Comments on: More Battlestar Galactica Nielsen Ratings: They Aren't Great

By: Mr BSG

Mr BSG — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:39:59 +0000

It is sad too see this show go so off course. I don’t even think Nana Visitor coming on mid season as the final Cylon is going to help out the ratings at all.

…OOPS!

By: Mr BSG

Mr BSG — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:39:59 +0000

It is sad too see this show go so off course. I don't even think Nana Visitor coming on mid season as the final Cylon is going to help out the ratings at all.

…OOPS!

By: John Rowe

John Rowe — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:48:23 +0000

I wouldn’t trust anything on SciFi site. They’re known for being less than honest when it comes to the ratings for GINO, which has been on life support for a couple of years now. The show is horrible and should have been canceled a long time ago.

By: John Rowe

John Rowe — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:48:23 +0000

I wouldn't trust anything on SciFi site. They're known for being less than honest when it comes to the ratings for GINO, which has been on life support for a couple of years now. The show is horrible and should have been canceled a long time ago.

By: peter noble

peter noble — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:12:35 +0000

Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report, 3/31/08 — 4/6/08

Sci Fi post their ratings every Monday at their Sci Fi Wire subsite.

By: peter noble

peter noble — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:12:35 +0000

1 Ghost Hunters 1.6
2 Battlestar Galactica 1.6
3 10.5 Apocalypse part two 1.4
4 ECW 1.3
5 10.5 Apocalypse part one 1.2
6 Destination Truth 0.9
7 Star Trek Enterprise 0.8
8 Meltdown 0.8
9 Jason and the Argonauts part two 0.7
10 Jason and the Argonauts part one 0.7

Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report, 3/31/08 -- 4/6/08

Sci Fi post their ratings every Monday at their Sci Fi Wire subsite.

By: cress d

cress d — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:41:17 +0000

SciFi makes “SciFi Original Movies” that are ruining its reputation. How can anyone tune into a channel that shows entertainment that Ed Wood could make better. SCIFI sux. If BSG wasn’t on the air, I WOULD NEVER WATCH THIS 24hr. crap-a-rama. SciFi…you have fallen SO far. Your programming besides from BSG is LAUGHABLE. If BSG was on another network, the ratings would be better. NO QUESTION ABOUT IT. But when Pumpkinhead 4 is your lead-in, and crap like Watchmen Reborn are shown all the time, why would anyone pay attention to your primetime line-up. Jesus, I could run SciFi channel better than the morons who are in charge now.

By: cress d

cress d — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:41:17 +0000

SciFi makes “SciFi Original Movies” that are ruining its reputation. How can anyone tune into a channel that shows entertainment that Ed Wood could make better. SCIFI sux. If BSG wasn't on the air, I WOULD NEVER WATCH THIS 24hr. crap-a-rama. SciFi…you have fallen SO far. Your programming besides from BSG is LAUGHABLE. If BSG was on another network, the ratings would be better. NO QUESTION ABOUT IT. But when Pumpkinhead 4 is your lead-in, and crap like Watchmen Reborn are shown all the time, why would anyone pay attention to your primetime line-up. Jesus, I could run SciFi channel better than the morons who are in charge now.

By: cress d

cress d — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:30:09 +0000

Battlestar Galactica is a brillaint series. Those that still cling to the CHEESY, BORING, LAUGHABLE crapfest from the 70′s, go watch your awful reruns of that sixty minutes of filler. To those that know, this is a superb series. SO SAY WE ALL!

By: cress d

cress d — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:30:09 +0000

Battlestar Galactica is a brillaint series. Those that still cling to the CHEESY, BORING, LAUGHABLE crapfest from the 70's, go watch your awful reruns of that sixty minutes of filler. To those that know, this is a superb series. SO SAY WE ALL!

By: Polly

Polly — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:49:58 +0000

Robert – Thanks for the information. I wasn’t expecting you to go to so much trouble. I was interested because I was wondering if there might be life for other television series through this venue? But $3 million doesn’t seem like enough to tempt too many studios.

By: Polly

Polly — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:49:58 +0000

Robert – Thanks for the information. I wasn't expecting you to go to so much trouble. I was interested because I was wondering if there might be life for other television series through this venue? But $3 million doesn't seem like enough to tempt too many studios.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:31:15 +0000

No idea. I could compare with BSG Razor which was only on the charts for one week: 147,768 units $2,953,882. But that’s misleading for two reasons. 1.)it came out during the Christmas season when there was a ton of competition so it could have actually sold better but just not enough to ever make it back on the weekly charts and I’d have no way of knowing.

