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SGA ratings and CLOUD OF GLOOOOOOOM
According to Gateworld, the ratings for "Tao" were the lowest the show's ever received. And that just depresses the *hell* out of me on all kinds of levels. It depresses me, for one thing, because Tao was -- IMHO -- as well as being one of my personal favorite episodes, the last really strong episode of the back half of Season 3 until the finale. The rest of them weren't bad (again, IMHO) but they also weren't "Wow, you have to watch this episode!" quality, besides the (seriously awesome) finale. If the ratings are that low now, my God, are they going to keep tanking? And I also saw the promos for Tao, and ... wow, just wow. I can see why nobody watched it, because the promos focused on probably the silliest, least compelling aspect of the episode, as well as an aspect that actively *turns off* a certain contingent of the viewers (i.e. the massive Rodneyness of certain episodes) and totally played it up. This is the kind of support the show is getting from the network? *depress* It makes me aware of just how deep the divide is between sci-fi fandom in general (including the suits who put together the adverts and promos) and MY little corner of fandom.
The thing is, there's nothing I can really do I'm not already doing to support the show. I buy the episodes on iTunes, I'll be buying the DVDs, and I don't have cable (and, not being a Nielson household, would it make any difference if I did?). It frustrates me that if the ratings stay this low, there may not be a Season 5, and damn it, every time I hear about [x] good idea that didn't fit in the 4th season and got pushed back to the 5th, I *want* my Season 5!
The last time that I felt this way was with Invisible Man, though it was worse with that one because it only got two seasons, and there was quite a bit of the second one that I didn't really like (though![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xparrot tells me it's better on rewatching, so maybe I should give it another chance). But it's so very frustrating to really, really like a show and watch its ratings tank and not be able to do anything to stop it from being cancelled. At least I don't *think* so. Somebody, somewhere on LJ, suggested doing a "save our show" drive *before* it gets cancelled rather than after.
I don't think we'll get more than 5 seasons at most (and usually, 5 is a good number for a show to stop at anyway, where the quality bell curve begins to decline), but if it comes down to a really close decision between having or not having a season 5 -- if little things that we do NOW could make that difference -- then I think it'd be worth it to do those little things. I'm just not sure what to do.
The thing is, there's nothing I can really do I'm not already doing to support the show. I buy the episodes on iTunes, I'll be buying the DVDs, and I don't have cable (and, not being a Nielson household, would it make any difference if I did?). It frustrates me that if the ratings stay this low, there may not be a Season 5, and damn it, every time I hear about [x] good idea that didn't fit in the 4th season and got pushed back to the 5th, I *want* my Season 5!
The last time that I felt this way was with Invisible Man, though it was worse with that one because it only got two seasons, and there was quite a bit of the second one that I didn't really like (though
xparrot tells me it's better on rewatching, so maybe I should give it another chance). But it's so very frustrating to really, really like a show and watch its ratings tank and not be able to do anything to stop it from being cancelled. At least I don't *think* so. Somebody, somewhere on LJ, suggested doing a "save our show" drive *before* it gets cancelled rather than after.I don't think we'll get more than 5 seasons at most (and usually, 5 is a good number for a show to stop at anyway, where the quality bell curve begins to decline), but if it comes down to a really close decision between having or not having a season 5 -- if little things that we do NOW could make that difference -- then I think it'd be worth it to do those little things. I'm just not sure what to do.
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Not sure what to do myself.
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I wish that the ratings system, which is very much stuck in the 1950s, would be updated to reflect the way people watch TV now ... especially sci-fi fans, whose viewing habits I suspect are somewhat different from viewers of mainstream shows. Sci-fi shows seem to have large followings outside their country of origin, and sci-fi fans like to watch shows on their computers rather than their TV, and they are also very likely to buy merchandise and tie-in books and DVDs. But none of these things are reflected in the ratings.
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Firstly, don't forget this was the date of the premiere of Spiderman 3 - which I believe has broken records for opening weekend revenue? So a lot of people went out to the movies instead of watching TV that night.
Also, ratings are down all across the board, in television in general. And, compared to SciFi's other offerings, the Gates actually did pretty well - they were the network's highest-rated dramatic shows.
I'm worried too - and *god* how I want a Season 5 - but I'm not giving up hope just yet.
*hugs*
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It's such a shame that SciFi will be looking at s3 and not s4 ratings to make their decision. S4 sounds like it's going to be great judging from Mallozzi's blog.
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I keep hearing about a third series being talked about or in pre-production or something. So if Sci Fi is interested enough to talk about a third series, you'd think they'd give SGA its fifth season. However, after they cancelled Farscape, I have no faith in what they'll do. All I know is that the 'Gates are the only shows I really watch on Sci Fi, so if SGA goes, so go I.
