I got a pretty detailed look at the top 50 scripted shows on basic cable for the year with adults 18-49, and four of them were on Syfy.
I have both the Live+SD and the Live+7 viewing and I'm going to talk about both, primarily because Syfy is an interesting network when it comes to DVR viewing, especially for certain shows. All the numbers here are for the first telecasts of original episodes and not any of the encore airings.
With Live+SD viewing, Warehouse 13 was Syfy's #1 show for the year with adults 18-49 averaging 1.197 million and edging out Battlestar Galactica's 1.158 million. But in Live+7 viewing, the order was reversed with Battlestar Galactica on top with 1.710 million adults 18-49 versus Warehouse 13's 1.622 million.
Stargate Universe was the third best scripted show with adults 18-49 on Syfy averaging 1.040 million Live+SD adults 18-49 and 1.433 million Live+7. Eureka was #4 either way with an average of 975,000 adults 18-49 with Live+SD viewing and an average of 1.384 million with Live+7 viewing.
So how did these shows rank against all of the basic cable scripted universe and not just on Syfy? Warehouse 13 was #22 in Live+SD viewing with adults 18-49, BSG was #23, SGU was #24 and Eureka was #28. BSG was #BSG was #19 with adults 18-49 in Live+7 viewing, Warehouse 13 was #21, SGU was #24 and Eureka was #25.
Gender Lines Drawn for SGU: Women like it MUCH less, Young Men, MUCH more
Some of you love SGU, and some of you love to hate it! It would be interesting to see the comments pro and against sorted by gender. In the ratings there is a clear divide. It's Syfy's most popular show with young men 18-34 in Live+SD viewing, and young men 18-34 are pretty much the holy grail of advertising since they are oft-cited as the most elusive group to reach with television advertising. But with women 18-49, and 18-34, SGU was the worst-performing of the four scripted Syfy shows that ranked in the top 50.
A Look at the Median Ages
Live+SD
- Warehouse 13: 51
- BSG: 43
- SGU: 46
- Eureka: 51
Live+7
- Warehouse 13: 50
- BSG: 42
- SGU: 45
- Eureka: 49
18-34 viewing (rank in parenthesis is for all scripted shows on basic cable)
Live+SD
- Warehouse 13: 454K (#25)
- BSG: 449K (#26)
- SGU: 430K (#28)
- Eureka: 352K (#35)
Live+7
- Warehouse 13: 631K (#23)
- BSG: 680K (#21)
- SGU: 600K (#25)
- Eureka: 540K (#31)
Men 18-49
Live+SD
- Warehouse 13: 693K (#14)
- BSG: 731K (#11)
- SGU: 715K (#13)
- Eureka: 573K (#21)
Live+7
- Warehouse 13: 944K (#12)
- BSG: 1.102M (#7)
- SGU: 983K (#10)
- Eureka: 806K (#17)
Women 18-49
Live+SD
- Warehouse 13: 504K (#23)
- BSG: 427K (#29)
- SGU: 325K (#37)
- Eureka: 402K (#31)
Live+7
- Warehouse 13: 678K (#24)
- BSG: 608K (#26)
- SGU: 450K (#35)
- Eureka: 578K (#28)
Men 18-34
Live+SD
- Warehouse 13: 273K (#17)
- BSG: 268K (#19)
- SGU: 312K (#14)
- Eureka: 229K (#24)
Live+7
- Warehouse 13: 372K (#17)
- BSG: 423K (#13)
- SGU:417K (#14)
- Eureka: 327K (#19)
Women 18-34
Live+SD
- Warehouse 13: 180K (#31)
- BSG: 182K (#29)
- SGU: 117K (#45)
- Eureka: 123K (#43)
Live+7
- Warehouse 13: 260K (#27)
- BSG: 257K (#28)
- SGU: 183K (#38)
- Eureka: 213K (#33)
Finally, I know some of you would like to see how Sanctuary fared along all these same lines, but because it was not among basic cable's top 50 scripted shows with adults 18-49 for 2009 in the spreadsheet I saw, I can't tell you. Sorry
I’m such a girl!
Gosh I guess that explains the shots of SGU actresses in the shower and chest close ups. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.
