Update: commenter Hugh, below, notes that SciFi didn't actually cancel the series, but that it was cancelled by MGM, presumably because of production costs, especially as the US and Canadian dollar have reached nearly equal value over the years. Hugh postulates that SciFi was likely the only partner to be sorry to see the show cancelled. Seems plausible to me.
Update 2: despite some very interesting comments below, it appears that the Stargate franchise will live on, and on SciFi, via Universe. The way James Hibberd is reporting this, Universe will air on SciFi, and not on MGM's new channel as postulated in the comments. And SciFi is issuing press releases about this, so it appears the plan is for Universe to air on SciFi.
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It ran a little long for a comment, but a couple of you have e-mailed asking about the cancellation and my thoughts and commenter Outlander chimed in here chimed in here with some thoughts as well.
I'm sad to say that I agreed with Maureen Ryan's assessment pretty much 100%. Sad because although I agree with her, it would be no skin off my back if they kept the show on the air and somehow figured out how to improve it. But I definitely agree that show had been waning, but unlike Ryan, I kept slogging through anyway.
The season four finale held a lot of promise and I found it a particularly good episode. But that episode focused almost exclusively on Rodney McKay and Sheppard, and those were my favorite characters. I always thought Joe Flanigan and David Hewlett who portray those characters were the best part of the show.
Last Friday's episode, which could've been interesting in theory wound up boring, predictable. I muddled through it last weekend and at the end thought, "this show is running on fumes now, such a shame."
Outlander brought up (in the comments) the notion of its ratings being the same as last year and being better than the ratings for Eureka and speculates the show may have done better on a different night. But I still think all things considered cancellation is a good call on SciFi's part. First, there will undoubtedly be more "direct-to-DVD" movies, form both SG1 and Atlantis sooner or later, so it won't shrivel up completely. Secondly, whether it happens now, or years down the road, it seems like ultimately somebody somewhere will take another crack at the Stargate premise, whether it's on SciFi or not.
I'm not privy to the production costs, but even though the show is produced in Canada, one thing I am pretty sure of: production costs for year five are greater than production costs for year one. So it seems likely, looking at it purely from business perspective that it was costing more money to produce something that wasn't correspondingly making more money.
I think because of the (relative) success of Battlestar Galactica, SciFi thinks:
a.) Between good shows and DVRs, shows can have success on Friday nights.
b.) That it ought to focus on producing shows which have *growth* potential
The fact is, Stargate Atlantis is stagnant, both as a show and in terms of ratings. Season five will get its full run, and there are plans for a two hour movie, so hopefully they will get to wrap up this installment nicely, as SG1 kind of did. I view the two part Moebius finale from season 8 as the SG1 finale, and it was a fitting end. Seasons nine and ten were another series really, they just didn't change the name to "SG1: It's Not Quite as Good Without O'Neill, But You'll Still Watch Anyway".
Please note, I am not bashing the creators, writers, actors, directors and producers of SG1 and Atlantis at all. I thank them for more than a decade of entertainment, at least 80% of it was enjoyed very much.
You and Outlander have both missed the boat on your speculations as to why SciFi would have cancelled the show, because SciFi didn't cancel it–MGM did. SciFI would have been happy to carry it for at least another season. But ever since the Canadian dollar reached par (or close to it) with the American one the show has been staggering under a 30% cost increase–and that's before the inevitable cost increases that come as a show ages.
The SG1 DVDs did better than projected, and the revenues went right into MGM's pockets–no SciFI to split the profits with. With the show's creators already focussed on SGU, where's the percentage in continuing to produce 20 hours of SGA for tv when they can make more money with movies?
This has been in the wind for months. My guess? SciFi was probably the only partner that *didn't* want to see the series end this year.
Hugh,
Great points. Thanks.
That is true. MGM pulled the plug. The ratings were actually higher than the past 2 seasons. MGM pulled the plug on SGA to make room for the third series Stargate Universe and more DVD movies which have been a HUGE success for MGM.
We know that the 3rd Stargate spin-off 'Universe' is going ahead, and will no doubt qill still be produced at Bridge Studios. So blaming SGA's demise on costs alone doesn't hold water because those will be the same conditions the third spin off is produced under. They may cut a few costs with a new, cheaper cast but generally the production costs themselves remain the same. However, Scifi made no mention of 'Universe' in its cancellation press release which is very telling. And as MGM has its own cable channel launching in the fall with Viacom and Lionsgate studios, I think the smart money is on MGM broadcasting the spinoff itself and cutting out the middleman.
No wonder then, that SGA was cancelled. MGM are unlikely to split the franchise by having two shows on two different cable channels, when it's new channel will no doubt be a rival to Scifi. They are also highly unlike to produce new Atlantis episodes for that channel, as its an 'old' show and Scifi should retain the broadcast rights to SGA's first 5 seasons for some time to come.
Seems like Scifi has had 'Atlantis' pulled out from under them. It makes sense business wise for MGM to ditch SGA and go with 'Universe', broadcast on their own premium cable channel. However its a bitch of a bitter pill to swallow for the fans. Not to mention utter arrogance by The Powers that Be expecting the fans to happily migrate over and hoping SGA is quickly forgotten when the new show airs (frankly the premise for 'Universe' was pathetically awful, or just very badly synopsised and pitched). Personally I lost interest by the end of season 3 when the cast changes began and switched to just watching the show on the DVD boxsets.
'Stargate' has been in serious need of a reboot, but more from the writing department then the show premise. They took one of the single greatest, unsolved myths/mysteries in human history, 'Atlantis' and instead of capitalising on it, lazily chose to rehash old film, tv and worse yet, SG1 scripts. And these are the same people writing Universe, not a good sign. I'll be sad to see it go, but maybe SGA is better off sunk.
