As Stargate Universe draws to a close this week, many viewers are still wondering just what happened. Why was a show that has reached its creative zenith, and holding its own (relatively speaking) on a very competitive night of programming, kicked to the curb?
Last week I posted an op-ed piece in which I detailed my own analysis of WWE Smackdown‘s effects on Syfy Channel’s schedule — specifically, the cable network’s ability to continue to offer scripted science fiction drama the time and support that those shows need. The piece has been getting a good deal of attention, thanks to many like-minded sci-fi fans passing it along. Our friends at TV By the Numbers even wrote about it on Monday, which has generated a great deal of continuing conversation about the network’s scheduling strategies.
Some readers questioned the timing of the publication. After all, Syfy has been airing wrestling since late last year, and SGU has been officially canceled since just before Christmas. We weren’t trying to grab readers the week that SGU is set to go off the air — there’d be no shame in that, but that actually wasn’t the reason we published it when we did. The piece was motivated by Sanctuary‘s startlingly low numbers after its move to Mondays. I drafted the op-ed after those first ratings were announced … then sat on it for a week. The already-renewed show getting fewer viewers than the canceled show? I was prepared to accept that it was a one-time fluke, the result of a change of night for Sanctuary, and potentially even trash the editorial.
So I waited for the second week of Monday ratings to see if Sanctuary would rebound. Instead … it went down. (This week, it went down again.)
Surely, I thought, the gang at Syfy was seeing what the rest of us were seeing. Stargate may have had creative issues, may have suffered seriously in the ratings on Fridays during its first season. (That’s without a 3 million viewer lead-in, remember.) But Sanctuary‘s sustained Monday free-fall proved that the night of the week was critical. After the show lost 40 percent of its audience in the move, SGU‘s drop of 20 percent (from 1.469 to 1.175 million) in its Tuesday move looked pretty good.
Soon after the editorial went up (and sci-fi fans the world over pummeled the network’s Twitter feed and inbox with the link), a network representative offered some words in response via Twitter.
SGU started strong with a 3-part opener, but bled viewers fast.
“I think the real issue is that running on Friday, straight through, one-third of the audience who tried [Stargate Universe] by episode 3 left by episode 7,” Craig Engler, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Syfy Digital, said. “Then we saw a promising recovery in [episodes] 8/9, then a big drop at 10, then another small recovery after hiatus for 11/12.”
Whether or not SGU would have benefited from the post-WWE time slot on Fridays — enough for a renewal — is “hard to say,” Engler said. “By that point I think everyone who was going to sample the show had watched and made up their minds.”
“It’s frustrating because the audience grew from [episodes] 1-3,” he added — “not a lot, but any growth during the first few episodes is usually quite promising. In hindsight, I also think [episodes] 1-3 being somewhat self-contained unintentionally provided an easy break point for sampling viewers.”
Engler is absolutely right that Stargate Universe struggled in the ratings over the course of its first season, when it was airing on Friday nights. The show had lost 43 percent of its premiere ratings by the mid-season break, and rebounded to 37 percent down by the season finale. Drop-offs from a heavily promoted series premiere are, of course, par for the course. But as a particularly expensive show, SGU had a tougher case to make for renewal.
I don’t dispute any of this, and I don’t dispute that Stargate may have still been cancelled if it had aired after WWE Smackdown last fall. Even if it had accomplished Sanctuary‘s numbers of 1.3 to 1.4 million viewers each Friday, SGU might have been cancelled — because it was significantly more expensive than Sanctuary. Fans may speculate, and Syfy execs may muse over the effectiveness of their strategy. But the fact that Stargate has been out-performing Sanctuary on Monday nights (by as much as 35 percent, this week) is telling.
Again: It’s not only the show itself, but the night of the week it is broadcast.
When challenged about Sanctuary‘s drop when Syfy moved it off of Friday night, Engler suggested that “[it is] too soon to say about Mondays. [The] change is still quite recent. We’ll see how it does.”