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The way that Tao was promoted, as a total comedy episode coming right on the heels of the show's worst comedy episode EVER, probably did a lot to hurt it. "Game" or "Ark" or "Echoes" -- any of those would probably have been a better lead-in. ANY episode airing after Irresponsible is probably going to take a viewer hit, especially if it looks like much the same kind of thing. *sighs*
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I agree with you about Dresden. It's so very different from the books that I can't relate to it.
Have you watched Blood Ties on Lifetime? That's another really good series with great characters. It's available on iTunes, too.
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Was the other series the Anita Blake stories by Laurell K. Hamilton? That was a great series up through Book 9, Obsidian Butterfly, and then it turned into complete and total dreck.
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Ah, the fandom roller coaster. *g*
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The big thing that *could* save it, I think, is that ratings really are low across the board, and I'm hoping that Sci-Fi looks at that and not at the absolute ratings.
What's really worrisome is that Sci-Fi has this bizarre history of cancelling their most popular programs because they aren't performing up to standards. Rather than comparing to what else is on their own network, they seem to think, "Oh, it's not doing as well as Sopranos", or whatever -- not seeming to realize that if they keep cancelling their top-performing shows, their ratings overall are going to keep going down! I'm pretty sure that both Farscape and Invisible Man were their top-rated shows, or among their top-rated shows, when they were cancelled.
I'm really not giving up hope, though. And there's clearly more at work than *just* low ratings, because when SG-1 was cancelled, its ratings were higher than SGA's (not that this is good news for SG-1 fans, of course, and possibly not for SGA fans either, but it *does* show that they take more than just ratings into account when they weigh those decisions).
*hopes*
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I'd be more confident that they'd leave it on if their programming wasn't increasingly riddled with holes and substandard shows. Ironically, the networks are actually starting to offer some genuinely good drama shows with high production values again, after years of dreck and reality TV -- but sci-fi is going the opposite direction, with more and more cheap programs and re-runs and lousy movies.
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And yeah, the people with SPN have got it going on. They seem to understand fandoms.
Did you see the sneak peak of Traveler? Airs this Wed, I think it's a show you'll like.
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And, yeah ... I think Tao was hurt very badly by having Irresponsible as the previous week's episode ... and then being promoted to look like much the same kind of thing (another screwball comedy). sigh...
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THAT WAS THE DAY SPIDEY 3 WAS RELEASED!!!
I don't understand why no one is looking at that fact. I bet a lot of people recorded it, like I did, while they went to see the movie. I think they should do away with the current neilsen system and have all TVs, VCRs, and DVRs have an option where you can send your recording/watching history (a toggle that you can turn on and off), so they know what *everyone*, of all walks of life, is watching AND recording. I mean, when you do "random selection" like neilsen, there's always a chance you might NOT get an accurate reflection of viewers, cause you might just happen to select everyone who hatesa a certain show and no one who loves it, ya know? Seems like a slim chance, but it's like the coin toss thing: it doesn't matter how many times you toss the coin, it's ALWAYS a 50% chance you will get tails. You could toss it a hundred times and get tails every time. You could toss it a hundred times and *never* get tails. Each person neilsen pics has a fifty/fifty chance of loving or hating a show. They *can* conceivably pick someone who hates a show every time -- and have it turn out to be that those people are the *only* people who hate it, and the greater population loves it. The thing that gets me most, though? Just because certain people *do* watch a show doesn't mean they'll ever buy any of the products advertised. To aim at a certain age or sex demographic seems stupid too, as if all teen males love and hate the same stuff. *shakes head* They should instead question the nielsen members as to the stuff they like, and say "30%" of professed sci-fi fans watch this", etc. And then they should aim their ads at things sci fi fans tend to be interested in, ne?
Sorry for getting ranty on your blog -- I did on this very same subject on Mallozzi's, in fact, LOL.
Anyway, I did a review of Tao for Tart. :) Maybe we should do a "Why we love Atlantis" roundtabe for Tart too, like some of us did for Underworld ...
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A roundtable like that would be awesome! Now that I'm writing for Tart again, I should start doing Atlantis write-ups. I wonder if there's anyone besides us who watches it ...?
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Actually, maybe we *should* start a campaign to thank edvertsiers. Send them recioets of the products we buy saying "Hey, I bought this because you advertised on Stargate Atlantis!"
