It was a slow day at work today (we had a couple of X-mas parties), so after the parties (and being in a rather jolly state by the Gløgg) I decided to do some statistics on SGU viewership. The source of the data is as always the SGU wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stargate_Universe_episodes. In the attached plots below you can see:
1) Top: millions of viewers vs episode number. The blue dots denote an episode, while the red line is a fit to the data. The vertical dashed line denoted the end of season 1. Clearly the number of viewers has declined significantly from 2.5mil. in the early days to ~1.1 mil. at the recent episodes. Currently, the median, mean and the standard deviation are (Median, Mean, 1σ) = {1.44,1.45,0.43}, or in other words on average there are 1.45 plus/minus 0.43 million viewers watching any given episode. As you can see, I have also included an extrapolation (based on a fourth degree polynomial) for the next two episodes (the red line also "covers" episodes 31 and 32) indicating a slight increase.

2) Bottom: here you can see a histogram of the number of episodes vs number of viewers. Not much useful information can come from this plot besides the characterization of the core of SGU fans that numbers about 1 to 1.3 (totally viewed 14 episodes), and the occasional viewers which amount around an extra million people.

Cheers,
intoxicated and geeky captain_picard

Uh Oh, she's going down. I don't have cable TV. I purchase and download from iTunes. Add one more for me. ...and maybe a lot of others. The Captain of the USS Bashir

BTW, by comparison, how was it going with Stargate Atlantis this far in? Nielsen Bashir

Matress torrents it...

I hope they don't use these numbers to pull the plug. We've lsot far too many series as it is lately, and those shows aren't being replaced. There just isn't enough scifi on telly anymore.

Now aint that the truth. No sci fi on the telly CB

Unfortunately, there are no detailed data for Atlantis on its wikipedia page.

I agree that far too many good sci-fi shows have been cut (earlier than their time) lately and not replaced (Enterpise, Atlantis etc). I would be really sad if SGU was also cut

I am really sorry to report that Stargate Universe has been canceled (according to Entertainment Weekly)
http://insidetv.ew.com/2010/12/16/stargate-universe-canceled/

The last ~10 episodes will air in the spring as planned.

My guess is that the weak plots in several episodes and the lack of originality are to be blamed for this. Damn you SGU writers

This also means no more Lt. James in hot military uniforms

WHAT?!

Let us hope they get around to a Star Trek TV show soon enough.

I think the writers saw the drop in viewership and started this new turn into alien encounters (Orcini) and were going to liven things up a bit. At this point, the character development time (which was too drawn out) is now paying off. I for one, was pulled in to caring about what happened to these people. Since the last ten episodes are already filmed, there may not be a clean resolution to their situation. Will they do a final SGU movie and finally do an Atlantis Movie? Bye Lt James. Bashir

Once again - Re: the demise of SGU. #^%$*, !#*$#@ and other colorful metafors. Captain Spock

I second that...

Anyone know when the season starts again? CB

I was about to ask the same thing. As far as I know, there are no news on when the rest of the episodes will air.

On a related note, it seems that just a few days before the end of the year, the plans for a SG Atlantis film have been shelved as well:
http://www.gateworld.net/news/2010/12/a ... efinitely/

Well, I guess that to a certain degree both of these decisions were related (low ratings -> dwindling fan base)

I read that Cooper or the other guy left the series but that the people for SGU were still negotiating with SyFy channel and trying to make it come back. Maybe someone else will pick it up. CB

Syfy need a kick up the arse. How they can even call them themselves Syfy - and why they changed it to such a stupid spelling in the first place - is beyond me. Whoever is making the decisions should be shot. I'd be perfectly happy to make a show with ratings of a million. At least that means people are continuing to watch the series. What exactly do they think is left to watch on TV without shows like these? There's far too much crap out there. If it was up to me, I would get rid of all forms of sport, advertising, game shows, and reality programming. Put something decent on for once!

/end rant.

I concur, but with three objections/additions:
i) Channels need advertising to stay on the air ($$$$), unless they start taking donations a la wikipedia
ii) You forgot the news. They are so biased and the level of misinformation is so high, that I have stopped watching them long ago. Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass if Prince William (or what's his name) is going to get married or if Beckham is expecting another child (I of course wish them the best, I just don't care for this kind of news).
iii) Hot weather girls are welcome

We want (good) sci-fi damn it, not crap

(end of my rant as well, time to go and watch Star Trek reruns on channel 6)

i) That's what the TV Licence is for. (In the UK...and for the BBC only lol) £145.50 a year.
ii) Agree, but i'd sooner trust BBC News because they're a public body and i'm paying for them.
iii) I never included the weather in my rant. The hot girls stay. Although in Wales we currently have a weatherman not a weatherwoman.

Your Rants This is why I know I am among my people. Basically important things like truth, investigative reporting to look for truth, integrity have been sacrificed for money. Other important things like Sci Fi are ALSO being sacrificed because of money. I get that, but it is so short sighted. Star Trek is the perfect example. Comes back and makes billions and still is making billions. Bashir

I know, it was an addition on my part.
Just to make you feel jealous, this is the most popular weather-girl in Greece (the footage is real and it is from an Italian channel that apparently did a story on her):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4g4kDN0QI4&feature=fvst

Actually, I am more impressed by the fact that the TOS still has a very loyal fan base. And it is also funny to see that even when veteran Trek actors (from TOS to Enterprise) are interviewed for other more recent work, they are still asked and they discuss about Trek!

Was that about the weather? CB

Here's our weatherman. Compare him to the video above and see which presenter you prefer lol.



Oh, and if you're wondering, I live where the -4 is.

You should go in Greece, both the weather and the weather-girls are better

As the Guns 'n Roses said: "Take me down to the Paradise City, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty"

I plan to go to Greece someday. Does the weather girl meet you when you get off the plane?

No she doesn't, but you can find always find some other girl, at least as pretty as her, in the islands

Still no news about when the new episode will air, but I have found this bit of news:
All this inactivity is unnerving

Afaik its been cancelled so dont expect any more episodes since the last one u saw.

It has been confirmed that the rest of the episodes will be aired, as they have already shot them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_St ... .932011.29

It's a shame that Sci Fi fans aren't the massive letter writers they used to be - or maybe they are but it doesn't work anymore. I wonder if it has anything to do with being on the computer all the time? I hate to see this show end. It was like a real trip to far galaxies. We were seeing races and creatures imagined that no one had ever conceived of before. CB

The dates are out:
http://www.syfy.com/schedule/index.php? ... 20Universe
I'm sad and happy at the same time