By now, kerfuffle between Brad Wright and Chicago Tribune TV critic Maureen Ryan has been well circulated. Brad Wright could be right that "there are enough viewers and reviewers who think SGU is neither boring, poorly plotted, or sexist to keep us on the air long after “V” is just a letter in the alphabet again."
But he could be wrong, too.
The drop off in SGU ratings is perhaps not quite as alarming as White Collar dropping from 5.075 million down to below four million, but there have been consecutive weekly drops for Stargate Universe and Friday it was down to 1.626 million viewers (live+SD). A week earlier it averaged 1.974 million so that's still almost an 18% drop week over week...
Very disappointing. I am really enjoying this new take on Stargate and I’d be sad to see it end prematurely.
This is what happens when a comment goes boomerang-effect. Sometimes critics forget they can be criticized too. I think many SGU reviews are biased and too spontaneous, and I don’t even like SGU that much myself, but if I had to judge series for six episodes only, I’d have never got to watch LOST at all. Why didn’t the critics talk about sexism and poor character development for LOST? Because there actually was poor development, and there was sexism and stereotypes as well. Why didn’t LOST get as much bashing as SGU is getting? Maybe because LOST was on a major network? Maybe because the editorial lines forbid to talk sh*t on specific shows? I don’t know. You tell me.
Anyway, back on topic, the main problem seems to be the characters. How on Earth do you pretend to feature a thirty something cast in one episode? SGA’s team was a copy of SG1′s team. It was an easy job, considering some of them were already familiar. SGU, on the other hand, has not team at all: it has survivors. People needs its time to stand out. Ming-Na is tired of saying “Yes, there’ll be more of me, just wait”. SGU is just going on a normal pace so that everyone can follow it. Sorry for bringing back LOST again, but how long did it take to them (or to us) to develop an image of everyone on the set? Many, many episodes. So that’s it. Please stop attacking with an argument that falls on its knees so quickly and simply. SGU is not CSI. There are dozes of stories to tell. Just give it time.
Speaking of stereotypes, what’s the point exactly? Stereotypes exist because of a reason: while they do not represent a totality, they represent a majority. Have any of you come to think SGU treats sexuality in a stereotyped way only to have it fixed later? Only so that they can play with it? So that they can can come up with the current reality, not-stereotyped, in later episodes, and portray is as a win of specific characters? Geez, chill and wait for it to happen. SGU writers are not amateurs, they are professionals. 99% of what you could be a mistake, may actually be done on purpose, so really, judge the thing by the end of the episodes, not by the first couple of episodes!
Also, what’s the point of bringing back Battlestar and The Next Generation? Excuse me, but when did that happen? Unless it was last week, it’s OLD. I myself, a 24 years old account executive in advertising, had never heard of Battlestar until I read it on an SGU review. And I have never watched Start Trek except accidentally. So you can guess. Not everyone knows every series out there. There’s no point to extrapolate an internet-based discussion to big terms because 99% of the Chicago Tribune (and others) readers won’t have a clue on what shows are being talked. Comparisons are ugly (and sometimes pointless), stop them. It’s like you don’t know how to build-up and argument of your own, so you just bring back old glories. It’s not the best thing to do, believe me.
Regarding Stargate Atlantis, let me say it was a bland copy of SG-1: There was a Jack O’neill, a Samantha, an alien on the team, and the list goes on. SGA was SG-1 in an off-world set. Period. If there is something Brad and Joe can be blamed for, that is SGA poor development. I can’t think of any friend, loyal followers of SG-1, who could survive past Atlantis season one. The entire show was a big deja-vu. What was meant to refresh the franchise actually eroded it. I’m sure SGA ended up being wonderful, but how long did it take for them to make something out of SGA? An entire season? At the end of the day, what you’ve got is that SGA was incapable of keeping the 4 million audience of its premiere. The drop was monumental, even though summer schedule is not competitive at all. And here’s another, and maybe the most important remark I wanted to do: SG Universe is improving SGA and SG1 latest seasons ON FALL SEASON. SG Universe got serious rivals in tough times, and yet it’s doing better. Let’s not forget about this small key factor. For the record, “Light” just got series record with 2.7 audience live+7. “Earth” is being praised as the strongest episode. SGU is just getting better and better. Right now, I’m not like crazy about SGU, but it’s improving. Sooner or later, people will jump the bandwagon, and by then, all I’ll have to say will be “I told ya”.
To sum it up: Critics cannot expect to be untouchable; opinions just happen. Brad and Joe may be arrogant, but they sure have a point: SGU is getting sh*t ever since it was announced, the sh*t is getting offensive already, and some minuscule but noisy group of people won’t just let it go even if the ratings support the franchise as never before; SGU is not about five people but about many more: give it time.
And really, SGU doom-sayers are being heard since SGA cancellation. The issue is getting old. The ratings are speaking for itself. So let it go. We heard you, we heard your complaints, stop the bashing because it’s just making the internets a little less enjoyable.
“Sometimes critics forget they can be criticized too.”
That’s not what happened here. Ryan engaged in criticism, and Wright engaged in a subtle tantrum. (See the blog post linked by my name for my full thoughts on the matter.)
I wonder how many people remember to tune after the hiatus.
Wow. You wrote that fast. Did you have that prepared?
“I wonder how many people remember to tune after the hiatus.”
From the sounds of it there is a fairly big cliffhanger, so hopefully people will come back. But SyFy’s stupid idea of splitting the season in two parts and airing the second part months later is… stupid. It didn’t do any good for SGA or BSG…
I’m a lot more surprised White Collar dropped than I am about SGU. White Collar has been decent every week while SGU has been below average at best.
