Alright all you Stargate Universe bashers (I caught up yesterday, it’s growing on me…kinda) and alienated Stargate Atlantis fans who are rooting for Stargate Universe to fail: it’s doing just as well as SGA did last year (actually better). Though this episode was down, it was the same as the Live+SD ratings for the series finale of SGA in January.
Here’s last week’s top ten (in terms of viewers) shows for Syfy:
| Rank | Shows | NET | DAY | Time | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | GHOST HUNTERS | SYFY | Wed | 09:00P-10:00P | 3,067 |
| 2 | GHOST HUNTERS | SYFY | Wed | 08:00P-09:00P | 2,068 |
| 3 | STARGATE UNIVERSE | SYFY | Fri | 09:00P-10:00P | 2,015 |
| 4 | DESTINATION TRUTH | SYFY | Wed | 10:00P-11:00P | 2,011 |
| 5 | GHOST TOWN | SYFY | Sat | 09:00P-11:00P | 1,843 |
| 6 | SANCTUARY | SYFY | Fri | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,694 |
| 7 | SCARE TACTICS | SYFY | Tue | 09:30P-10:00P | 1,633 |
| 8 | SPLINTER | SYFY | Sat | 07:00P-09:00P | 1,615 |
| 9 | FLU BIRD HORROR | SYFY | Sat | 05:00P-07:00P | 1,552 |
| 10 | TIMBER FALLS | SYFY | Sat | 03:00P-05:00P | 1,488 |
I know what you’re thinking as you slap your foreheads: “I can’t believe I missed “Flu Bird Horror” and “Timber Falls!”
What does the future hold for SGU? Time will tell.
One thing we don’t have to guess at is this: Ghost Hunters isn’t going anywhere. It was the only show on Syfy to rank in the top 50 of ad-supported cable shows with adults 18-49 last week. It was #15 out of all ad-supported cable shows with 1.813 million (for the Wednesday 9pm episode on 10/21). It’s not as popular with adults 18-34, but it still made the top 50 (again the only Syfy show to do so) at #33 with 813,000 adults 18-34.
But Stargate Universe DID rank with Adults 25-54
It was #41 with 1.224 million adults 25-54. That was still behind the 9pm Ghost Hunters (#16, 1.896 million), Destination Truth (#32, 1.267 million) and even the 8pm Ghost Hunters (#39, 1.241 million).
Sanctuary did not rank in any of the top 50 age demographic rankings we saw.
Hm.. funny that table looks totally weird.
Anyway, they have fully produced 10 episodes, and they have shot all of the scenes for all 20 episodes (but need to edit the remaining and music and special effects etc)
So you’d think the show would run for the full season 1.
And I’m expecting it to continue.
Still a bit of a melrose place vibe to the whole thing (i’m guessing, never actually saw melrose place
– but with a little luck someone will get killed of and they’ll stop jumping into bed all the time.
They have only aired 5 episodes of SGU. Hopefully, for SyFy and fans, the downward trend will stop here and level out. If the ratings decrease to SGA Season 5 levels during this first half of the Season, will it get a renewal? Given what I have read about the deal Wright and Cooper made, I would think it probably will, as long as it does not go lower than SGA.
Unfortunately, after the first 10 episodes air, there will be a long hiatus while Caprica is shown and the series will resume in 2010. How do long absences like this affect ratings? And will the last 10 episodes be shown in the UK on Sky prior to their airing here in the US?
I imagine that SGU will be a keeper on Syfy, unless it really plunges, but I think that Syfy has long range plans for it. I don’t know why they are comparing it to the last season of SGA, since that was SGA’s fifth season, not its first, so it had some age on it. It was doing ok, or at least that was what fans were told at the time, and that they wanted to retire it as a series while it was still successful.
I can’t believe there are SGA fans who want it to fail.
I personally think it is the best Stargate to date. Don’t have too high of hopes for Caprica’s quality, but it will probably do well merely because of BSG.
Also had no idea Ghost Hunters was their #1 show… Wonder if thats why South Park made fun of it…
Lainey, I completely agree that the comparison to SGA’s last season isn’t the best comparison to make. But, as a general rule, we only compare to the previous year here.
So many things have changed that comparisons beyond the previous year are usually useless. In 2005 (SGA’s fist season) DVR usage was still relatively tiny and Nielsen wasn’t even measuring it.
