After dropping the editorial hammer on Syfy Channel’s programming decisions over the past two weeks (not once but twice), this past Thursday we gave the network a bit of “equal time” to respond to a myriad of complaints from fans regarding the cancellation of Stargate Universe (story). Craig Engler, a senior executive from the network, emphasized SGU‘s ratings drop during its first season, when it aired on Friday night — suggesting that with fewer than 2 million viewers (Live + 7 Days) it was already in the cancellation danger zone when it headed into its second season.
In a post at his blog, Stargate Universe executive producer Joseph Mallozzi weighed in on the issue and responded directly to several of Engler’s points.
“While I can empathize with fans who object to the abruptness of the cancellation after ten years on the network, one has to understand that television is a business,” Mallozzi began. “If Syfy has alternate scripted programming that performs better on Mondays or Tuesdays in the fall, then it’s understandable why they would choose those shows over a third season of SGU. That said, certain statements in the article had me scratching my head …”
To begin with, Engler compared SGU‘s series premiere ratings to those of Stargate Atlantis, observing that the former was 25 percent lower — evidently starting out the show at something of a disadvantage from its predecessors.
“Comparing the SGA premiere to the SGU premiere is grossly unfair,” Mallozzi said. “First — Atlantis premiered during the summer while Universe — originally slated for a [summer] premiere — premiered in the much more competitive fall. Second, the time between the two premieres has seen a significant increase in DVR usage and Internet downloads, and a simultaneous erosion in live viewership. Coincidence? Maybe, but I don’t think so.”
Stargate Atlantis premiered with over 4 million viewers in July 2004, according to Syfy.
In this case, then, the issue was not so much with Stargate‘s ability to find an audience as with the difference between the summer and fall seasons (Syfy’s highest rated dramas air in the summertime) — and a change in television viewing habits and options since 2004.
“Simply put,” Mallozzi said, “back when Atlantis aired, fewer viewers were recording or downloading television and many more were watching television live.”
He also took exception to Engler’s observation that Tuesdays had been very successful for other Syfy shows, including the top-rated Warehouse 13 — since such shows were summer hits. Stargate premiered in the summer on both Showtime and Syfy for the previous 12 years, with the sole exception of Stargate Atlantis‘s fourth season.
While acknowledging that he wasn’t privy to the final decision-making process, Mallozzi also questioned Engler’s suggestion that it was MGM alone who ended Stargate Atlantis in favor of the new series. “At the time, when we asked the studio whether or not there was any interest on their part in producing a sixth season of Atlantis, I was told that, while the increased budget made a Season Six less attractive for them, there were other reasons to do it (i.e. as a lead-in to the new series),” he said.
“It’s possible that the studio had an eleventh hour change of heart — but I’m not sure why they would have.”
While the producers and the network may not see eye-to-eye on how the show’s fate was sealed, Mallozzi does acknowledge that “television is a business. It’s unfair to expect the network to pick up a third season of a show if it doesn’t make financial sense to them. But it’s equally unfair to make a case for cancellation by comparing SGU‘s performance unfavorably to shows that had the benefit of airing in the summer or were less impacted by downloads and DVR usage.”
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Great artical Dazza, RIP Stargate.
I do like the way Joe Mallozi pulls not puncheshes.
I wonder if we will get a reply from the studios, as Joe as just basically called them a bunch of lieers,especially on the issue of Syfy paying for two season upfront. Which Joe said they did not.
I'm curious if Craig saw this coming... I doubt he did, but this just hurts the Syfy pr even more. Wow. At least we got conformation from Joe Mallozzi that we aren't crazy and that, in fact, it is Syfy who is crazy. I also find it interesting that he is the only Stargate producer that is still doing posts for the fans. I would have thought Brad Wright or Robert Cooper would have brought done an interview about it. Brad didn't even want to tell fans where he intended to take the shows/movies.
i hate it when mom and dad fight.
The "but no one used DVR when SGA aired" thing doesn't work here because the Syfy guy quoted live + 7 ratings.
I can`t help wondering... If i got this rigth, doesn`t MGM own Stargate? And do they not care if the planned storyline of the movies/series are told to the public? In that case, all hope for more stargate is now gone forever.
@Jedi_Master
You have also got to remember the erosion in conventional TV viewership overall. Less people are watching less live or even DVR'd content; especially SciFi fans. More of us have gone to getting it on iTunes. I personally have not lived in the US for over three years (Japan) but that is where I get mine. I could just torrent it but I prefer to support the show so I purchased the season pass. I am what you would call a cable cutter but I spend more on television content then most people that do have cable. This is quite common.
The reason I make this point is both SyFy and MGM are making a HUGE mistake by not using both the number of people getting the show online, and even include torrent downloaders because many of them live in countries where they cannot legally get the show. (I have a US credit card).
Also they should better use new media such as Twitter. Go to Twitter right now, and search SGU. You will have a hard time finding anyone happy to see the show gone.
Alas, we are in a transitional point for delivering content, and killing the old ad model, but its a big business run by men and women that are afraid of change, but change will come but too late for SGU and the other Stargate movies :(
@wraithkelso
Yeah JM will probably get some crap for responding to some of the unfair BS points, but I respect him for doing so.
So again someone is only blaming outside influences for SGU's demise. He is not even considering, that SGU itself may not have been perfect. That some people simply didn't watch it, because they didn't like it.
It is quite simple. Brad Wright was wrong, when he said this:
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2009/11/stargate-universe-syfy-.html
"...fortunately there are enough viewers and reviewers who think 'SGU' is neither boring, poorly plotted, or sexist to keep us on the air long after 'V' is just a letter in the alphabet again."
There weren't "enough viewers", who thought that SGU was worth watching.
The ratings went down dramatically in the UK and Germany, too. It is not like SGU was only unsuccessful on Syfy.
downloads stay everywhere the same cause people who dont have the channel and so on will always download series cause they dont care to wait years when they got to see it on there tv channels and tbh there is no quarente that they get to see these tv shows on there tv channels to
they really need to find new ways to show people scifi genre and dont tepend only whats coing on in us
SYFY channel does not have the audiance to have great raitings for any show and that is a fact if you all look the raitins everyshow on syfy expect wresling what looks like have the best raitings in there