But he did agree that “night of the week and lead-in always matter. TV is a complex beast … hundreds of factors impact shows also, not just the obvious. The issues SGU had retaining viewers were on Friday nights well before wrestling.”
Did Syfy already have SGU's head stone picked out when ''Intervention'' opened up Season Two on Tuesdays?
Engler also intimated that he might write a blog post to respond in greater detail. If he does, I hope he’ll address whether or not Syfy had already largely written off Stargate Universe because of its first season ratings performance. (The Season Two pick-up, it turns out, was a contractual requirement stemming from an original, 40-episode deal.) His statements about the ratings losses in the fall of 2009 seem to point in this direction. Syfy certainly hoped that Tuesdays would help stop SGU‘s viewer erosion — but remember, the network had never before tried airing an original, scripted drama on Tuesday nights in the fall season.
What I tried to stress in last week’s article is not so much a case for SGU‘s renewal (that ship has sailed) as a case for giving the Friday night time slots back to scripted drama. (WWE viewers have noted for us in the past few days that, unlike WWE‘s live programs, Smackdown tapes earlier in the week, and originally ran on Thursdays for several years.) I’m not making the case to bring back SGU (… which would be awesome); rather I fear for the safety of quality, scripted science fiction. Friday is simply a stronger performer for the genre that doesn’t get a lot of respect from the average viewer of police procedurals and medical shows — something that other networks (especially FOX) know well. Now, the summertime is one thing — but to force scripted dramas to go up against network programming during the fall and spring, on nights when the networks are at their strongest, is to handicap those shows.
This should be undisputed. The question, then, is how to judge those handicapped shows when the ratings data starts to pour in.
As I said last week: If Syfy had renewed one of those struggling shows, it would have demonstrated that they are adjusting their ratings expectations accordingly.
It’s true that Syfy is building a successful Monday night of original dramas, starting with Being Human (renewed for Season Two) and the sure-hit block of Warehouse 13, Eureka, and Alphas starting in July. I expect they will try to keep that momentum going on Mondays when the more challenging fall season arrives. But when their fall dramas run into ratings trouble against the likes of Dancing With the Stars and Castle, will Syfy acknowledge that 1 million viewers is realistic (especially for a show like Sanctuary, which will be in its fourth season) — or will it cancel those shows for “under-performing” on a difficult night?
Ratings expectations must be lowered if Syfy is going to keep its dramas off Friday nights.
In other words: Stargate aside, Syfy must recognize that genre shows do better on Friday night — especially when they are serious character dramas with a demanding mythology and story arc. If Syfy’s programming strategists are not willing to give Fridays back to drama, they must anticipate significantly lower ratings elsewhere in the week — and be prepared to renew those shows in spite of it.
However one might spin the numbers (and, as someone who loves the show, I’m certainly guilty of putting SGU in a positive light), what is clear from the swell of support that last week’s editorial received is that Syfy has an image problem on its hands. The network has succeeded in broadening its appeal through rebranding, airing wrestling, and developing scripted dramas that are more accessible to casual viewers than traditional science fiction fare — whimsical procedurals rather than, for example, the arc-based “space opera.” But that change of image comes at a cost.
Other than BSG: Blood & Chrome, which has not yet been granted a full series order, Syfy has announced no such “traditional” science fiction shows on its development slate. Perhaps the closest would be Sherwood, produced by the team behind Sanctuary and described as a sort of Robin Hood meets Firefly. So far that one is just an idea, however, and hasn’t been given the go-ahead to cast and film a pilot.
We’ll continue to watch Syfy’s creative development and programming strategy in the months to come.
A response? I didn’t expect that. I’ll start reading now :)
Well said, Darren! I think all networks, not just Sci-Fi (sorry, “SyFy!”), need to start realising that they can’t realistically expect to get the viewer figures they got perhaps 10 years ago. New technology, such as TeVo means that people want to watch these shows later rather than when they air, and so they should expect that 1 million live viewers is all they’re gonna get.