Honestly Robert, I have no idea why young men age “18-34 are pretty much the holy grail of advertising since they are oft-cited as the most elusive group to reach with television advertising”. Put a half naked barely legal young woman in the ad and throw in some alcohol and you’ve got their undivided attention. Spike TV builds their entire network based on that ‘wisdom’. LOL
Cimmer, because you don’t think about scarcity of eyeballs as it relates to advertising, but advertisers do. And, also, I’m guessing you’re not a male 18-34…
You can take that thinking to the extreme of “I have no idea why advertising matters…” But of course, you know that it does.
Sadly, as is usually the case, I didn’t get any data on viewer economics, where I’m guessing Syfy has a much higher percentage of high income households viewing than Spike. Spike doesn’t have any scripted shows (or none in the top 50 anyway), and typically scripted fetches a premium vs. unscripted.
i’m a girl, and i haven’t caught Eureka yet, but I did give up on SGU. (I tried, but trying to like it went from trying to tolerate it! Bad writing just seems more insulting on Syfy shows). This week I caught up on Warehouse 13, and enjoyed it (I really liked Joanne Kelly as Bianca in the Dresden Files, so I gave it some more time to find its feet). It’s a lot of fun. I’ve also enjoyed Sanctuary, too. I’d rather watch new shows trying to find their way, than procedural police dramas. Having said that, though, I can honestly say I get the whole SGU fail with female audiences- the female characters are so much lower than secondary…& the men remind me of puffed up peacocks, strutting around, all self-important & self-absorbed… the whole thing just -aggravates- me. (But maybe my opinion is skewed, since I wasn’t really a Battlestar Galactica fan either, & isn’t it meant to be stylistically similar?) Most of all though, what made me hold on to Warehouse 13 and Sanctuary, (besides the camaraderie) was the flashes of humour. It’s why I love Supernatural, &why Damon makes me stay tuned to Vampire Diaries. I like to suddenly laugh, when I’m not expecting to…
Robert, I would love to see the viewer economics for the various networks, in fact it would be cool to see the HH incomes for the various shows just for curiosity’s sake if nothing else.
I wonder what a graph chart of income vs. age demo would look like for Syfy over the years? We could add in gender too. Is a BSG viewer better off economically and more highly educated than an SGU viewer?
I would be interested to see if Syfy’s HH average income has gone down as their 18-34 demo has risen? In other words, does the IQ of a network lower as it becomes more popular? LOL
With the plot of SGU revolving around the sexual escapades of its cast, is it any wonder it’s so popular with men 18-34?
@ Gene
Eureka is a great show. It’s not really a sci-fi genre. Think Andy Griffith in a town full of Einstiens. You can probably rent the DVDs and I would highly recommend you start with the Pilot.
To the Haters of SGU who stopped watching;
I wasted almost 2 years watching the third season of Prison Break and the third season Heroes untill I gave up on it. I hated those shows during that time and I too wrote about how bad they were. But when I stopped watching them, I never once polluted blogs, forums or websites with hateful comments like you are doing.
I would say these shows are too trivial for women 18-34! Most sci-fi shows usually are unless they involve stupid teenage girls falling for broody he vampires and vice versa! I get the impresson that Sci-fi is more popular amonst the male crowd any how. I guess they like a more complex storyline. I’m not stereotyping though, I happen to be a 25 year old female who enjoys a good sci-fi over a stupid vampire show or medical drama riddled with relationship angst!
I am a woman and not in any of the coveted age ranges, I fall into the don’t give a rat’s arse for SGU. I am not one of the “I blame it for SGA’s cancellation” folks. I wanted to like the show, but just don’t. I am not a hater and I hope for those that like it, it continues for several years. But in the interest of the whole men vs. women ratings discussion just thought I’d post.
@BrainGame,
If you are going to use the asinine “people don’t watch my show because they aren’t smart enough” line, you might want to look up the word ‘trivial.’
For the curious folks..
SGA had a 46 Age median after Live+7 for their final season
Is anyone surprised that women viewers aren’t as interested in SGU when the female characters are so poorly developed? They have little to connect with! Plus men viewers have plenty of eye candy on the show, the women are all very attractive and get shower scenes and booby cams while women viewers get…pasty Eli. Yay? On the other Stargate shows women swooned over O’Neill, Jackson, Mitchell, Sheppard, and Ronon. Not a lot of swooning going on for SGU.