TJ (and Hugh) my understanding of the full lay of the land was obviously minimal. Though I think a new show that hasn't been established yet *will* still actually be lower in cost unless they get premium actors, the details of the MGM cable channel and Universe are very interesting, and I agree in that light that SciFi's lack of mentioning it when announcing Atlantis wouldn't be renewed is very telling.
Of course they will costs with the start of a new show. But the crew will remain the same, as I'm sure will the fx team, the writers, etc. The cast salaries are a significant but not the biggest chunk of the budget. And even though 'Stargate' is a solid franchise, you're still going to need at least 1 name/face to help promote it if you want to pull in a new audience as well as the fanbase. The guys making the big money are the writer/producers who are no doubt on MILLIONS a year, and while we're not sure who will be moving over to SGU…you can garantee the majority of 'Universe's' writers will be from this stable (my money is on Gero going over, and as a 'Exec Prod' for SGA…well I'm sure you could get a couple of main cast members salary out of his).
So the costs aren't going to be significantly different. The BIG difference is the return on investment MGM will get. No more splitting anything with a broadcaster like Scifi, they have the control and therefore the profit. The DVD movies are an example of this. MGM gets the lions share from their sale in its pocket PLUS the broadcast sale to Scifi. It's all about the bottom line.
You have to ask yourself this. If MGM wasn't launching its new cable channel, would SGA be ending now?
As shoddy as the writings been of late, I can see SGA getting at least 1 more season, possibly with Scifi giving the producers the heads up so they can build to closure. It's in Scifi's best interests to have new Stargate right now for example, to support 'Sanctary' (whose fanbase is SG orientated thanks to it being an SG alumni project i.e Amanda Tapping and Martin Woods) and not piss off the fanbase. Not to mention time to develope and try out new shows to fill the gap.
If MGM holds to there desicion to end Atlantis with season 5, I will never buy another Gate DVD or watch any other Gate Incarnation (why should I ? they will just cancel it to after getting me hooked)
so will SGA finish right now or will the entire fith series be made
The entire 5th season will be made, I think they're filming one of their last few episodes now and usually finish filming for the season in mid-October.
Hi Hugh,
I miss the boat on things far more than I care to admit. While your theory (i.e., that MGM pulled the rug out from under SciFi in order to focus on more profitable DVD sales) makes sense to me, the articles and press releases I've reviewed don't say that MGM cancelled the show rather than SciFi. Do you have inside knowledge on this? Or, if not, can you point us to whatever you reviewed that led you to your conclusion?
I don't know what the percentages are on the movies and the show. I do know that the first SG1 movie made $8.9 MM (budget of $7 MM) and the second SG1 movie has so far made $6.4 MM (budget of $7 MM). (http://www.the-numbers.com). Assuming that by year's end, the two movies make a combined $20 MM in revenue, how much profit is that for MGM? And, how likely will new movies be to sell well once the show is off the air?
The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Scifi will be showing the new Stargate franchise, Stargate Universe.
Yeah, I updated the post with that info about 20 minutes ago. It definitely appears as if Universe will air on SciFi and not MGM's new channel as speculated on above in the comments.
Yup I guess I was wrong on that part, though we'll have to wait and see on that front. But if you check out Brad Wrights interview on Gateworld.net you'll see the decision was supposedly a 'mutual' one between MGM, Scifi and Stargate Productions (aka Brad Wright & Robert Cooper) NOT just Scifi cancelling the show. Brad Wright positively seem happy to see the back of SGA and is 'excited' about the change of format, very different from the attitude to SG1's cancellation. Its an interesting read, and its pretty clear there were some alterior motives that went into the decision. I mean, who cancels their own show when the ratings are on the up to 'go out on top'? I still wonder if SGU will end up on MGM's channel and how much of a say Scifi had in SGA ending, they cant exactly renew a show if the producers dont want to make it anymore.
i will probably give the new SG a chance, but they are already babbling about a younger audience. They make me want to scream!!! Even though I am a scifi fan from way back, I never watched SG at all until my “then” 19 year old son wanted me to watch it with him, and that was about four years ago. Talk about being in an alternate universe!!! Sheesh!
Its a shame to see such a good show stopped because of money issues
Its a shame to see such a good show stopped because of money issues
Hi. I’m An avid viewer of Stargate Atlantis. I believe I have figured out why they are cancelling the show for movies. I believe they want to tell more detailed and longer, stories. The hour for the show’s episodes are too short, for the stories they want to tell. The movie format would and will allow them to divulge into greater, and more thorough stories. Otherwise, I believe they would need to make 2 or more sequential episodes to finish these stories. I believe they think it’s too expensive to divide an idea into 2 or more episodes.
Plus, They know that stargate atlantis movies would have a bigger and better budget that they could use, and would be a bigger budget and cost less than 3 episodes to tell one story.
Anyway, That’s what I think.
Feel free to comment.
well please dont cancel the show its great and wonderful
Well this whole thing took me by surprice. I just this season my wife just started watching it. She wanted to understand what I saw in the show. I always looked forward each week to watch the new Stargate show. I felt crushed when they ended Star Trek Enterprise, early. Now I may affend some of you by mentioning Star Trek, but you know it was something I enjoyed watching as well as Stargate. When it comes down to it, I think some of the resent Battlestar episodes was little stale. Nothing like the first couple of seasons. But hey they are ending that show as well. But at least this one was planned.
Well I guess I will have time to do other stuff now. Since there will be nothing on TV anymore. Except reality tv. Which is something I will not or can not handle to watch anymore.
Dave
They should make a series based on Steven Brust “Taltos” books.