM knows that Stargate Universe has a worldwide fan base not just who watches it on syfy. So I think that will go into they’re calculations on wether a direct to dvd movie would make money not the ratings.
Held steady? Down 6 percent from last week? That puts it at 1 percent above the week before’s franchise low.
Ratings this season will have no effect what so ever on the movies. So lets all keep that in mind. However ratings, will go a long way if another network decided to pick this show up. Its also very obvious that syfy put sgu on the worst time slot imaginable to make their decision to cancel the show right. The facts are right up in this article. It would also make more sense to put a rerun show(terminator scc)on this time slot and SGU on thursday’s instead. Syfy said it themselves…their not looking to renew terminator.
Seizure was a great episode, it doesnt suprise me tho that half the viewers of being human tuned out for SGU. Seriously if your a being human fan u probably have horrible taste in tv and wouldt like a quality show like SGU
I thought this was a great episode. Yes, it had two pretty much completely separate storylines, and given the content of the plot, the Langara half really should’ve been granted the full attention of the episode. But it was serious, had all the risks and whatnot of Universe, had a flavor of humor due to the awesome that is Hewlett, and had the political stuff from SG-1 which was always an interesting touch as well. This was like a little half-an-episode tidbit of what the show could’ve been if the heads of the franchise didn’t obsess about going SO far… Read more »
puddlekumper_1 : Joseph Mallozzi has made it clear that another network picking up the show is not an option at this point. Also, SGU was on Friday night teamed with the Syfys best rated show WWE and still had the same ratings. We really can’t blame the network for its timeslot hurting the show.
You know what this episode did for me… Reminded me how much most of the characters on Stargate universe are total A-holes. Seriously.. Rodney and woolsy are going on like normal episodes of stargate and then you got the universe cast (except for ELI and that other dude in the chair I always forget everybody else on the shows name.) Trying to take over the goverment by being backstabbing jerks and woolsy saying he will have no part in most of what they are planning but ends up having to stop them from going to far by the end of… Read more »
That episode was awesome. Just when SGU is getting really good, they cancel it. I want more stargate! :-(
@Cube I agree with you that it was wrong for us to jeapordize Langara, but they thought Langara was working with the Lucian Alliance. They had to act and do something, Destiny doesnt have a shield or iris system so if the Lucian Aliance delievered a bomb then what? Also sending supplies to Destiny would have been a great outcome, and Telford wasn’t being “slime”. He just asked Mckay if he would join their expedition. The crew of Destiny are all the wrong people, they dont have men with off world experience, a doctor, and proper scientists.
There would have been a ratings spike if any of the people with Nielson boxes were Stargate fans. This is yet more evidence that the Nielson system cannot represent a niche like the sci-fi audience.
Perhaps it’s a misunderstanding regarding the definition of ‘hold steady’. Where does ‘Dip’ come in? 7%; 10?
Anyhoo, obviously I’m still not being counted; although, as far as syfy and affiliates are concerned, I never have been, hence cancellation of both Farscape (you guys were obviously never taught not to tease the dog) and Atlantis.
Here is a tip: You can also save money by not airing anything. There, no charge.
No love,
Teri
Amen, Xyla.
Teri
I can’t believe I’m actually chiming here in, but I did watch the episode, so… Plot Hole Alert: All the worried discussion about cutting losses before ‘going too far’ at the end of the episode? Dude. You ‘went too far’ when you kidnapped two government officials. Kidnapping… let’s see, that’s a … felony offense right? Well, at least it is the the United States. I guess not in the Stargate Universe; which, come to think of, explains alot.
Teri
This entire ratings discussion is beating a dead horse…and considering what @Xyla says,pointless to begin with(even while the proverbial horse was still alive,lol!).
[…] after finishing the episode to make it to my vanpool rendezvous. Wednesday morning ratings report: Holding steady with SGA crossover. Seizure (aired […]
i still don’t get why it got cancelled,you don’t determine a show on its first season,everyone experienced in show business knows that, Almost,i said ALMOST all shows start out with a first season, or shall we say cheezy and badly produced,so, syfy was being retarded when they cancelled SGU,its getting better,and way better,because this is how its supposed to be, but i guess its the fan’s fault since they were stupid enough to determine SGU to get cancelled or not on its first season and first half of its 2nd season….Good job! (Sarcasim)
@Xyla—I agree, we’re never told who these nielson people are; and what they like or dislike. We need to know what other shows they watch since; if they’re true fans of science fiction shows, then there would be particular shows they’d watch. Sure this demographic (reportedly) watches Warehouse 13 (an X-files esque show) and Eureka (billed as an American Apple Pie eating seemingly simplistic community with a twist— and it’s relatively comedic, with glow in the dark sun bright characterization—with guaranteed Weird Science Themed Leit Motiffs) But Neilson has become the camera in the lonely one stop mart, in the… Read more »
What people need to do if they have multiple Cable Boxes in their house, is set up at least one of them to the SyFy channel so that it’s registered as being active, then they can watch whatever they want Live on the other Box. This way it at least counts the vote from the Active box, even if it’s not actually being viewed on the TV……that’s what I’ve been doing since I haven’t been home. I tune in before I leave the house and it just runs all day.