We do know at least in the first week BSG Razor had ~150K, and SG1: Ark of the Truth had ~250K units. But, 2.)Razor aired on TV first (and was even in a few movie houses), so since it was not exclusively on DVD, I’d say Razors numbers were pretty good.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:31:15 +0000

No idea. I could compare with BSG Razor which was only on the charts for one week: 147,768 units $2,953,882. But that's misleading for two reasons. 1.)it came out during the Christmas season when there was a ton of competition so it could have actually sold better but just not enough to ever make it back on the weekly charts and I'd have no way of knowing.

By: Polly

Polly — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:06:52 +0000

Too late, already bought it. Had to so I would have all the SG-1 collection. (I love DVD’s what can I say.) Are those good numbers for this type of release? Just wondering.

By: Polly

Polly — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:06:52 +0000

Too late, already bought it. Had to so I would have all the SG-1 collection. (I love DVD's what can I say.) Are those good numbers for this type of release? Just wondering.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:00:32 +0000

Polly it was the first week (selling around 250K copies), it actually has stayed on the charts and is now estimated to have sold 423,501 copies after 4 weeks and had total sales of $7,176,041.

It wasn’t really very good so I can’t recommend paying to see it, though it was good to spend some time with the old A-Team

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:00:32 +0000

Polly it was the first week (selling around 250K copies), it actually has stayed on the charts and is now estimated to have sold “>423,501 copies after 4 weeks and had total sales of $7,176,041.

It wasn't really very good so I can't recommend paying to see it, though it was good to spend some time with the old A-Team

By: Polly

Polly — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:51:32 +0000

Russ – Thanks for the charts on BSG, SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. Boy did BSG take a dive after Season 2. I’ve always wondered what kind of viewers the stargates had. Wish it was more, but I don’t think more would have kept SG-1 around for another season anyway. I wonder how the new SG-1 dvd did? (I think I read somewhere it came in at #7 the first week out?)

By: Polly

Polly — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:51:32 +0000

Russ – Thanks for the charts on BSG, SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. Boy did BSG take a dive after Season 2. I've always wondered what kind of viewers the stargates had. Wish it was more, but I don't think more would have kept SG-1 around for another season anyway. I wonder how the new SG-1 dvd did? (I think I read somewhere it came in at #7 the first week out?)

By: Russ

Russ — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:42:02 +0000

Doh. Sorry about that Robert. Here are a couple charts.

Battlestar Galactica (the updated one mentioned above):
http://entertainmentnow.wordpress.com/files/2008/04/battlestar-galactica-ratings-418.jpg

Stargate SG-1 (Season 6-10/The SCI FI years):
http://entertainmentnow.wordpress.com/files/2008/04/stargate-sg1-ratings-418.jpg

Stargate Atlantis:
http://entertainmentnow.wordpress.com/files/2008/04/stargate-atlantis-ratings-418.jpg

As I noted above, the data being used is the coverage rating.

By: Russ

Russ — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:42:02 +0000

Doh. Sorry about that Robert. Here are a couple charts.

Battlestar Galactica (the updated one mentioned above):
http://entertainmentnow.wordpress.com/files/200...

Stargate SG-1 (Season 6-10/The SCI FI years):
http://entertainmentnow.wordpress.com/files/200...

Stargate Atlantis:
http://entertainmentnow.wordpress.com/files/200...

As I noted above, the data being used is the coverage rating.

By: grapeshot

grapeshot — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:17:29 +0000

You may be interested to know that SciFiWire publishes the SciFi Channel’s top ten shows every Monday. (They show up in the bottom right-hand corner of the site.) Unfortunately, these listings are about three weeks behind. However, if BSG does drop off the top twenty list, you will probably be able to get the show’s ratings numbers there. Most of SciFi’s original shows do show up on this list, although a few sank low enough in the ratings that they fell off even this list (Painkiller Jane, for example.) Note that this list only appears on Mondays, and there’s no historical record kept. If you forget to look at it, it’s gone forever.

By the way, those of us who have watched these SciFi Channel numbers for a number of years have noticed that a lot of their original show ratings have tapered off in the last two years, including the Stargate shows, which were always equally as popular for SciFi as BSG. (And probably at a fraction of the marketing costs – although I bet that Universal ponies up the nickel on the marketing costs, and not SciFi. Universal probably wants BSG to last long enough to make it into syndication and will do whatever it reasonably can to achieve that end.)

SciFi’s cheap Saturday night monster movie of the week keeps cooking along, always averaging about 1.0, but for some reason, their original shows have lost viewers. No one seems to have a plausable theory about why.