We’re not picking on SGU/SGA , it’s similar for any show. We won’t compare Ghost Whisperer 2009 to Ghost Whisperer 2007 or whatever was on in 2004 for similar reasons.
I’m a sad case, I’ve always wanted all Stargate franchise series to be successful and go on forever, I miss SG-1 and Atlantis and I’ll miss Universe when it goes, hopefully Cooper and Wright are developing a new series for future pitching to TPTB as we speak
Now if that is not progress I don´t know what is. Same ratings for a far more expensive show. Bring it on!
SGA also has tons of aliens and action packed episodes where they run around looking for exciting things like more air and water.
booyah!
I just can’t seem to get into SGU. I want to so bad but it just doesn’t like it fits within the same mythos as SG-1 and Atlantis. Sure they have links with Stargate Command on earth via some shiny rocks and Lou Diamond Phillips meatsuit. But everything about the Icarus team and civilians on the Destiny do not seem to click as a Stargate show. Its like they are trying to gain credibility with the whole “no rubber/plastic faced aliens” mission statement.
Going into the alien homeworlds through the Stargate and finding whatever indigenous society is established there was part of what made the previous two series so engaging and interesting. Right now it just seems like wer’re gonna be stuck zipping through hyperspace with these same people on board from the beginning for a long time.
Also, I dont know how much more yelling from Rush I can take…its honestly got to be about 80% of his dialogue.
Not sure why he claims himself to be such a genius. Sam Carter, Daniel Jackson, and Rodney McKay would have ended this joy ride by the end of the first episode.
Stargate Universe is clearly the best thing SyFi has produced outside the BSG Universe. Ambitious and dark but still entertaining enough too reach the masses. Too bad that many people will never give it a chance because of the Stargate stigma.
They will never see that the days of one-dimensional characters, bad acting and childish stories are (hopefully) gone. Qualitywise a very promising restart for a once laughable franchise.
I also agree that it is not the best comparison. It just makes SGA look bad. It did not get the promotion SGU got. We are comparing the Series premiere episode of a brand new series to an entire final season of SGA. To be more fair compare it to the final ep, which had 2.5 Million viewers. Now the difference is not so far off. I knew SGU would do better and I am glad the show is doing well, I am really enjoying it and last episode was likely my favorite. I just don’t like people giving SGA a bad name. SGA had a lot of work to do, since it was lacking in promotion and lacking in a good lead in show for almost a year and a half until Sanctuary came into play.
I want to thank Robert for softening the differences between SGA and SGU, because a brand new series is supposed to do better than a veteran 5 year series.
We cannot compare Season 1 of SGA because that was over 5 years ago, and things have changed, like DVR viewing. But SGA is still the king of premieres with 4.2 Million viewers.
@Walter
Rush is the best character from every SG series. Colonel Young and Ming-Na’s character are very interesting and the medic character has a lot of potential.
And what is the big deal with some T&A from the female characters? BSG ows some of its success to Tricia Helfer and a red dress.
It’s a teen soap, with a space backdrop. It’s all about who Chloe is sleeping with, big brother like “confession cameras”. With some extra jiggle to excite tween boys. Over the top inept characters as a source of more melodrama when the love triangles and sweater meat aren’t enough.
Do I want it to fail? Yes, I do. I cheered when Defying Gravity Failed and if this one fails, I am hoping the concept of soap opera disguised as science fiction can end.
When crap succeeds we get more crap. Imagine if “Survivor” had failed utterly in it’s first season and reality crap never took off.
These first 5 episodes have been the least compelling of the stargate shows. I will still watch, but its just not interesting, boring as hell , I cant click with the cast. It really does feel like Battlestar Galactic with a mix of Star Trek Voyager. Semi dark and cant get back home.
“But Stargate Universe DID rank with Adults 25-54″
Darn, if only that were the demo they were going for when Syfy said they wanted “younger viewers”.
I still am of the mind that SGU has “potential” compared to SGA which was going nowhere, and especially Dollhouse which is absolutely nowhere I want to be..
So for me Friday nights are sussed up.
As to Rush, he is more compelling than most of the SG characters. He is a mystery, and I wish for it to be explained, thus I will continue to watch, and as an actor, Carlyle is truly top notch.