A response, while may be all well and good, doesn’t bring Stargate Universe back and isn’t going to save the franchise.
Well, the response is a start at least. At least Syfy recognizes it has a problem. I hope this eventually leads to a renewal of SGU, since it was becoming a really good show in the second half of the second season. Hopefully, the timeline for traversing the intergalactic void on the Destiny will be the maximum time we will have to wait for the show to “wake up” along with Destiny’s crew (a little sooner won’t hurt, and hopefully Eli found a way to save himself).
Sanctuary is getteng not that good with the Story in that Season so I would not blame it on Wrestling.. but hey if you still think SGU was that good….
Tevo isn’t really new technology at this point and the habit of viewing shows later, rather than as they are airing, is hardly a new trend. Anyone else remember the VCR+ codes? I remember how excited I got about them, because it made setting my recording schedule so much easier.
We may have traded the VHS for a hard drive, but the habit itself is something we got started doing in the 90s. I still have tapes somewhere with DS9, B5, and X-File episodes I didn’t watch when they aired.
Ever since the glory days of SciFi Fridays, the station has been having trouble with space based scifi. The decision to prematurely cancel Atlantis and completely replace it with SGU was a big mistake. They should have found a way to run them together and again create a block of sci-fi that people wanted to see. And if all they are going to ever get is 1 million viewers (which I don’t believe, BTW) you will need to resign yourself to much cheaper-to-produce shows than SGU or SGA, in order to make it worthwhile the network. You will never get… Read more »
What Shows are actually real SciFi?
I miss Shows like Star Trek
Space above and beyond
Farscape and so on
that Drama crap is no SciFi its drama with 5 Min Scifitalk
or that Vampire ..
And please note what Craig is saying, SGU was NOT getting enough viewers on Friday to warrant renewal. They moved it to a different night to try to save it. It didn’t work, but they tried.
Whether SGU would have bounced back up to over 1.6 million viewers they would have needed to keep it going with the lead in of WWE is the question, I guess. I seriously doubt it, but I suppose it will never be known for sure.
Nothing will bring Stargate Universe back. Nothing. I’m stunned and very amused that people STILL think it is possible.
I’m from the UK, so I am not quite sure about the overall impact of services such as On Demand/Catch-up tv or items such as TiVo have in the US. After all, for good Sci-fi (or at least the hope of good Sci-fi) we have to turn to the television channels in the US and hope that they will renew them. However, if it is anything like in Britain, a huge majority of people are not concerned about watching programmes at the time they are on live, rather at a time which is convenient to them. I completely agree with… Read more »
There is Supernatural Saturday of BBC America…looks like a fantastic line up…as far as SyFy channel, I have written them off, I could easily watch the B class shows of Dino croc and snake heads on Chiller..
Good article(s) about the challenges of where to place shows and ratings. That aside my biggest gripe about SyFy’s decision to cancel SGU has less with the decision and more about cutting it at the knees without a proper ending. It’s a bit of an insult to do that. I understand that somebody has to bankroll this stuff and it’s not free, but a properly marketed 2 hour TV movie that wraps up SGU, SGA and SG would at least make me feel satisfied. Instead it’s like somebody gave me a cool novel to read and then half way through… Read more »
I seriously don’t know how they can even write off not only a series but an actually franchise due to the first seasons ratings? They knew it was completely different, they knew it would be more indepth, more character based, slower! They know and so does everyone else that a new style would take at least 2 season to pick up.. They also knew that if it was cancelled then the ratings (which are so out of date its untrue) would drop.. It’s a lame reply in my opinion, nothing concrete to say to that SG:U was going to fail..… Read more »
See you in 3 years Eli :D
My blood is boiling with this now
The fact they felt the need to respond to the article shows that someone at Syfy, may be there new bosses are questioning SYFY decision making, it certainly rare to get a direct response from an exec from a firm the size of Syfy. I The fact that 4 out of five shows aired on Monday or Tuesaday have all failed to established an audience there, with only Being Human succeeding to any great extent, that probably riding on the twilight wave than anything else. Even there reality TV Urban legions failed to established an audience on that night but… Read more »
“”””When challenged about Sanctuary‘s drop when Syfy moved it off of Friday night, Engler suggested that “[it is] too soon to say about Mondays. [The] change is still quite recent. We’ll see how it does.””” Thats a complete cop out by the time they’ve waited and saw the show will be cancelled and all the viewers will have deserted the show. like SGU!