By: grapeshot

grapeshot — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:17:29 +0000

You may be interested to know that SciFiWire publishes the SciFi Channel's top ten shows every Monday. (They show up in the bottom right-hand corner of the site.) Unfortunately, these listings are about three weeks behind. However, if BSG does drop off the top twenty list, you will probably be able to get the show's ratings numbers there. Most of SciFi's original shows do show up on this list, although a few sank low enough in the ratings that they fell off even this list (Painkiller Jane, for example.) Note that this list only appears on Mondays, and there's no historical record kept. If you forget to look at it, it's gone forever.

By the way, those of us who have watched these SciFi Channel numbers for a number of years have noticed that a lot of their original show ratings have tapered off in the last two years, including the Stargate shows, which were always equally as popular for SciFi as BSG. (And probably at a fraction of the marketing costs - although I bet that Universal ponies up the nickel on the marketing costs, and not SciFi. Universal probably wants BSG to last long enough to make it into syndication and will do whatever it reasonably can to achieve that end.)

SciFi's cheap Saturday night monster movie of the week keeps cooking along, always averaging about 1.0, but for some reason, their original shows have lost viewers. No one seems to have a plausable theory about why.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:41:34 +0000

Russ, “The Numbers” is my go-to source for DVD sales info, too (I’ve mentioned it on the site a few times, though it was in reference to Jericho DVDs never appearing on that list!)

The numbers you cite above are for the season 3 DVDs. Though it actually DID have one week’s worth of data for Razor (147,768 units $2,953,882 for the week of Dec 9).

While I’m more of a data table than a chart guy for viewer info, it would be cool to see an SGA vs. BSG chart. if we had the table data, we’d link to that chart for sure.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:41:34 +0000

Russ, "The Numbers" is my go-to source for DVD sales info, too (I've mentioned it on the site a few times, though it was in reference to Jericho DVDs never appearing on that list!)

The numbers you cite above are for the season 3 DVDs. Though it actually DID have one week's worth of data for Razor (147,768 units $2,953,882 for the week of Dec 9).

While I'm more of a data table than a chart guy for viewer info, it would be cool to see an SGA vs. BSG chart. if we had the table data, we'd link to that chart for sure.

By: Russ

Russ — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:24:59 +0000

Robert

The website “The Numbers” have estimates for the “Razor” DVD (the debut week and more). Here’s the link for the debut week: http://www.the-numbers.com/dvd/charts/weekly/2008/20080323.php

#13 – 212,233 units – $8,266,475

So according to the site, the set has been on the charts for three weeks, has sold 284,668 units and has made $11,089,430.

Back to the BSG ratings. If there is any interest, I can post similar charts for “Stargate SG-1″ (seasons 6-10/ the SCI FI years) and “Stargate Atlantis” (seasons 1-4).

I’ve also updated the chart I posted above with some additional detail.

By: Russ

Russ — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:24:59 +0000

Robert

The website "The Numbers" have estimates for the "Razor" DVD (the debut week and more). Here's the link for the debut week: http://www.the-numbers.com/dvd/charts/weekly/20...

#13 - 212,233 units - $8,266,475

So according to the site, the set has been on the charts for three weeks, has sold 284,668 units and has made $11,089,430.

Back to the BSG ratings. If there is any interest, I can post similar charts for "Stargate SG-1" (seasons 6-10/ the SCI FI years) and "Stargate Atlantis" (seasons 1-4).

I've also updated the chart I posted above with some additional detail.

By: Marc

Marc — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:46:11 +0000

Stargate Atlantis pulls in the same numbers, some eps even better and gets a fraction of the promotion and recogintion as BSG. It just makes me sick that Stargate is more successful, yet it gets thrown to the side like it is inferior.

By: Marc

Marc — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:46:11 +0000

By: t-assharlai

t-assharlai — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:28:48 +0000

Isn’t this show cancelled yet?

By: t-assharlai

t-assharlai — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:28:48 +0000

Isn't this show cancelled yet?

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:12:10 +0000

thanks for the link, Russ. Kind of a depressing chart. I also wonder how many people bought the Razor DVD. I could never find any data on that.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:12:10 +0000

thanks for the link, Russ. Kind of a depressing chart. I also wonder how many people bought the Razor DVD. I could never find any data on that.

By: Russ

Russ — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:57:28 +0000

If anyone is interested, here’s a chart I made detailing the ratings of the show from the very beginning and through the second episode of season four. I think it speaks for itself:

http://entertainmentnow.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/battlestar-galactica-ratings.jpg

Points on the chart are the coverage rating, not the national rating. I haven’t seen a coverage rating for this week’s episode yet, but I’m assuming it’s a 1.3 (that shouldn’t be off by more than +/- 0.1 points).

By: Russ

Russ — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:57:28 +0000

If anyone is interested, here's a chart I made detailing the ratings of the show from the very beginning and through the second episode of season four. I think it speaks for itself:

http://entertainmentnow.files.wordpress.com/200...