And I *know* there are other Tarts who are Stragate fans, thanks to the Tart Questionnaire we have all new Tarts fill out :)
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Anyway, I've watched AMC on & off since I was a little girl of four or so, thanks to mom. I loved Jenny and cried when she was killed in that waterskier explosion. I've always like Tad the Cad. (They killed off Dixie!!) I liked Janet Green when she was "sane". I liked that scruffy loner guy they brought in who ended up dating Brooke (who is now gone), and that red-haired teen that was Brooke's foster daughter for a while. I liked Noah and Julia (heartbreaking that they killed Noah off-screen when Julia came back). I liked Bobby and Anita's storyline (They killed that story about two years ago, broke them up -- pissed me off.) I liked Sarah Michelle Gellar as Kendall, and now I like the current one (Alicia Minshew). I liked Haley and Mateo (but now I can't *stand* Kelly Ripa most of the time). I love Ryan Lavery. I liked Dimitri. I love and hate Erica. I loved Edmund and Maria, but they really ended that story horribly (had Edmund and Maria hate eachother, then killed Edmund off). I love the current JR, Jacob Young (and I like the former one, Jesse McCartney -- love his music!) Oh, and ya gotta love Adam and Stewart! Opal's good for a laugh, and Myrtle's a font of wisdom...
What about you? Who did you watch for?
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They killed Noah? Offscreen? NOES!!! I loved Noah and Julia. But that's *exactly* the sort of thing that made me stop watching soaps ... get attached to characters only to have something like that happen. (And yeah, like you said, same problem with superhero comics.)
Tad and Dixie, yeah! I really loved the whole Adam/Stuart/Opal/Palmer and associated characters group. And I loved the Wildwind bunch ... besides liking the characters, I really liked the *idea* of Wildwind, this old gothic castle with this ever-changing group of halfway crazy people who didn't really get along. Being the "friendshipper" that I am, I loved the brother relationship between Edmund and Dimitri; they were really playing up the h/c angle on it for a while, and I was no end of frustrated that I missed the whole "Ed and Dimi in a flooded aquaduct" story! And, speaking of brothers, Adam and Stuart were (and, I presume, still are) simply adorable...
I remember the scruffy Brooke boyfriend you're talking about -- that was Pierce, right? The artist in the cabin? I liked him. I waffled on Brooke, because sometimes I really would like her, and her storylines, but they really loved sticking her in the Pit of Woe (TM) and having her cry for days and days on end. Brooke and Edmund were cute as friends ... in fact, I think one of the reasons why I stuck with AMC a lot longer than some of the other soaps I started watching at the same time (e.g. Days of Our Lives) is that they did a good job with the entire web of character relationships, not just romance and parents, but also friends and co-workers and brothers and sisters -- it was just generally a good mix.
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Pierce! Yes, that's who I was thinking of!
Adam and Stuart haven't had as much interaction of late, alas. They've started doing the twins-but-only-one-actor thing with another, much younger castmember (although they're really only half-sisters of differing ages, so I'm wondering how it is they look like twins ...)
Wildwind is now home to Julia, her adoptive daughter, Dixie's half-sister Di (who pretended to be Dixie for a while), Jamie (Tad's son, who is now dating Julia, and they have zero chemistry), Aidan (Di's beau and Tad's co-detective), and Ryan & his wife, so it's as full a house as ever after being abandoned for a while when Edmund died and Maria left ... I'd say ther'e still good non-romantic character relationships -- when they aren't flip-flopping how one character feels about another out of the blue, that is! XD
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My hope is that the SCI Fi will want to keep a show that has a good fan base and knowing that season 4 will air, that they would want that lucrative season 5 for syndication. I mean there's a lot of money to be made in over seas markets once they hit that magic number 100. Why go 4, when they could get 5?
Though after what they did to Farscape, I just don't know. Any clue what its viewer ship was like?
I just wish they realized that airing it so late, against the summer movie season in general hurts the ratings and we could talk TiVo to death. In an overall picture type thing we can only hope that good sense will prevail. Its still one of the highest rated shows and with SG1 gone and no sure race horse in sight, they need to build their Friday night around something that's recognizable and has a built in audience.
Will cross my fingers with you.
Kristen
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I don't know what its actual numbers were, but I'm pretty sure it was their highest rated show when it was canceled. As far as I know, the problem was that the cost of making an episode wasn't worth the returns that they were getting on it. But ... that's just the nature of the beast with sci-fi TV -- it's expensive to make and it generally doesn't perform extraordinarily well in the ratings, compared to non-SF shows. That's what it IS! And any show that gets high ratings is going to be expensive because the ones that do well (the Treks, B5, Farscape, Stargate) are the big-budget space-operas. For the Sci-Fi Channel to cancel SF shows because they're expensive, even when they're getting relatively good ratings for SF ... it's like a cooking channel canceling shows because they promote eating high-calorie foods. I mean, REALLY!