The reason most people have fallen from the shows direction is the loss of the “Explosions” and “Alien of the week” storytelling that most expect from SG.
I love SG-1 and SGA was passable…but here with SGU, we have a real drama with real people acting like they should, and not like the “Superhero” caricatures of the previous shows.
I am on board for the season.
I kinda liked the “Superhero caricatures” of SGA and SG-1. I enjoyed both shows. They were fun, popcorn shows. There is a place for that. I like some lighter fare on my viewing schedule, balances out Madmen and Dollhouse. I like the light and the dark. I really wanted to love SGU and was very much looking forward to it. I was on board with a new, darker version of the Stargate world. Remember I like the dark as well. My problem with the show is its attempting to be dark, gritty and substantial but with the same group of folks who really only know light, airy and popcorn. Its just not working for me. I find the characters annoying and lacking any true substance. Which would be fine (well maybe not the annoying part) if the show were just going for fun, but no they desperately want to be more. So they need to dig deep and find more because I’m only on board the Destiny a little while longer if they don’t start giving me a reason to tune in next week aside from mocking them. That only gets me so far and then I’ve got better things to watch or read.
…even though I gave massive thumbs up to the first one or two, the last episode was really on shaky ground… the whole camera confession thing- it doesn’t work if we don’t really know the characters yet? It seems a very clunky plot device. Maybe if the writing in those scenes was amazing, but no, there’s nothing startling there? I’m kind of tired of everyone saying ‘goodbye’ to their relatives, and it’s hard to build all this suspense, implying the whole crew is going to die, when obviously they’re not, since, you know, the show kind of needs it’s core cast, and setting (!)… plus everyone talks a LOT. It would be great if maybe, like the Atlantis crew, they could start, I don’t know, actually working? Exploring? Morale? Group therapy? And yes, it’s an accident they’re all there, but come on, seriously- aren’t they meant to be trained professionals? It’s like adolescent-style insubordination week, every week… trying to bring a fresh edge to the Stargate Universe is admirable, but not if you’re throwing away the core tenets of the Stargate ethos? Sometimes I feel like they’re trying to create those kind of multifaceted storylines Deep Space Nine used to offer, revolving around Garak? So you get a glimpse of this morally ambiguous (and therefore fascinating) character… but those gem-like episodes take a lot more writing skill than they’re showing at this point…
SGU has potential. It just hasn’t found it. After five hours in, I still don’t really know the show’s focus or direction. Give me an interesting ride and I’ll come along. Maybe I’m just not in the younger demographic and I don’t ‘get it’.
Not one character is compelling, I don’t even know who some are, and I have no reason to care about the characters or what happens to them. The kino ‘confessionals’ are clunky, the women characters have little if anything to do, and there doesn’t seem to be any real danger. The communication stones are awkward and may have worked better if someone found them closer to the end of the season. I’m trying to give it a huge chance based on the franchise’s overall goodwill. Right now, I’m happily snarking about the show.
Ghost Hunters has really gone downhill in the last few years. Too much crap with the KPI meter (ooo, the lights flash – must be a spirit interacting with us and not an off-screen camera guy pushing a button…) and too little debunking. I can’t remember the last time they did a show where nothing happened. Well – the Fort Henry ep from my hometown, but they still presented the evidence as though something DID in fact happen.
At least it’s better than Ghost Adventures on Travel Channel (aka Jocks taunting the air around them).
Also – anyone else shocked by the numbers the awful sci-fi movies of the week pull in?
While I’m a lover of Stargate and the different series I’m less then impressed with SGU. The plot formation of this show is so slow it makes a snail look like it’s moving at lightning speed and then there’s Rush who reminds me of the jerk off McKay from SG-1 that was usually wrong and most fans hated. Being on par with SGA ratings isn’t a great thing considering SGA got canceled on a cheaper budget. I honestly hope this show gets better like with other posters I see potential. Key thing is did they capitalize on that potential when they shot the remainder of the episodes for this season or did they fluff it only time will tell.
Science Fiction in general needs a star trek type of show. Not a soap opera kind of show. If I want to watch a soap opera, I will turn to the networks.
Claire, if I had to guess, Warehouse 13 is more expensive since it has had published reports of costing more than $2 million per episode, not sure about Eureka.
