Syfy has issued a press release on the overnight ratings for Stargate Universe. These are preliminary Nielsen ratings from major markets, and they don’t include delayed viewing by DVR. Those “Live + 7” numbers will be released later and will likely add a significant number of viewers to the total.
In any case, according the release posted here at TV By The Numbers:
Stargate Universe […] grabbed 2.35 million total viewers along with a 1.7 HH rating, 1.32 million Adults 25-54, and 1.12 million Adults 18-49 during its two-hour debut episode from 9-11PM (ET/PT).
The release goes on to say the show bested Dollhouse on Fox, and was the most watched Stargate premiere since Season 2 of Stargate Atlantis.
As to whether this performance was better or worse than expected, it’s interesting to note that this summer, Syfy’s Warehouse 13 scored the biggest viewership ever for a series telecast for the network. As reported here, that episode had 4.4 million viewers, but over 1 million of those came via DVR playback.
Considering the level of promotion done for SGU, one might wonder if the 1.7 HH rating is a disappointment, even though it did beat a network show. And DVR data is likely to add a huge percentage to the figures.
For more info about the US TV ratings system, visit this article at Wikipedia.
I’m disappointed. 🙁
I was expecting a 3 HH rating or higher, so yeah. Lots of theories to postulate, but my view is it’s just too annoying to watch live on Syfy, with all the commercials, when you can watch the next day on Hulu with far fewer ads. Syfy is blowing it in that respect.
This is an interesting article. Notice they neglected to mention that the episode of Warehouse 13 that got the biggest viewership was the one Joe Flanigan was in and that was the ONLY episode of that series that got that many viewers. Kind of says something, doesn’t it? Maybe the producers should have let Stargate Atlantis finish playing out instead of coldly dumping it for another spinoff and betting all their money on Universe. Let’s face it, Stargate Atlantis was far from being finished, it was a sure bet as a money maker that they just tossed away with no good reason, it’s still garnering awards even after being canceled, and it simply defies logic why they canceled it in the first place. Yes, I’m a die hard Stargate Atlantis fan. Why? Because it was the only action/adventure sci-fi series on TV worth watching; because it was nowhere near finished; because Atlantis being on Earth opened up the potential for a heck of a lot more storylines plus learning how they would get her back to the Pegasus galaxy; because the episode Vegas opened up the potential for more storylines; because they were only really just beginning to explore more personal aspects of the characters which would have been a lot of fun for the viewers to discover; because the viewership was going up again; and if for nothing else because the cast and crew deserved to finish this series out just as the cast and crew of SG-1 got to after ten years. Stargate Atlantis had at least that many years in her. Universe? We’ll see if it makes it past one year.
Actually, the WH!3 ratings record when Joe guest starred was broken the following week by episode 6. But I take your points!