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Well, here Down Under we get most of these shows way, way after they were originally shown. I still watch many of them again on TV, even if I've already *cough*downloaded*cough* and seen it. The Stargates have been relegated to a late night time slot that gets virtually no advertisement that I've seen, but some other shows I watch (particularly Supernatural and Numb3rs) get prime time slots. I've got to say that the ads for these shows just crack me up because more than half the time the "plot" being touted in the ad bears almost no resemblance to what the episode is actually about. I mean, the ad for this week's Numb3rs actually states that it's about a criminal stalking a playground and taking kids - I've seen the episode and it's about toxic waste being used to build playgrounds and causing cancer in children. You only have to watch the first 5 mins of the show to know that. It's like someone selected out some scenes for the ad and someone else made up the voiceover dialogue based on seeing pics of children in a playground. And the ads are like this more often than not. So, I kind of think that if the ads you get are at least not factually WRONG, then you're promo-makers are way ahead of ours!
I am a little... well, "wary" isn't the right word, but I'm not really into "Save Our Show" campaigns anymore. When I've gotten behind them in the past, the show wasn't saved or sometimes it came back for one more season that was so altered (possibly to try and win new viewers) that it ruined some my previous squee about the show. This is JUST ME though. I happen to know that OTHER PEOPLE'S campaigns to save shows have lead to additional seasons of shows that I continued to like until the end. I'm not saying that the campaigns are bad or don't achieve things. I suppose it's just previous disappointments in the area have sapped my own personal enthusiasm for campaigning.
As to SGA, in particular, I want Season 4 and I'm going to get it. I remain optimistic that it will continue to live up to the high expectations that I've had for Season 3 (occassional disappointments notwithstanding). But I guess that I want to see that my hopes for the show are realised this season before I start clamouring for more. I really would like SGA to go out on a high note (which IMHO SG-1 did). So, I suppose that I'm more hopeful than anxious.
I also suppose that being Australian, I've long been used to the fact that my own personal viewership just doesn't matter to the TV execs who make the decisions about these shows.
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I wish the media industry would wise up to the fact that the Nielson system no longer represents the viewing public.
And I want a pony, too. *g*
I do recognize what you're saying about "Save Our Show" campaigns -- I've very rarely seen it actually work for a show I watched; much more often it either has no effect at all, or, as you said, what the fans get is something different and disappointing. (*cough*SERENITY*cough*) And, honestly, there have been very few shows in the past that I've been fannish enough about to even try to join in on something like that -- the last time was with Invisible Man, about 5 years ago, and it was one of those campaigns that went nowhere. If someone did organize something like that for SGA, I think it likely that I'd join in, but I don't know if I'd really expect a positive outcome, based on past experience.
I'm really much more positive than not about SGA, though. Honestly, if being a fan is NOT a positive experience, I can't see any possible reason to actually do it! I certainly have enough things to worry about in real life that I'm not wasting much of my time worrying about the possible cancellation and/or future plot-sucking of a TV show that's already had 3 good seasons. I would like to feel that I could have some actual, positive effect on the show's future, but even if it does get cancelled after 4 seasons, that's more than a lot of shows get and I do expect Season 4 to deliver some good things.
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Yeah, me too. I think it's just that when people whine about something they tend to love, then others are more likely to sit up and take notice.
Found out something interesting talking to another friend (
I suppose that I'm the sort of person that when I love a show, I want it to be the best it can possibly be (as I see it). I'm still gonna love it when I think it falls short of that mark - but I'll also freely point out what I think was done wrong (and I'm not always diplomatic about it).
but even if it does get cancelled after 4 seasons, that's more than a lot of shows get and I do expect Season 4 to deliver some good things.
Yeah. I look forward to what's already in the pipeline. All shows do end eventually, and whenever they do, there will always be some fans who say the end came too soon. SG-1 had 10 years. The original run of "old school" Dr Who had 26 years! But still, I would have liked to see more of each at the time they ended. On the other hand, there definitely are shows that I think should have ended a year or two before they did - before they went into decline.
So my view is ROCK ON SEASON FOUR! Take the rest as it comes. Although still hoping for the best. ;-)
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I'm looking forward to season 4 of SGA, and hoping we'll see more beyond that.
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Why can't they take into account the non-US viewers?
Oh well, finger crossed for a season five. And let's hope Sci-Fi take into account the overall drop in ratings for ALL their shows, and the fact that Tao clashed with Spiderman 3's opening - AND that they advertised the episode in such a crummy way by the sounds of it.
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Tao ratings