I don’t think those necessarily are better comparisons, particularly with W13 which launched with the brand relaunch, in the summer against lesser competition and not on a Friday.
Eureka did air on Fridays but in the summer when there was no new Medium, Dollhouse, and Ugly Betty competing with it on the broadcast nets. Not saying those shows are super stiff competition, just stiffer than what was on in the summer.
W13 definitely had better numbers than SGU. Eureka started stronger (2.6 million live+SD viewers in July premiere) but by late August had very similar viewer averages (2.06 million).
I believe that one of the producers said in a recent interview that SGU was given $1 million more per episode ($20 million) than Atlantis had for its’ first season.
The things that we don’t know are 1. What was the cost of Atlantis in its’ 5th Season and 2. What would have been the cost of Atlantis in a Season 6?
Are Universe Season 1 costs (Atlantis Season 1 + $20 million) greater or less than a the last season of SGA or a proposed Season 6.
I tend to think they are spending more on SGU as I can’t see how the SGA actors salaries and production cost increases would have totaled more than $20 million dollars. No matter how hard their business managers/agents negotiated.
The numbers seem to indicate the audience that this show was written to reach has not found it yet or are just not interested. The old core viewer like myself that has supported the franchise for over fifteen years seems to be losing its patience with all the dark, boring do nothing story line of these first episodes. I did notice that when they did the introduction of the new episode they did a summary of all the earlier ones and it took about twenty seconds and they covered what had happened in good detail. My thoughts at that point was I wished I had just waited to view and just heard the summary because it was not boring and did not take several hours to tell twenty seconds of information. The show is certainly a disappointment to me and very likely will be the end of Science Fiction on Syfy. The suits at Syfy seem to hate the genre anyway and the low ratings will just speed the removal of any science fiction from the channel. You can compare ratings with other low ratings shows and still two or three million is a low rating. White Collar got 5.4 million on Friday night and like it or not, these are the kind of numbers the suits want. The network may let this show stay on for a while but they are looking for something, anything that they can put on that will draw more viewers and the correct age viewers, not old guys but young women and young men. How well ”V” does on ABC will set the pace for other science fiction genre shows, and I expect that the numbers will be a disappointment for them as well. Fringe is just holding on by its teeth from being cancelled on Fox and it just is a science fiction show. The audience for the genre is so very picky that the few fans that exist are so demanding that they fail to support the few shows the networks try to put on their air. The sad TRUTH is the genre just does not have an audience that is large enough to keep shows on the air.
Someone at Gateworld posted these numbers. Not sure if the comparisons are valid, but here they are:
“I took a quantitative approach. Using a 2-year period (November 07 to October 09), I acquired the average rating (Live + SD) for every SciFi/SyFy original series that was on in that time. Here they are, with the number of telecasts in the average:
Program Name, # of telecasts, average HH rtg
WAREHOUSE 13,12,2.3
GHOST HUNTERS,47,1.9
EUREKA,18,1.8
STARGATE UNIVERSE,4,1.7
SANCTUARY,15,1.5
BATTLSTR GALACTICA (ORIG),21,1.4
DESTINATION TRUTH,20,1.3
ECW,71,1.2
STARGATE ATLANTIS,35,1.2
SCARE TACTICS,32,1.0
DOCTOR WHO,14,1.0
ESTATE OF PANIC,6,1.0
CHA$E,6,0.8
FLASH GORDON (ORIG),10,0.6
GUINEA PIG,4,0.5
WCG ULT GAMER,8,0.5
UNEXPLAINED W/G NOORY,5,0.4
Thus, the Average rating for an original series was 1.16.
If you group that range into quantitative quintiles, I’ll give the quintiles names:
Top quintile: Very good
2nd quintile: good
3rd quintile: average
4th quintile: bad
5th quintile: very bad
I’m avoiding labels like “stellar”.
the top quintile is anything 1.64 or above. Thus, 4 series rate “Very Goods”: W13, Ghost Hunters, Eureka, and SGU (so far).
the 2nd quintile is 1.27 to 1.64. Sanctuary, BSG, and Destination Truth fall into that quintile.
The average quintile (.98 to 1.27) contains ECW, Stargate Atlantis, Scare Tactics, and Dr. Who. “Estate of Panic” was at .96 if shown in 2 decimals
Everything else is bad or very bad. Not coincidentally, all those shows didn’t last.