Points on the chart are the coverage rating, not the national rating. I haven't seen a coverage rating for this week's episode yet, but I'm assuming it's a 1.3 (that shouldn't be off by more than +/- 0.1 points).

By: Polly

Polly — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:01:56 +0000

Great! Looking forward to that. (Next time I’ll try to soften the “truth” though. Thanks for not shooting.)

By: Polly

Polly — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:01:56 +0000

Great! Looking forward to that. (Next time I'll try to soften the “truth” though. Thanks for not shooting.)

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:44:04 +0000

Polly, you didn’t come off harsh. You came off truthful. But you know how it is: sometimes the truth hurts. I’m not a “shoot the messenger” kinda guy though. Guilty as charged and next week it will be Roslin and some beefcake.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:44:04 +0000

Polly, you didn't come off harsh. You came off truthful. But you know how it is: sometimes the truth hurts. I'm not a “shoot the messenger” kinda guy though. Guilty as charged and next week it will be Roslin and some beefcake.

By: Polly

Polly — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:37:06 +0000

Robert & Bill – Sorry if I came off harsh, wish I could have put little winking smilies in my previous post. I’m on a friends computer that can barely load up the typing. (serious about the Mick Jagger comment though, (imagine a winking smiley!))

By: Polly

Polly — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:37:06 +0000

Robert & Bill – Sorry if I came off harsh, wish I could have put little winking smilies in my previous post. I'm on a friends computer that can barely load up the typing. (serious about the Mick Jagger comment though, (imagine a winking smiley!))

By: John Rowe

John Rowe — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:40:26 +0000

The reason the ratings suck so bad (a 69% drop since the show started) is a) It’s badly rehashed source material, original created by Glen Larson that the 29-65 million weekly viewers of that show hate b) It’s full of plot holes and abandoned story arcs c) some of the actors are horrible especially Sackhoff d) an alien humaniod race driving Hummers in space and wearing JC Penny catalog clothes in space in insulting the intelligence e) contains shipper/soap opera love triangles that are better left in shows like the OC and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and f) the show brings nothing new to the genre of science fiction

By: John Rowe

John Rowe — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:40:26 +0000

The reason the ratings suck so bad (a 69% drop since the show started) is a) It's badly rehashed source material, original created by Glen Larson that the 29-65 million weekly viewers of that show hate b) It's full of plot holes and abandoned story arcs c) some of the actors are horrible especially Sackhoff d) an alien humaniod race driving Hummers in space and wearing JC Penny catalog clothes in space in insulting the intelligence e) contains shipper/soap opera love triangles that are better left in shows like the OC and DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and f) the show brings nothing new to the genre of science fiction

By: Polly

Polly — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:28:33 +0000

Robert & Bill – Sorry to shatter the dream, but we are talking about cheesecake here right? I guess the right word would be masterful when referring to the Admiral which is attractive. (at least in Season 1 & 2.)

Robert – I guess then we will be expecting a picture of Roslin(sp?) next week for the men, if we want to test your theory. She is still a beautiful woman. (And I’m old enough to know if that works for ya’ll then I can stop picking my own shattered illusions up off the floor!)

And yeah, Mick Jagger would know all about old! (No, throwing stuff)

By: Polly

Polly — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:28:33 +0000

Robert – I guess then we will be expecting a picture of Roslin(sp?) next week for the men, if we want to test your theory. She is still a beautiful woman. (And I'm old enough to know if that works for ya'll then I can stop picking my own shattered illusions up off the floor!)

And yeah, Mick Jagger would know all about old! (No, throwing stuff)

By: YMT

YMT — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:58:57 +0000

Nielsen Ratings and programmes like BSG are always going to be quite off the mark, the average viewer for BSG will be young, computer literate and get most of their TV shows off the internet. Its the way things are now. Till someone works out how to measure the audience figures based on downloads over Bitorrent and the like the ratings will never be accurate.

By: YMT

YMT — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:58:57 +0000

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:56:31 +0000

@Polly awwwww you’re killing the dream here. As I move towards my “elder statesman” years, I need at least the illusion that women find Edward James/Admiral Adama attractive. And you just shattered that illusion into thousands of tiny pieces. Thanks!

I’ll use something more cheesecake-esque for next week’s post. To quote Mick Jagger: what a drag it is getting old!

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:56:31 +0000

@Polly awwwww you're killing the dream here. As I move towards my “elder statesman” years, I need at least the illusion that women find Edward James/Admiral Adama attractive. And you just shattered that illusion into thousands of tiny pieces. Thanks!

I'll use something more cheesecake-esque for next week's post. To quote Mick Jagger: what a drag it is getting old!