The writers could fix things by strengthening their female characters and bringing in some male beefcake if they’re going to continue to objectify the women. Equality, please.
I’m a 27 year old male and the only one of those shows that I watch is Warehouse 13. I was thinking of checking out Eureka though. Neither the Sci-Fi channel nor Spike really attract me the way USA or TNT does.
I like Warehouse 13 because it manages to mix action comedy and drama. I think guys I know like that type of mix. That’s why I love Chuck and why I loved Reaper. It’s also why I lean toward USA network a lot. It’s also why I don’t understand the CW’s strategy but that’s another rant.
Also, contrary to what some think most young men and especially those who would consider themselves nerds like myself really enjoy good interesting plots. We don’t just want scantily clad women thrown at us on TV. That’s why I like Warehouse 13. It’s a unique take on the whole buddy cop procedural much like White Collar and Psych.
None of these finding are surprising because SGU goes in the “Dumb Show” catagory. It has also been considered somewhat offensive to intelligent women/minorities.
SGU is a dumb show for very young men the way that Gossip Girl is a dumb show for very young women. So again, no surprises here. And, nothing to really brag about.
The REAL question for Syfy, the Stargate People, and particularly MGM is: Will their “holy grail” save them?
I think that the jury is still out on the advertisers concerning SGU. SGU has accumulated a lot of baggage in a very short period of time as a show that stereotypes and maybe objectifies women and minorities. I am not against anyone supporting it. But, if I were and Advertiser thinking long term, my advertising dollars would go with an easier show to support like Warehouse 13, etc.
@SUP
I don’t need beefcake, although let’s remember that Teal’c and Ford were considered “hotties” too.
A complete overhaul is what SGU needs. And if they are going to “attempt” to do that, then they might as well do a new show OR (yes I’m saying it!) bring back Atlantis.
I’m in the 18-49 range and watch BSG & Warehouse 13.
I don’t consider SGU like BSG. I’m a female aged 51 so sadly advertisers don’t care about my viewing habits. To me BSG had great writing, great acting, and some great romances (I loved the Bill Adama/Laura Roslin romance).
I’ve don’t hate SGU but I don’t think it’s good. The writing is bad. Only a few of the actors (Robert Carlyle being one of them) is putting out stellar performances. None of the cast is rootworthy currently. There are no romances on the show (I don’t call sex buddies Chloe & that guy a romance nor the Col Young mess with his wife as real romance). I also don’t see much potential for any real romances on the show. Instead of dealing with ethical issues like BSG did, SGU seems to ignore the few ethical issues that they did write into the storyline such as the stupid body swapping stuff. None of the characters is written to be believable in my opinion.
Whenever SGU has had real comparisons to BSG of things occurring in that show’s storyline, they’ve fallen down. For example, on BSG lied originally about Earth since he knew that the people needed some hope in order to survive. Yet on SGA, when Dr. Rush lies to give the crew some hope that they might have a slim chance to possibly return to Earth, he is ridiculed. On BSG where the major characters sacrificed having any personal life during their trek and put their responsibilities first and the welfare of the people under them, on SGU Col Young seems mainly interested in making unnecessary body swap trips back to Earth to see his estranged wife.
Even with all that I still consider SGU quality wise way above SGA. SGA had some moments but I considered it very campy and a poor spin-off of SG-1.
I’m a woman in the 18-49 category. The only show of the four I watch is SGU. In my household, I like SGU more than my hubby, but we both watch it. We’re big SG-1 and SGA fans also.
I’ve seen a couple of BSG and Warehouse 13 eps. Never seen Eureka. I would watch Warehouse 13 before I’d watch BSG, though someday I’ll rent the BSG DVDs. I have to get through my Sanctuary DVDs and the rest of my regular viewing season first.
Really liked Warehouse 13. It was a perfect show to air during the summer. Joanne Kelly is drop dead gorgeous and it took a little time, but she has developed some good chemistry with Eddie McClintock. I’m glad alot of people gave it a shot over the summer.
Never really got into Eureka. I do have the DVD’s for Season 1-3.0 and have watched an episode here and there and I liked what I saw, but haven’t had the time to watch it live.