All the shows in the “average” quintile that haven’t been cancelled are cheaper to acquire/produce than SGA.
Using Live + 7 or a demo may have changed some of where shows fell, but I think it’s clear that SGU’s rating so far puts it in the top tier of SyFy’s original shows.”
http://forum.gateworld.net/showthread.php?t=69324&page=55
@ Allen Charles, I’ll agree that scifi fans are picky. They tend to make their like and dislike of a show personal, which is why some of the comments leading up to SGU’s premier by TPTB were probably not the wisest of things say to a skeptical or irritated fan base. “…unfortunately you represent a very small portion of the actual viewing audience we need for financial success.” I’m thinking, they’d like to take that back about now.
I am a huge fan of SG-1. Didn’t really get into SGA..I tried but to me..it lacked. I do like SGU…but it is different from the SG format. When I look over the last several episodes…I think what we see.. how a lot of people would react in this situation. Rush is excited to have found something so huge..something..if they get home…he would be taken more seriously and recieved notarty. So I think we are just seeing the fallout from Rush’s rash choice. Then we have Eli who was thrown into this and now trying to figure out how he fits in and brings some humanity to Rush showing a lack of it. I think part of the development is seeing how they will all fit in and finding out about the ship and how vast the universe is. I think given time it will deliver a great show…and character driven shows take time to take off…because things develop slower..and what we do see playing out a bit on this show is the need for instant gratification againest exploration and discovery which take time.
As for comparison…I think it would be better to compare the show to Warehouse 13 because it is in it’s freshmen season, were as Eureka is in it’s fourth. Also, a better choice would be SG-1 just because this show started the format, and SGU is changing it. SGA …please forgive me SGA fans…for the first year had the coat tails of SG-1 to help it out…and pretty much the same format.
And in all honestly…I would hope every SG fan would want this show to succeed because what it does do is show the interest in this world. I know for me…even though I never got into SGA..I never hoped for it’s failure…because that could have brought the end to this franchise.
As far as Ghost Hunters; yes Springer, Geraldo, Donahue and all those other worthless piece of junk with no entertainment or merit of any kind also do well. That’s the problem with our country. If we could arrange some sort of killing radiation or method emitted while watching that junk then we could eliminate much of the trash that’s ruining our country. That’s some SiFi tec (SyFY…wtf kind of name is that) I could get into.
Then we have this junk, SGU. I do still watch it every week and can only presume this is the reason the ratings aren’t that 10people that’s TEN people are watching. Others must be doing and I and praying it will actually become interesting, entertaining and enjoyable eventually There’s all this buildup of supplies that’s going on – that SHOULD have been accomplished in episode 1 – what are we missing episode 2 – ok we found it. Move along people, nothing to see here.
episode 3 – something entertaining.
When is ANYTHING interesting going to happen?? We’ve found temporary? air cleaners, power, now we’re going for water – then what food, entertainment, pets, sanitary supplies, telephone operators, salesmen, hair stylists, lawyers, shoe polishers the answer to life the universe and everything THEN something interesting might happen about episode 901 (that’s the Nine-hundred and first episode not season 9 episode 01)
The more we see of characters who are completely uninteresting and worthless in every way the less interesting the become and more and more painful to watch. As they stated out as painful as swords jabbing in your eyes and less interesting than watching DIRT grow (in turn less interesting that grass) then it’s fairly sad that every second we see them and any back-story makes it all worse.
I also really don’t understand how nobody at all knows anything at all about anything ancient. I realize they keep trying to drum it in how they are not the ideal people for the mission but COME ON!
Geeze, The head in charge of understanding all this ancient tech (Rush) seems to have no clue whatsoever about any of it. Wow – we saw a hint that maybe he does know all this stuff and is just trying to eliminate people – but then he would have allowed some of the people (the Doctor and the pilot) to have left and if his IQ is about 2 he would have known he’d need one or both with 100 percent certainty.
The leader looks to be weaker in every way than a Civilian and not just any civilian but an incompetent, mentally challenged civilian. When I saw Lou Diamond Phillips I had hopes but then I forgot he’s only been worthless the past what 15-20yrs? He stated out so well
Ahhggghhh! this whole premise is ludicrous.