Darren – I just read this in your article:
“(The Season Two pick-up, it turns out, was a contractual requirement stemming from an original, 40-episode deal.)”
I’m curious as to where you got this information from as Joe Mallozzi stated on his blog recently that this wasn’t the case and that if the ratings for season 2 hadn’t been sufficient that SGU wouldn’t have been picked up for a second season. That was in response to a tweet from Engler about season 2 being a forgone conclusion. Which is corret, I wonder?
Sorry, I mis-typed, I meant the ratings for season 1 !!!!!!!
@lin21 Joe Mallozzi blogged this 2 days ago: “The second season pick-up of Stargate: Universe was a foregone conclusion once we hit the rating average required for the second year component of the deal to kick in.” And Craig has responded to this article on twitter by saying: “To not misrepresent what happened @GateWorld Staff Staff, I was not responding to any perceived gauntlet, simply answering questions asked of me. ” “I think a title without hyperbole would be, @GateWorld Staff asked some questions on Twitter and I answered them. Less dramatic but accurate.” Darren, are you trying to get… Read more »
Syfy is going down , the shows on the staion are not that good anymore even Sanctuary is getting more Hookie just like Eureka and WH13. I hope there is another tv station out there that is playing old episodes of Stargat and all the Star trek series. and even the original Battlestar galactica it was good for its time and the new one rocked. Once sanctuary is done on scifi My wife and I will be done with this aweful Station.
With the demise of old MTV and VH-1 which actually once aired music videos pretty much all the time but is now all pseudo-reality TV junk, a new network COOL TV( a broadcast network that was created featuring all music video all the time).
Hopefully someone will create a new SciFi/SyFy network to do what this network is all but abandoning – call it SF TV (tag lines: No WRESTLING Here and No Pseudo Reality Show Crap Here and No ultra low budget crap movies like THOR THE ALMIGHTY).
I think the thing that annoys me the most is that when it comes to renewing a show or seeing how well it does it shouldn’t depend on live ratings as many of you have said you can just record it because lets face it not everyone is going to have the time people have to work during the week im sure a large portion of people would be in that boat thats why friday works so well because the majority of people dont have to work the following day. There are alot of people these days that will download… Read more »
SGU is currently the best show on SyFy. Yes, season 1 was rough, but the execs at SyFy need to realize how much better the show has gotten. Plus, we routinely DVR the show, with kids to put to bed (etc), we often can’t watch the show live and they need to realize that their 30-40 year old demographic (like myself) may be recording the show and watching it later.
The viewing problems all scifi shows are having is simply that the demographics of these shows are the people who use digital media/computers the most. Our demographic simply is not suited to sit and wait infront of the tv at a set time and many dont want to. Just look at any download site and SGU is among the top (if not the one at the top) of shows downloaded! That should tell you much more than TV viewers. I have always liked scifi shows, but I have been mocked by my older brother (who thought the shows where geeky)… Read more »
SGU managed to rid itself of most of the weak points of the first season (except the communication stones, though I think they became less reliant on them in season 2 as a device for stirring controversy). Unfortunately, a serial like SGU has a lot of trouble picking people up midstream (that’s the same reason I never got into BSG).
I don`t understand why MGM don`t tell anything???
Their SG site is empty of new news ?