Getting ratings like this on the same night as the NCAA championship game, which draws WAY more viewers than any of the typical monday night shows, is very impressive. The typical Nielsen viewers are way more likely to watch it than SGU even for those that regularly watch SGU. Even with McKay in it, I was really expecting the numbers to be half of what they were. By not even getting their worst ratings of the season, it shows just how much interest there was in McKay and Woolsey being on it. @puddlejumper_1 – There’s no third season to be… Read more »
I wouldnt call it much of an “Atlantis Crossover” There was not one mention of Atlantis
mythos, I disagree with what you said about Woolsey caving. He specifically said he would not take part in taking their facility by force, and that is NOT what they did. Their intention, was to prove it was safe, by sneaking in, and activating the gate BEFORE they got caught. As soon as the Langaran government brought their guns in, Woolsey knew it would become a combat situation, and that’s when he began to urge them to shut down the mission. Because while it might very well be possible for them to hold off the Langaran government, especially given their… Read more »
Also, random sidenote… if I remember correctly, the ninth chevron dialing sequence has a much larger backflush, and the balcony in front of the gate really wasn’t that far from the gate.
If they had completely the dialing sequence, I think the gate would’ve killed the Langaran leader dude on the balcony.
I have to say I was completely bored with this episode. Instead of bringing Rodney to Destiny to do something with the ship, we spend yet another epsidoe using the freaking stones and focusing on the Milky Way. Sigh. What a waste of what could have been a great crossover episode. And the plotline with Rush…bored me to tears. I cannot say enough negatives things about this episodes, so suffice it to say I would rate it a 1 out of 10. The ratings this show is getting now do not surprise me given the last few boring episodes. The… Read more »
The title is slightly misleading, the ratings didn’t really hold steady, they continued to fall, just not that much.
Seizure was a fantastic episode. I’m a fan of Universe, but I’m quite confident that it doesen’t deserve the title of stargate. I really like this show! Story, humor, drama etc. It’s a shame that it’s been cancelled. =(
I watch every episode of SGU same with SGA when it was on and think they are/were both good shows. To cancel SGU and keep shows like Ghost Hunters and that cooking show and Destination Truth, wow who watches that? Oh well hopefully the next Star Gate show to come out will be on network tv of Showtime where it all started and will be given a fair chance instead of phoney SyFy!
i think SGU wouldve been the best thing ever in Season 3. I dont believe the writers meant for it to be a 5 season arch, i think it was more like a 10 season one at the pace we have now. Season 3 wouldve been awesome.
@jjs Couldn’t agree more!It’s the result of showrunners trying to save the show by going back to old sg1 plot threads like The Lucian Alliance treath,the only remaining one.A bunch of thugs that with all of the thechnology and allies we’ve picked up along the way,including all the Asgard knowledge,cannot present any viable threat to Earth,or it’s interests at all.
I as well expected McKay to be involved more with the ship,or this sort of mission to be successful,so that we can finaly focus on the ship and going forward.
Eli is a redundant character. right? We got Rush, hes supposed to be special. And Chloe was supposed to be special. but Eli ruins that.