In the dog eat dog world of TV programming, what makes any producer think they have ‘time’ to do a show at their own pace? That’s a luxury that most shows don’t get and if Lost hadn’t been bringing in the ratings, it wouldn’t have gotten that luxury either.
SGU drops are very tiny compared to other shows, specially compared to major network shows. DVR+7 are showing an improvement. Almost 3 millions already (I’m speaking about “Light” audience). FOX wished they had it for most of their shows.
Sure Brad over-reacted. While I like the fact that a producer answers and critic (God, finally!), I agree that the tone was not the best, and the V reference quite inappropriate. However, I can understand he, Joe, and many others in Canada being tired of the SGU bashing falling to be repetitive, same people over and over, same arguments, same everything. It’s just this way since months ago. The show producers (and I) wish people would just let it go. The ratings are speaking for themselves. Whatever needs to be changed will be changed. So far we’ve got seven episode none of which is behind SGA or audience. SGU’s got a very steady share, and it will definitely improve once the characters get completely developed. Patience, people, that’s all you need.
It’d be odd if I love Caprica, but begin to despise SGU. Considering all the years I followed SG-1 and SGA, and never caught an episode of BSG. It’s not like the style or anything wasn’t appealing, I just never bothered.
Maybe I should have?
“But SyFy’s stupid idea of splitting the season in two parts and airing the second part months later is… stupid.”
Don’t many networks do something similar? It’s kinda expected that viewers will forget or drop the show.
Robert–
If you look earlier in the week, you’ll notice Ghost Hunters was down about 11% from last week. While that can be attributed to running against the World Series, it could have had a bit of an impact on shows later in the week, particularly among casual viewers.
Friday’s episode of SGU was not “casual viewer-friendly”, IMO.
Sanctuary also had a ratings decline Friday.
Whatever the cause, one week of declines do not a trend make. Let’s wait until next week.
Well I enjoy the show so hopefully the fans can keep a good show around on sci fi. With all the other crap they have been airing lately we need all the help we can get.
If there was more of Lou Diamond Phillips, SGU would have higher ratings. He is the only one on that show who can really act!
Whenever an author needs to blog to explain/justify his creation he is not doing a good job. When they whine they are unbearable.
When you do something that is going to be public you are going to get criticism. What prompted the hissy fit from Brad Wright is that Maureen is that the dwindling numbers validate her opinion, and not his creative vision. I doubt he would ever care to reply if the numbers were good.
I agree with MediaSavant on the inaccessibility of Friday’s episode, while I welcome big story arcs, they currently seem to be dominating a little too much for a freshman series. But then of course, that tactic certainly didn’t help Dollhouse.
Whats this about White Collar dropping?
When Syfy started doing its own original programming, they adopted the practice of showing their programs during the times that the regular networks were showing reruns, so they staggered their programming. Now, the regular networks start new series off and on during the year, so the Syfy programming still stagggers its programming, but it does it rather seasonally, like you only see Eureka during the summer, and I assume Warehouse 13 will be the same. So, naturally the Syfy fall series now are competing with new programming, just because the nets have adjusted, and Syfy also puts out more of its own programming, albeit much of it is reality type programming, and not scripted like SGU. I already made a post about SGU and its stats, so I won’t repeat it here, but I will say that the creators, for professionals, certainly do not seem be rolling with the punches concerning the tumultuous fortune of SGU. They are acting like this was their “dream” project, but the reality of it has turned out more like a nightmare, and they seem almost in shock that the series hasn’t been received like they had anticipated, and angry that it hasn’t been, which is unprofessional, at least up to a point, IMO. I can understand disappointment, but they opted to change the format. They were honest about it, but it still was a calculated risk, just like all series were. It became more of a risk when they did change the format. It would have been much better, in hindsight, to have let SGA finish its run, for one more year. They could have used the SGA cast and the SG-1 cast to basically set up this spin off, maybe by doing some specials. I think that would have probably worked better, because they could have set up the dramatic tension, and then the new cast would have had a base to build off of, and I think it would have been better received. It doesn’t mean that the show itself would have necessarily been better, but the show would probably not have suffered some of the sour grapes that it has, whether it has been fair or not.
I don’t know how you can accuse Lost of having poor character development – that’s all it did for its first 3 seasons, and was heavily criticized for it. Lost does have a problem with misogyny, I will admit.
The thing is that Lost broke the mold – it was completely original, which originally distracted from some of these things. SGU doesn’t have that luxury.
It’s unbelievable to me that the creators of a show are arguing so much with fans and critics who are simply voicing their disappointment. Has such a thing ever happened before? Do movie directors fight back when their films get bad reviews? It’s so strange.
Personally, I share Maureen Ryans views on SGU. The characters are pretty boring and there is too much soap opera melodrama for my taste. I’m shocked the ratings are as high as they are.
White Collar had a fantastic premiere but the subsequent episodes have not had the same energy. There’s a lot less action and I’m not surprised the ratings are falling.
“However, I can understand he, Joe, and many others in Canada being tired of the SGU bashing falling to be repetitive, same people over and over, same arguments, same everything. It’s just this way since months ago.”
OMG, it’s not like the mean kids are bashing the homework assignment the teacher forced him to read out loud, the man is putting a TV show out there and has been doing it for over a decade, at some time he should probably start to expect and deal with criticism. FCS.