SEASON 9 FOR STARGATE?

Is there life for Stargate SG-1 beyond Season 8?

‘Stargate’: Rise of a Fertile Franchise
Sci Fi’s Risk Pays Off With a Signature Show That’s a Spawning Ground
BY MARY MCNAMARA — Multichannel News, 5/3/2004

SG-1 inhabits Sci Fi’s Friday 9 p.m. slot. The series recently concluded the latter half of its seventh season ­ its second on Sci Fi since leaving Showtime ­ with a 1.9 HH average, up almost 20% from the same period the year before.

The season finale leaped to 2.1, just shy of the 2.2 record set in January, when the show delivered more viewers than any episode of any original series on Sci Fi Channel.

“And then we gave the viewers a Monday night block,” said [Sci Fi Channel President Bonnie] Hammer. “We figured this was a way to give the fans consistency. It was there in a reliable block where they could come to it at their leisure. “

This popular stack of reruns from Stargate seasons one through five is telecast every Monday night from 7 to 11 p.m. Even though these classics are now in their fourth round of continuous play, ratings continue to climb. The Stack has delivered for the network since its launch in 2002. As of the first quarter of 2004, Sci Fi’s Monday numbers were up 114% over first-quarter 2002.

In the first quarter of 2004, the block averaged a 1.5 rating ­its third consecutive quarterly uptick. The highest rated hour, the 8 p.m. telecast, averages a 1.6 rating. Sometimes single episodes score between a 1.7 and 1.9, rivaling the numbers achieved by the first-run Friday originals.

In October 2003, Sci Fi introduced a Monday-Friday 6 p.m. telecast of reruns from the first through fifth season of Stargate. Ratings jumped 100% in the time slot, first-quarter 2004 versus a year ago. Stargate SG-1 alone now comprises 22% of the network’s primetime (8-11 p.m.) schedule.

SG-1’s ratings momentum begs the obvious question: Is season eight, rumored to be the last, truly the end of the line?

“I don’t! I don’t think it will be.“ [Stargate SG-1 Executive Producer Michael] Greenburg asserted, “If the demand is there, I think the show will be there. I think it can continue. Sci Fi’s a fairly new network. We’re the highest rated show they’ve ever had. We’ve broken their records. It just feels like it’s too early to go away.”

Can Atlantis and SG-1 really co-exist in parallel universes? “Yes, absolutely. I don’t know if Rick [SG-1 star and Executive Producer Richard Dean Anderson] would continue. But who knows? You never know until the offer’s on the table. But I think the franchise now is becoming bigger than the people.”

Even Hammer leaves the door ajar. “Never say never. We love it, we embrace it…it’s such an amazing franchise. I couldn’t honestly say to you: now it’s season eight and it’s over. It just might not be.”

SG-1 now costs about $1.7M an episode. As series age and costs escalate, contract negotiations inevitably get tougher.

Asked if he can weather another negotiation season (insiders say an unusually robust game of brinksmanship played out last year between the supporting cast and the powers that be), Greenburg is the sanguine veteran who’s been there, done that.

“There’s a lot of bravado and a lot of hemming and hawing and white knuckling,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for three decades. I just roll with the punches now. As long as there’s a name on a parking spot that resembles mine I’ll pull into it and show up for work.”

Boys, boobs & biscuits
By Jayne Dearsley — SFX 117, May 2004

We know that Stargate is definitely getting an eighth season…could there be more?

“I think there’s a possibility of a ninth season because of our ratings spike in America,” [Michael] Shanks ponders. “I’m not saying that’s a sure thing at all, I’m just saying business logic dictates that they say, ‘Um, maybe we don’t want this to go away!'”

“It’s showbusiness, so you have a responsibility to the shareholders and all that,” [Christopher] Judge declares.

Would they sign up for a ninth year? Both men are evasive; it’s far too early to know such things. “Creatively, if the scripts for season eight are the same quality and integrity as they have been this past year then I’ll be interested,” is all that Shanks will say. In that case, we [SFX] think there’s a good chance. The latter half of Stargate’s seventh season has been great: it’s as though the show has regained some lost energy reserve, and all the characters have had their moment to shine.

Two Worlds Collide
By Paul Spragg — Cult Times Special #29, May 2004

As for the long in-development feature film…”I’ll just say that it seems to change with every year the show gets renewed,” sighs [Michael] Shanks. “As far as we know, if the film does happen, it’ll happen at the end of the series, when it actually does actually really end for good.”

“And when’s that gonna be?” asks Christopher Judge.

“I have no idea! Chris was saying that with the ratings that the show is getting on SCI FI Channel, which are better than they’ve ever been before, there’s renewed interest in another season, which’d be a ninth season. We haven’t even started the eighth, so I’m just going, ‘Naaaaagh!'”

Is a long run a good thing, or will it stretch the premise beyond breaking point? “I don’t think we have been stretched because we’ve definitely had finite end-dates and itwas the reaction and the ratings to the shows that kept us on longer,” believes Judge. “As soon as the show’s shit, the ratings will reflect that, you know?”

“Our show is for the most part about exploration,” adds Shanks. “We’re explorers unravelling different mysteries every week. It is a bit linear in the war aspect of it, but there’s a lot more to the show than just that one dimension. So long as we still have that, it doesn’t end. The exploration doesn’t end. I think that’s what the whole benefit of the magic hula hoop os, there’s a lot more to it than just one continuing arc.”

It seems that no one is willing to completely rule out a ninth season. Watch this space…