They post only HD pictures and others sh****!
@ace_love >>> SyFail very funny :X
Gasp! A falling out between thieves? Now that there’s no “Gate” for Gateworld and other “Gate”sites to talk about, Is that the reason why Gauntlets are thrown down, Duels are proclaimed with pistols at dawn? I don’t remember such proclamations when Atlantis was cancelled? Engler did not reply with @GateWorld Staff on twitter when he replied, did he? So the Gauntlet which was thrown down, is probably still lying on the ground, where it fell.
I’m not sure why you are keeping up this vendetta against Syfy. SGU was aired on Friday nights for a full year and the ratings kept dropping. If Friday night was the holy grail for new scripted programmes why didn’t SGU perform better than it did. You expected Syfy to keep airing it on Fridays in the hope that the ratings MAY have improved. You have already stated that you are aware that it was an expensive show and that certain figures were probably expected for it to remain a profitable and viable option. It clearly wasn’t living up to… Read more »
Everyone keeps trying to compare Eureka and Warehouse13 to SGU. You can’t do that. Those 2 shows are first run episodes during the summer season. Most (actually all) networks shows are in repeats during that timeframe. Viewers who want to watch something other than repeats, would be tuning into shows like Eureka and W13. SGU was running opposite the high rated first run shows (NCIS on Tues and House on Mon). It’s like comparing apples and oranges. To have that kind of competition, you can’t expect high ‘live viewing’ numbers.
I admit,i did not like the direction season 1 was going. The fact of the matter is that season 2 the writers seemed to have listened to all the neg feedback . Season 2 was a great improvement and i really enjoyed it while still fuming about SGA. If a season 3 would have happened and was written as good as season 2 it would have had a great rebound. If syfy is going to mess with the air days & times they should be more patient.It really should have been given time to mature. Also that mid season break… Read more »
Another tweet from Craig Engler, re the article:
“@MatPease Unfortunately distortions like that make it difficult for me to continue to try and answer fan questions.”
(this was in response to @MattPease’s tweet “@Syfy i didn’t see a distortion? they asked question, you answered them, they posted them on their site. the title is just a eye grabber “)
Actually that response from MatPease was in response to Syfy’s tweet.
Mat’s original tweet, to which @Syfy responded to was:
“@Syfy come on! let @GateWorld Staff have their moment! online media is all about hypebole!”
Sorry
if Blood and Chrome does really well then that would make Darren’s argument void, right?
“Then we saw a promising recovery in [episodes] 8/9, then a big drop at 10, then another small recovery after HIATUS for 11/12.” Why is Syfy still crippling these shows with a”mid-season break”? They have always done this with Stargate, it was not as bad with SG-1 and Atlantis. Because they were more start a mission, wrap it up by the end of the show type series. But it was really bad with Battlestar Galactica and SGU. These show have individual episodes, but still very connected over-arching story, and hard to pick up and watch an episode here and there.… Read more »
@blackhawlk | May 11 @ 1:48 pm
I agree with you 100% finally someone will see the light.
I think television network in general and production studio really need to continue working on finding better way to improve the financing of their shows. There’s not doubt in my mind that a show like SGU will down the road be seen like Star Trek was perceived in the 60s : a show that got cancelled way too early. With reruns alone SyFy would probably earn a lot more money by show in the next decade with SGU than they probably will with a single night of WWE smackdown. But I also don’t think that putting all the blame on… Read more »
Sorry i’m new at this comment thing but, it seems to me that as a global network syfy aren’t actually taking all the viewers of stargate into account before axing a perfectly good program. As someone who lives in the UK and gets SGU way after the US does it’s annoying to find that such a cool channel would cancel a very popular show. Also, i think that Syfy may start to push people away if there isn’t at least a conclusion to the SGU story ‘Gauntlet’. A reluctance to finish stories and programs may be a sign that if… Read more »
@Sylvia | May 11 @ 2:09 pm
Ha! Craig Engler’s statement right there is a bold faced lie. The reason he doesn’t answer questions as often anymore is because @SyFy loses Twitter followers by the boat loads every time he does his little Q&A sessions, doesn’t matter what topic they’re about. He actually tweeted that little fact like a week or so ago, not long after the Q&A session with Darrel.
