via press release:
“V” IS FOR VIEWERS AS SYFY’S THREE-DAY MARATHON PRESENTATION OF 1980S CULT CLASSIC PRODUCES DOUBLE-DIGIT AUDIENCE INCREASES
Sunday Six-Hour Telecast Powers 87% Rise in Adults 25-54
New York, NY – November 4, 2009 – While viewers liked the ABC remake of V, they also flocked to Syfy’s special three-day marathon presentation of the 1980s cult classic.
Airing from Sunday, November 1-Tuesday, November 3, V: The Miniseries, the sequel, V: The Final Battle, and V: The Series boosted Syfy viewership by whopping double-digits increases in HH ratings, total viewers, Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54 ranging as high as 87% in Adults 25-54 during the Sunday, 5-11PM (ET/PT) telecast.
On Sunday, three telecasts of V: The Final Battle finished in the top five in cable programs, catapulting Syfy to #1 in Adults 25-54 and #2 in Adults 18-49 in 8-11PM prime versus all cable networks, its best Sunday night performance since May 2008.
- Sunday’s 12:30-5PM (ET/PT) telecast of the original V miniseries averaged a 1.3 HH rating and 1.58 million total viewers, including 796,000 Adults 18-49 and 956,000 Adults 25-54.
- This was up +63% in HH rating, +59% in total viewers, +62% in Adults 18-49 and +73% in Adults 25-54 compared to the time period avg. in the prior 4 weeks.
- Sunday’s 5-11PM (ET/PT) telecast of V: The Final Battle averaged a 1.7 HH Rating and 2.17 million total viewers, including 1.06 million Adults18-49 and 1.27 million Adults 25-54.
- This was up +70% in HH rating, +73% in total viewers, +73% in Adults 18-49 and +87% in Adults 25-54 compared to the time period avg. in the prior 4 weeks.
- The Monday-Tuesday daytime marathon of 19 episodes of V: The Series averaged 466,000 total viewers, including 210,000 Adults 18-49 and 263,000 Adults 25-54.
- This was up +8% in total viewers, +2% in Adults 18-49 and +20% in Adults 25-54 compared to the time period avg. in the prior 4 weeks.
Syfy is a media destination for imagination-based entertainment. With year round acclaimed original series, events, blockbuster movies, classic science fiction and fantasy programming, a dynamic Web site (www.Syfy.com), and a portfolio of adjacent business (Syfy Ventures), Syfy is a passport to limitless possibilities. Originally launched in 1992 as SCI FI Channel, and currently in 95 million homes, Syfy is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. (Syfy. Imagine greater.)
I was in there, and glad I was, because the pace of the new V could leave lots of questions with viewers who had not seen the original.
Wow, I guess the marketing and nostalgia really done a number for people in the US. Good on, SyFy!
While I enjoyed the new V on ABC I thought it was paced almost to quick. It should have been two hrs to get were it went not one. Loved Marc Singer in the original.
chuck
Lucky Syfy; it takes a quick wit to ride the coattails of another network’s show.
ABC rocks!!!! Finally an instant hit for the network!
FlashForward’s performance has been average but V is just greattttttt!
I loved seeing Jane Badler again!
This just goes towards proving my point of my past comments that if Syfy then SciFi Channel).
“The TRUTH is if NBCU had went after every quality Science Fiction movie, series and documentary when they became available to cable and continued to do this year after year they could be the dominant provider for the genre and the channel would consistently be within the top five rated cable channels. There is about 35 million folks that admit they enjoy Science Fiction programs or about 10 percent of the population of the country. If The channel could get the loyality of just 10 percent of these folks the ratings would be about double what it is now.”
Yes ABC’s promotion of their new version of “V” caused the rating increase in this instance but how much better could it have been if NBC had brought “V” back and after a flagship showing on NBC then repeated it several times the following week on Syfy. Instead they have basicially ran from any really new Science Fiction type shows except a now very boring Stargate Universe which is deligated to the wasteland of TV viewing times on Friday night. The near 16 million total viewers would not have been a bad thing for NBC either.
I watched it this weekend, too. And despite the inevitably dated look, it’s astonishing how well the original miniseries holds up.
Take a note SyFy! You can do good numbers with classic sci-fi reruns. Give us more of this kind of stuff and less of the painfully cheap horror movies. (I won’t argue about the wrestling, because who can argue with those ratings?)
It was great seeing the original Mini Series again. I am still totally creeped out by the scene where we first see Diana (Jane Badler) snack on a hamster. (Am I the only one who, when seeing her in anything else, yells at the TV “don’t trust her she’s a lizard!) Amazing how the story holds up in spite of the technological drawbacks with the effects. The Series episodes are pretty disappointing but the mini series is still great – and not just because Marc Singer was so divine in jeans. Last but not least, one must give props to H.G. Wells (his War of the Worlds) and Rod Serling’s the Twilight Zone for writing the stories that have stood the test of time so well.
Cough…congratulating Syfy..cough…the network did well, cough…Good job, wheeze..
When the network actually promotes it’s programming, it can perform just as well as TNT, TBS and USA. But the network will often dump stuff on with little fanfare, then wonder why they aren’t getting the love those other nets receive. And spur them to chase after the so called ‘mainstream audience’-as if the same people who’ll watch the original ‘V’ aren’t in the mainstream when they watch NCIS, House,or Bones. Hopefully, someday they’ll get what we’re trying to tell them. But they’ll probably chalk up this success as an anomaly, and keep throwing those atrocious made in Latveria :rolleyes: grade Z horror flicks, and more Ghost chasers…
@KyleB,
Actually, Syfy didn’t promote its “V” weekend broadcast at all. In fact, the schedule posted on their own website didn’t include any mention of “V” until more than 24 hours *after* the marathon started! So, basically, it totally disproves your theory that promotion is necessary for ratings success.
@MockingbirdGirl
LOL, then it was an anomaly after all. Seriously, that’s pretty lame, not alerting your own online schedule. It was in Zap2it’s listings, which is where I discovered the Sunday marathon, and several bulletin boards did post the news. There had to be promos shown during SGU and Sanctuary though.
So if these millions showed up all by themselves, that makes the head honchos constant derisive comments towards their established base and needing the so called mainstream viewers to be successful, even worse.