Here are the top 10 Syfy shows in terms of average viewers for the week ending November 15, 2009:
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| Rank | Shows | NET | DAY(S) | Time | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| 1 | GHOST HUNTERS | SYFY | Wed | 09:00P-10:00P | 2,914 |
| 2 | ICE TWISTERS | SYFY | Sat | 09:00P-11:00P | 2,465 |
| 3 | Ghost Hunters ACADEMY | SYFY | Wed | 10:00P-11:00P | 2,067 |
| 4 | GHOST HUNTERS | SYFY | Wed | 08:00P-09:00P | 1,982 |
| 5 | STARGATE UNIVERSE | SYFY | Fri | 09:00P-10:00P | 1,802 |
| 6 | Sanctuary | SYFY | Fri | 10:00P-11:00P | 1,661 |
| 7 | GHOST HUNTERS | SYFY | Wed | 07:00P-08:00P | 1,560 |
| 8 | MEGAFAULT | SYFY | Sat | 07:00P-09:00P | 1,555 |
| 9 | SCARE TACTICS | SYFY | Tue | 09:30P-10:00P | 1,321 |
| 10 | SCARE TACTICS | SYFY | Tue | 09:00P-09:30P | 1,286 |
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. All ratings above Live+SD (live viewing plus same day DVR viewing)
Sanctuary and SGU can’t even beat Ice Twisters? That’s kind of sad.
Well SGU upticked that is good. Sanctuary seems to be pulling in what SGA did last year. I also heard they attract an older fan base vs SGA and SGU.
,,Or a repeat of Megafault. Oy.
-previous comment responding to Cimmer.
@KyleB,they beat Megafault, not by a lot (Sanctuary) but they beat it. lol Now I don’t think they beat it on its original showing but….
95 = The percentage of the 2.4 million people that watched Ice Twisters for the entertainment of making fun of how awful it would be. SyFy originals do a great job trying to one up each other in ‘suck’.
Well this sounds like Good News to me.
Sanctuary’s episode was pretty good, showcasing Ryan Robbins in a fairly complicated murder mystery.
However, the show needs to – yet again I have to say – pick up the pace. They especially need to bring back Christopher Heyerdahl, one of my favorite characters. The season started with a two-part blockbuster, and they need to regain that energy. Bringing back John Druitt and following his war against the Cabal would do that.
I think they made a serious mistake trading Emilie Ullerup for Agam Darshi. Darshi is interesting, but Emilie was totally adorable in a way Darshi is not. This was supposedly a network decision unrelated to Emilie’s health problems. Emilie has said she would like to come back, and I think they should take that seriously. It would be easy – just have the Emilie who died be a clone of the real one. That would explain everything.
I still think that with better writing, Stargate Atlantis would be blowing SGU+Sanctuary out of the water. When Joe Flanigan was on Warehouse 13, it broke all kinds of records for Syfy! Imagine what that whole SGA cast could have done if the writing team had been better.
As far as the uptick in viewers goes, that may not last. For all the money SGU cost it’s not getting a good return on investment, but Sanctuary might be. Only time will tell. We’ll see.
Four of the top ten shows are one show ‘Ghost Hunters’ or ‘Ghost Hunters Academy’. Slots nine and ten again are occupied by one show, ‘Scare Tactics’. I could be wrong but of the remaining I think only SGU and Sanctuary are series. “Reality?” programming is cheap. It floods the cable networks (History channel, TLC etc.). Because of it creative shows like SGU and Sanctuary are budget starved forcing them to make decisions that harm the shows success. I long for the day when the viewers tire of it.
@Tim
I don’t think that you can call the 60 MILLION dollars it cost to make SGU “budget starved.” It’s more than SGA had when it began, and it’s more than Sanctuary costs now. And Frankly, I think Sanctuary does a much better job with some of its plot-lines and dipiction of characters.
No, it’s the writing that’s “starving” SGU, not a lack of funds for the show.
@Morena
I concede your point. Expensive special effects cannot replace character development and a compelling story. If SGU has the budget for the writers then there is no excuse.
I stand by my opinion on ‘reality’ shows though. That is a personal preference. I would rather see more scripted shows like Sanctuary, SGA and SGU. Seeing them with lower numbers than ‘reality’ programming is disturbing.
@Tim
I agree with you on the ‘reality’ shows. You made a good point there.
So…because two shows on a Friday night, considered the death night for network TV for any show that appears there or for shows that just do not have a huge pull, happen to get lower ratings than a cheesy Saturday night popcorn flick or weekday shows, you think it is doing bad?
It will be almost impossible for it to do any better than it is…unless they started SG1 again.
SGU continues to impress with holding the ratings not dropping too bad, and the story is moving along and getting into more of an action mode (especially last week).
Sanctuary still sees a large drop from SGU also, and that is shocking, but production of that series is cheap.
Overall, Friday is ok for Sci-fi, and they will accept those numbers.
(And PS: No, Stargate Atlantis would not do better, as it just was not as good as SG1 or SGU and really got old with it’s storyline, where we just did not care anymore.)
@Openedge1
In case you didn’t know, Stargate Atlantis BROKE ALL RECORDS IN SCI-FI CHANNEL RATINGS HISTORY when it premiered. So yes, Atlantis did better with LESS money than SGU is doing now. It was a better show. I’m sorry that you got bored with it, but MANY people weren’t, including me.
Keep making excuses for SGU’s poor performance. As far as Syfy and MGM being willing to “accept those numbers,” again, only time will tell. We’ll see.
One more thing,
SG-1 and Atlantis were Friday night shows too. So using the fact that SGU comes on Friday nights as some kind of reason for it’s current ratings doesn’t make sense to me.
@Morena
I enjoy all Stargates series but i would agree SGA was getting a little tiresome in their Michael Story line. I still would of enjoyed a Sixth season tho ( and a 11th Season of SG1-1). At first I was kind of disappointed in SGU. After I got pasted the fact that this show wasn’t like SG-1 and SGA I really started to enjoy it. This is the only show I cant wait to watch and for me its only getting better. I like the fresh take on the show and didn’t make its like SG-1 and SGA.
@James
I’m glad you actually enjoy SGU, but I don’t. I watched a fair bit of it and nothing impressed me. I never expected it to be a clone of SGA or SG-1 because it was advertised as different and edgy.
You’re right about some of the plot-lines on SGA getting a bit old, but I liked the Michael story line and don’t consider it one of them. I think that SGA needed more variety in its writing staff the last couple of seasons. It doesn’t help that the same people are writing for SGU. That’s my take on it.
@Morena
Well I have watched all the Ep’s for SGU and the last 2-3 were much better then the first ones. So If you haven’t watched the last few I recommend you do. Also the filming that first annoyed me the shaking camera, odd angle shots, blur focus, etc now adds so much to the show. I look forward to the SGA movie because i do miss those characters but I think these ones i’ll grow to love as well (already enjoy Eli and rush(more now then before… hated him at first).
@James
It’s nice the see that you’re finding that you will probably grow to love the characters, but for me that’s the problem. Liking this show feels like work. Every week that I watched the show and I was unimpressed, only to be told to watch next week and it will get better, but it didn’t for me. It shouldn’t take 7-8 episodes to get in to a show, or worse, to still not like it.
The other 2 shows didn’t take this long at all. Again, I’m glad that you are hanging in there and finding that you’re getting in to it.