@ Jim SG-1 plot threads? You are joking right? The Lucian Alliance was established as “the big bad” for SGU in the first episode of SGU (what anyone thinks of that is neither here nor there). No possible threat to Earth?? why not. All they had to do was remote pilot a cloaked Alkesh with a Naquadria enhanced nuke into one of the many supervolcanoes here on earth and we can kiss our existance on earth goodbye. What “allies” have we really got? The Jaffa nation?, not exactly stable, the Asgard?, The Tollan?, nope, their all but gone. The Nox,… Read more »
Going to watch it later tonight still on PVR, looking forward to it though! :D
It is too bad this show didn’t make it. “Seizure” was a decent episode as I think almost every episode since the second half of season was also. Of course I would like to see more gate travel and less stones. The wormhole concept has been exciting since the original feature film. Wormholes are accepted science by great minds like Einstein, Hawking, and Sagan to name a few. In my view another big budget feature film like the original stargate would be the best. At first I wasn’t a big fan of SG-1 because it was so cheesy compared to… Read more »
@mythos Wow, so SGU is trully over. This is just sad. But like Darren and Dave said in a podcast, one of the board members at MGM is a die hard SG fan just like the rest of us, and he said they’re not done with stargate. I just hope SGU will get some closure, and pray that Extinction and Revolution will get a green light. MGM has the money, the downloads on itunes and such are high. So I think Stargate Extinction should get the first green light, the actors are ready and the script is done, SGU’s actors… Read more »
Some of the comments up above really cracked me up. Anyway, I was really excited for this episode; this episode was the only episode that I really was looking forward to see, I mean really was looking forward to it. I had high hopes for it. After all, Mckay and Woolsey are in it. Man, my hopes were obviously way too high. I was kind of disappointed at the episode. Yeah, there were good parts, but I really was expecting something else. I’m not saying it was a terrible episode (believe me, there are worst episodes); I’m just saying it… Read more »
I agree with jjs, it feels like Destiny has hardly received the exploration she deserves. I would have liked more Ancient knowledge or tech revealed in the show, especially after the master code was broken. Would that have improved ratings? Probably not, but it would have been cool. And then tonight, Gin and Amanda pretty much get killed off before they can provide any valuable Ancient knowledge or info about Destiny. Clearly, getting intimate with Rush is far more important (not that it wasn’t an interesting episode). No doubt a lot could have been revealed if they got the full… Read more »
So the ratings went down even though the beloved McKay was in it. Its so funny seeing people defend this by saying there was something else on tv that was drawing away the viewers, even funnier seeing that its the same people who said ‘if people wanted to see the show, they would, no matter what else was on’ but that clearly doesn’t apply when there is a ratings fall on the very episode they all said would have a ratings spike because of the ‘atlantis’ connection, it’s pretty LOL worthy! It would even be believeable that a number of… Read more »
I don’t blame SGU, or Syfy for the poor ratings (though the showtime could be better!)SGU is a good show and Syfy put it out. What I find sad is what TV viewers DO watch – according to the ratings.
Some people STILL think the films will get green lit?
Never. Going. To. Happen.
You are delusional if you think they will be.
@ocdtrekkie – But he did cave. He still went along with it. He didn’t know it would work. He didn’t know that force wouldn’t be used. He wasn’t the same character that he was at the end of SGA. Now I’m not saying it’s impossible for him to change (again). But there was no indication of it based on his earlier objections. And it’s not like they went unarmed. They were prepared for a military confrontation. As for the backflush…they probably knew when building the set that it wouldn’t have to be accounted for so worried more about aesthetic than… Read more »
@mythos, How are they tracking how many viewers are watching if what you’re saying is that they are only pulling the Nielsen box stats? How many people actually have that device? As I understood it, just by having the box tuned into the Channel was enough to get the validation that the Channel was being accessed. If you have an active Account with a TV Service Provider, then that alone should be enough to count for whatever stats they are tracking. Active Account for a valid TVSP + Cable box tuned into Channel = 1 point I don’t mean to… Read more »
Great episode of a great tv series!
That’s what happens when you put a great show in a crappy time slot.
@Tazhyngarth – Television ratings, at least in the US which is the only ratings that mattered in this case, are based on a system created by Nielsen Media Research. All of the networks agree to use their rating system as a way of keeping a level playing field for advertisers. More information on Nielsen can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_ratings It’s based on statistical sampling, so no, keeping the channel on in no way affects their ratings unless you have a Nielsen box. And as previously mentioned, they do take measures to ensure that people are actually watching such as requiring… Read more »
@Garefan1976 The Lucian Alliance was not established as the “big bad” in the pilot.It was just a plot device to start things rolling. The Lucian Alliance and the big bad cannot even go together in the same sentence seriously. And yes we now have tech advanced enough to detect and avert any tuggish attempt on their part to endanger Earth.Alliances was just a bad episode.And your scenarios of their possibilities to attack Earth seem as something from Superman IV. Basically again the point is lost on some people..so let me picture it 4 ya’..the emphasis should be on Destiny,not sg1… Read more »
@ Jim Well for a “plot device just to get the ball rolling” they certainly have had an inordinate amount of influence on the story haven’t they? Besides I did say that discussion of what people thought about them was pretty irrelavent seeing as though they were the organisation the writers chose to use, weather anyone likes it or not. As to my “superman IV” like scenario, with all due respect, people used to think that about “fringe terrorist organisations” on earth, and we know how well that worked out don’t we :( (again, all due respect to those affected… Read more »