The low rating for Dr Who is sad as Dr. Who and Torchwood are infinitely more enjoyable than everything on the list with the only close ones being SG1, SGA and Sanctuary.
But then they are British and Red Dwarf wasn’t a super hit here either I don’t believe and it’s about 1 trillion times as entertaining and funny as 99.99999999999% of our stuff. I’m just now watching for the first time 30 Rock which is Theoretically good but all the episodes I’ve seen so far (10 or 11) added all together have about 15 seconds of entertainment – Sad because Tina Fey was hilarious for much of SNL though baby momma or whatever that was called was horrid.
The problem is the caliber of audience. Stuff that should never be aired or even thought to be made does by far better in gross generalization that the best though out, acted, intelligent, intellectual, witty and mind numbingly funny. Why is this because a growing percent of our population are not the sharpest bulb nor the brightest tool (mix much?)
SGA was just the last 3 seasons of SG1 set in another galaxy, amped up with more angst and bug hunts. SGU is at least trying a different tack with the franchise, and IMHO, succeeding. “Light” had the hair at the back of my neck standing straight almost throughout the entire episode. If there was one thing I hated with the BSG reboot and Farscape, it was the existential crap that served no purpose other than to fill time and slow down the storytelling. Keep up the good work SGU!
One can only hope that a long lost Wraith outpost will come face to face with SGU crew, feed on the majority of them, ending their miserable existance.
On Atlantis, Rodney McKay could run an experiment on the 9th chevron, Woolsey could send Col. Sheppard and his team to investigage, finding only Dr. Rush still alive. Apparently he had found a place to hide while the rest of the crew became Wraith food.
Atlantis could then gain control of the Destiny, and the possibilities are endless in terms of arcs and storylines.
With a REAL cast taking control of the show, all is well and everyone is happy, well at least the majority of the fans and the old SGA crew.
Offt…I can understand your fustration…and I don’t want to sound rude …but did you miss the tagline…”Their only mission is survival” ?
I am and was a big fan of Jericho…and was part the effort to get it renewed. And I swear when the rating were high it was during the time the show focus on character development and their survival and pulling together. When the show became more about the big action and less about the people…then the show lost viewers. And the biggest compliant from those that stuck in out…was it lost it storyline and character development in favor of action. Now I am aware the tv shows can have both…and this probably will…but right now it is working on getting to know the characters.
It is fine that this show may not fit to your television watching appeal..but it does fit to mine and many other viewers.
As for what is on tv…I agree. I don’t watch..or watch very little reality tv, I dont watch CSI in three different cities, 30 rock and many other shows.
To me right now…SGU is worth investing my time. I want this franchaise to succeed. I would like to see more SG1 movies, I would like for SGA fans to have their SGA movies, I would like to stargate come out with other shows. I am tired of the other stuff on tv… and find myself looking more and more at cable shows to get something new and a different.
Loved your post Ray!
I can just see it now Atlantis puts Universe out of their misery. ROTFLMAO.
Keep on dropping SGU maybe next time Brad Wright might listen to the fans instead of ignoring them. Just think Brad you could have had both shows going and kept the fans happy.
@Cimmer
I see it the same way you do too. I think as far as younger viewers are concerned, the Stargate people made a show (SGU) for an audience that isn’t really watching. Now, they are trying to convince a significant chunk of the fan base that they didn’t make this show for to watch it. Interestingly enough, they have lost younger viewers with SGU too because it is no longer considered by many people to be a family show, like SG-1 and SGA were.
I think it’s possible they shot themselves in the foot with SGU. But like Robert said, only time will tell. I still miss Atlantis though. I wish they had committed themselves to that show they way they are committed to SGU. I think it would still be around if they did, and it would be really good too.
This show was described as character driven,well it’s very boring.I don’t blame the actors,it’s terribly written.To little sci-fi and action.I always liked the technological aspect of sci-fi shows,wow could that really be in our future!All you get on this show is a couple of stupid rocks.My wife and I are fans of all the other Stargate series/movies,we hope the future episodes are a little more intresting/entertaining.
I’m sorry. Did I miss something? Universe, a highly hyped, promoted and costly program for SyFy in it’s FIRST season is on par with Stargate Atlantis ratings in it’s fifth season, the one where it was cancelled, and that’s a good thing?
