On Friday March 20, 2009 when the Battlestar Galactica finale aired, it pulled in 2.364 million viewers who watched it live or the same night it aired on DVR. But with a full week of DVR viewing included, NBC reports that it shot up to 3.1 million viewers, 2.1 million who were aged 25-54, and 2 million in the advertising-centric 18-49 demographic. It was Sci Fi's best performance of the year, and BSG's best outing in total viewers, viewers 18-49 and viewers 25-54 since February 4, 2005.
Additionally it was the #5 most-watched original series telecast in the network's 16 year history among adults 25-54 and and the best performance for any original series in that age demographic since 2005. It was the #4 most-watched telecast of all-time for Sci Fi with adults 18-49.
3.1 million is still kind of sad considering the fact that it was thought to be one of the greatest television shows in recent years.
Yes 3.1 Million is sad! This is why I hate cable shows they never get high ratings except for Sex and the City.
BSG is not about ratings. It is about artistry. NBCU has been more than proud to produce it.
I would say it’s symbolic of the current mentality for NBCU. BSG hasn’t done much in the ratings in it’s run, but has gotten a lot of attention for SighFigh, something that didn’t happen with the similarly performing Stargate shows.
I know it’s affected me; I used to think of that channel as the home of Twilight Zone and other older shows being rerun combined with awful dumpster-quality movies. Now, this scifi fan (and I’m sure I’m not alone) will be more likely to check out original series there. Still not sure if SG:U will work, but I’m excited about Caprica. They also aired a couple of miniseries based on Dune, the first one (in 2000) in particular was quite excellent.
I think the only piece of NBCU doing well in the ratings has been USA, thanks to Monk, Psych, and the monster performance of Burn Notice (not to mention NCIS/House reruns). I’ll always wish BSG had been a better performer in the ratings, but it was an outstanding, special show, naysayers be damned.
I doubt future generations will know as much about the current commercial hits like NCIS, CSI, etc. But I’m betting shows like BSG and The Wire will carry even bigger reputations thanks to DVD (and even online viewing if it ever takes off in a big way). So say we all!
I arrived late to BSG. All the buzz around the finale inspired me to add and prioritize in my NFLX queue. Now, I find I’m a huge fan eagerly devouring earlier seasons and only slightly sad that I missed the social aspects of watching episodes’ original airings.
I wonder if BSG’s ratings we’re capped by NBCU’s orthodox promotion strategy. Do you reckon there’s an audience much larger than 1-2 million that would tune in to high quality sci-fi content on a weekly basis?
Im not excited at all about CAPRICA – sound alot like SCI-FI does DALLAS with lots of sex and politics. Also kind of like KINGS which is biting the big one in the ratings and has been exiled to Sa-TURD-ay nite. ya know, it wasnt until now that I realized the word Saturday had the word turd in it. Hmmmm.
Prequels are usually a bad idea. Im also looking for the Star Trek prequel reboot movie to well below expectations and could even do worse than Star Trek X. Star Trek Enterprise didnt set the world on fire either (though it did hang around for 4 full seasons).
“Jason says: I know it’s affected me; I used to think of that channel as the home of Twilight Zone and other older shows being rerun combined with awful dumpster-quality movies. Now, this scifi fan (and I’m sure I’m not alone) will be more likely to check out original series there. Still not sure if SG:U will work, but I’m excited about Caprica. They also aired a couple of miniseries based on Dune, the first one (in 2000) in particular was quite excellent.”
It’s funny to me you said this because I now have to exact opposite feelings. BECAUSE of the new BSG, I’m staying as far away from SyFy channel as humanly possible now. I probably won’t go near anything Ron Moore does again either. I haven’t been this disappointed in a show since the Star Wars Prequels came out. (Sorry to anyone who liked the Star Wars Prequels and BSG for that matter. Just not my cup of tea I guess.)
3.1 million is an interesting number but it just counts people who watched. It doesn’t show how many watched but were disappointed like me.