I’m so glad SyFail doesn’t worry about its “image” as much as it struggles to bring us good, quality science fiction!
(insert plenty of sarcasm in that last statement)
The thing that i do not get that WWE is a sport and watching WWE i have noe seen on Space ship or alien so how can WWE be on a SCI’FI Channel. SGC was a differnent to other SCI’FI shows due to the facts that there hending to the end of the Universe and there has not been a show that tells you is there an end for me thats whats good about the show. Plus i think SG1 should come back and end the war with the Lucian allnice and exposes the hole of the world to the… Read more »
The whole system of rating the performance and the deciding factor on renewals in response to nielsen ratings is flawed. Yes many people already know that but its unbelievable how lazy people are to devise a more appropriate modern day analysis tool to replace this system. I am not afraid to say it and mostly everyone already knows there are many other methods of procuring multimedia in this modern age that does not require the use of a television. The fact is it is much more convenient and easier for people to just download,stream etc. the content and this is… Read more »
Well cruz on over to Facebook..and check out the Syfy channel page…it is filled with rage..not a lot of happy campers out there
Your points are well made in your discussion and,not only do I agree with them, but I’d come to most of the same conclusions. When SciFi was changed to SYFY, it would seem that the change literally did remove scifi from the network, for the most part. Why remove “scifi” from your name if you still were going to make that the main thrust of your programming. As for Stargate Universe – it’s superb 2nd season wasn’t really ever appreciated or helped by the SYFY network. And that’s a loss for us and for them as well, as surely they… Read more »
The whole system is stuck in 1985, but the problem of getting out of that system is all the really complicated licensing agreements that exist between the networks, studios and anybody else involved. I’ve been trying to get an idea off the ground for a while but thus far have failed so i’m kinda hoping that one of the big companies somewhere like Google eventually give it a try. I know people technical enough to do this (me included) but the risk of ending up in a lot of trouble is just to high if it doesn’t have backing of… Read more »
Sylvia – thanks for the clarification. :) My feeling is this: quality is subjective and quite honestly is thus irrelevant when considering renewals just for that very reason. Every fan who loves a show thinks it’s great and doesn’t want it to be canceled; they feel that show is of a good quality. What seems to count is viewers watching programmes live – watching those commercials, and all US tv shows are judged in the same way, by the same standards. Love it, hate it, Nielsen is what counts. How the tv channels use those figures and what they need… Read more »
Monday night shows in general haven’t fared well this year. Fox just cancelled a slew of shows, including Chicago Code, their brand new show that was airing on Monday nights right after House (which did get renewed – THANK GOD!) the same timeslot that DwtS is in… House stays ok in that slot only because it is specifically made for the people who think DwtS is stupid.
@Sylvia: No, I’m not trying to get Syfy mad. :) Just using the platform that this site gives me to make my concerns about their programming strategy heard. So far, it seems like a lot of other fans feel the same way. Despite the provocative headline (hey, “Move wrestling off Friday” was a challenge, and a network rep did respond), I’m not trying to pick a fight with the network. And I’m in no way advocating any sort of anti-Syfy campaign. They have to put up with a lot of angry viewers, especially around cancellation season. The constant barrage of… Read more »
Well said Darren, i don’t believe they have given the genre the best time slot to help it keep the live viewer base that it needs to servive, but i do believe that the issue is that the US is not the only country that enjoys Science fiction, I live in Australia, and i feel like we have been delt a crap card because i know a heap of people who enjoy this show and watch it every week, because it plays on a friday night at 8pm. but our views dont count for anything. I think that Syfy in… Read more »