Universe costs more to make and isn’t really making any significant ratings gains but we’re painting it as a good thing?
Unfortunately, SGU so far is a soap opera disguised as science fiction and a total negation of the SG franchise. Instead of creators focusing on making SGU its very own identity, so far they have been only focused on making SGU the anti-SG show. There is little happening on the ship, the characters are dull and have so many inner demons on their own that it simply makes them static, as if they are only dwelling in the past, and not developing at all. All of the sci fi themes that could’ve already been explored were simply shunned and shoved under a heap of needless drama that doesn’t actually evolve the story at all.
Like someone said before me, if this show gets cancelled, I hope this will mark the end of soap opera Sci Fi.
I wonder how the ratings would be if Ghost Hunters and SGU swapped time slots? Is it because there is nothing to watch on Wed? I loved SG1 and SGA. SGA could have gone further but with the thousands of missions, an SGU situation would eventually have to happen by the laws of statistics. SGU brings us back to the mystery of universe. These are the stories of people who didn’t have it so easy, like the SG1 team.
Obviously, the rating statistics has been flawed and manipulated.
I am not who i am and neither are you
Don’t believe every statistic you read.
Just because you don’t believe it doesn’t mean it’s not true.
I really wish people would stop the comparison to SGA.
SGA season 5 was not promoted by SciFi or MGM. I got the feeling they were waiting for ep 100 ratings so they could then cancel it… which they did!
SGU has not only been heavily promoted it also has the luxury of having at least two actors with major fan-bases… RC is legend to many and also LDP still has a large fan base – fans tend to watch actors they like, no matter how bad the show.
BTW: I don’t want SGA to come back… it should have ended at season 3 IMHO but the way SGA was handled in the end was bad, I don’t want Wright & Cooper thinking they were justified… I want SGU to fail.
SGU sucks. I keep watching it, hoping it will get better, because I loved SG-1. SGU seems more like a warmed over version of Voyager – which was a better show than SGU is turning out to be. The writers on this show need to get into gear. It is taking way too long for the plot to get off of the runway.
i don’t know that its a triumph that sg:urgh got equal ratings (or better) then sga in did in season 5… season 4 and 5 of atlantis were horrible.. seasons 1-3 were the best.
The raitings are UP because everyone WANTS to watch good stargate. Of course the first few are going to have good ratings because the people have to watch to decide. As of the November 6th episode the 16 years of watching stargate have now come to an end for me. When stargate stops being about off world missions and I don’t know the STARGATE, and starts being more like a soap and whos body can I take over to do something bad with someone elses wife, I’m done. Sad thing is I like most of the cast. I think with good writing these people could have done pretty well. Instead we tood a group of people that have not really been seen before and put them in the LOVE TRIANGLE OF DOOM. whos going to have relationships in the next episode? The man whos with someone elses wife while she thinks it’s her husband in another body, whos on an alien ship (yeah, say all of that 3 times fast) or could it be the young boy whos in love with a girl, whos in love with a soldier, who was just in love with another girl in a broom closet last week? Only the retarded writers know. At this point, I will not. grats on 90210 space edition.
WOW. It’s 5 a.m. and I just wrecked that last entry. Forgive the bad spelling and grammar. I hope you can make sense of all of that horrible writing. I think I should go to bed.
@ Jason
I think you pretty much got it right its not sg anymore its a soap oprea and a remake of other shows.
It’s interesting that SGU is always compared to Atlantis’ final season, when Atlantis had already been run into the ground. But I suppose that if we were fair and compared SGU to the first season of Atlantis, we’d see that SGU is far far behind on the numbers.
Being a long time fan of stargate, stargate universe is a failure. Stargate universe should not have the name stargate.
I have all of SG1 and SGA on DVD, I also have all the movies.
Shaking a camera does not make it good as BSG, BSG had depth SGU has zero depth as of right now. Character development is poor and all over the place.
The actors can act, but the story as of right now is horrible, it feels like I’m watching 90210 in space.
The only reason why the numbers are still sort of up is the fact us die hard fans are still hoping for the best, but I guarantee if something is not fixed soon. This show will go the way of defying gravity…. Canceled.
No point in being a fan of Stargate Universe unless you don’t mind the show being abruptly cancelled.