Wow, the numbers really don't lie.

[Gatefan1976]

The SGU characters and relationships section was always kind of the dead. There was never much activity there. But the general discussion section was much busier in the past and I include in this the pauses between season 1.0 and 1.5 and between season 1.5 and 2.0. There were practically always more than 80 viewers and often much more than 100.

The most active threads were in the past year those, which has something to do with ratings and the future of SGU from a business point of view. There were a lot of debates, if SGU get cancelled or not. Now those have stopped and with them much of the activity.

Naturally most people are not interested in discussing the plots, characters, episodes, ... of SGU.

Those were the only threads I bothered with (all 3 of them), because they inspired debate, now the cancellation one is closed there is really only the ratings one left and I'm sure that one might just get the can as well. meh, they wanted no deissent, now they have it.

@ A4L
The screenshots are good, but not entirely fair. check the numbers over the course of a week and you will be able to add around 20-25 more to the SGU numbers "on average". The number of views still sucks.

 

[Mr. A]

Most of the discussion on the SGU general discussion forum is still somewhat related to ratings or the cancellation of the show. Other than that, I find it interesting that the big difference seems to be in the "character and relationships" threads. Why isn't anybody interested in the SGU characters? :icon_e_biggrin:

 

[phronsie]

Most of the discussion on the SGU general discussion forum is still somewhat related to ratings or the cancellation of the show. Other than that, I find it interesting that the big difference seems to be in the "character and relationships" threads. Why isn't anybody interested in the SGU characters? :icon_e_biggrin:

The siffy forum discussion threads seem to have tapered off, also. Even the IMDB loonies, don't have very much of snuff to say.....

But really, once the assertions that their show was the cream of the crop and would trounce all others were proved false, what more was there to talk about....except revival hopes, and even those are growing dim.

 

[Briangate78]

It is the characters of SGU. They just are not exciting or anyone you want to root for. Well....... maybe rooting for Chloe and Scott to be airlocked.

Heck, even on Syfy.com there is really no love for the characters like there was for the SG-1 and SGA characters.

The ironic part is, SGU is supposed to be character driven.

 

[Gatefan1976]

It is the characters of SGU. They just are not exciting or anyone you want to root for. Well....... maybe rooting for Chloe and Scott to be airlocked.

Heck, even on Syfy.com there is really no love for the characters like there was for the SG-1 and SGA characters.

The ironic part is, SGU is supposed to be character driven.

One of the problems (imo) is that the secondary characters are much more enjoyable to watch (for the most part) than the main characters. The main characters are so "unrootable" for that people just find it hard to care about them. In alot of ways the secondary characters "remind me" of the stark difference between SG1/SGA and SGU. The parts of SGU that people seem to like (or at least, mind less) are pushed to the back to be seen on the odd occasion (SG1/SGA) as represented by Brody, Park and Volker, and the "Drama heavy" bits of SGU are thrust into the foreground, as represented by Chloe, Scott, Eli, Rush and Young and people just don't seem to care about them.

 

[Mr. A]

One of the problems (imo) is that the secondary characters are much more enjoyable to watch (for the most part) than the main characters. The main characters are so "unrootable" for that people just find it hard to care about them. In alot of ways the secondary characters "remind me" of the stark difference between SG1/SGA and SGU. The parts of SGU that people seem to like (or at least, mind less) are pushed to the back to be seen on the odd occasion (SG1/SGA) as represented by Brody, Park and Volker, and the "Drama heavy" bits of SGU are thrust into the foreground, as represented by Chloe, Scott, Eli, Rush and Young and people just don't seem to care about them.

Good observation! And don't forget: Varro, Kiva, Ginn...

 

[Aragon101]

Riley!!!!! *laments*

 

[Gatefan1976]

Good observation! And don't forget: Varro, Kiva, Ginn...

Cheers Mr A!
Yes those three were even more interesting (mainly Kiva and Ginn) becase even alot of the SGU fans were pissed when they bit the dust, and there are alot of comments on many boards that if those two were bumped to recurring characters it might have increaced ratings because of the impact they had in thier brief airtime. But what would a bunch of fans know anyway......

 

[Gatefan1976]

Riley!!!!! *laments*

Riley's death was interesting to me because at the beginning of the ep he showed moral character in Aftermath in the following exchange:

VOLKER: You've gotta be kidding me!

(He goes over to sit down at a table with Lisa, Eli Wallace, Adam Brody and Hunter Riley.)

VOLKER: It's hardly worth sitting down!

(Airman Dunning grumpily walks past.)

DUNNING: Yeah, maybe we shouldn't be giving our rations to the enemy.

RILEY: They're human beings. They have rights. How we treat prisoners of war says everything about us as a moral and civil society.

(Brody s******s quietly. Eli looks at Riley with a bemused frown on his face.)

WALLACE: Which pamphlet did you get that from?!

RILEY: It's what I believe.

_________________________________________

Then they go off and kill him. At that point I really started to wonder if the only people who might survive the trip on the Destiny were the people who were willing to comprimise thier own morals to get what they want and perhaps that is exactly why the ancients never went to the destiny, over time it had just gone "bad".
​

 

[Gatefan1976]

Well, it could be the time of day, so I just took another screen shot. I'm not calculating averages over the course of weeks or anything. I'm just noticing that for a show that's technically still on the air with new episodes coming, it's quite interesting that during SGU's mid-season hiatus, it can't keep up with the shows that have been off of the air for years. That's all.

Here's what I just saw now:

SGU has 81 viewers in total. SGA has viewers 119 in total. And SG-1 has 107 viewers in total

View attachment 3140
View attachment 3141

I'm sure that the numbers fluctuate back and forth between the shows. It's just that no matter when I look, it seems as though SGU isn't doing as well as the others - especially in the Actors & Characters section, but that part's no surprise.



I was actually interested in Kiva, and of course she was immediately killed. I kind of liked James at first before they destroyed her. As soon as I said that Telford was the sanest person on the ship, the very next episode he gets left behind. It's like TPTB cant' fail at failing here.

Ginn was a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect to just like her outright, but I did. She even made Eli a bit more likable, or at least less pathetic. So, of course she had to go because we can't have that, now can we?

Cheers.

Don't misunderstand me dude, I agree with your assesment, I was just saying that the SGU number now normally hovers in the 70-90 range for the GD part. Wouldn't want to be accused of "spinning" now would we.......

As to the A&C section, the most I have ever seen it at is around 22 people (maybe 27 ONCE) so yeah, the interest just isn't there for that section. A fun exercise for anyone who could be bothered, check the highest "viewed" threads on GW, you might get a giggle out of it (I did)

 

[Mr. A]

Wow.

One of the problems (imo) is that the secondary characters are much more enjoyable to watch (for the most part) than the main characters. The main characters are so "unrootable" for that people just find it hard to care about them. In alot of ways the secondary characters "remind me" of the stark difference between SG1/SGA and SGU. The parts of SGU that people seem to like (or at least, mind less) are pushed to the back to be seen on the odd occasion (SG1/SGA) as represented by Brody, Park and Volker, and the "Drama heavy" bits of SGU are thrust into the foreground, as represented by Chloe, Scott, Eli, Rush and Young and people just don't seem to care about them.

Cheers Mr A!
Yes those three were even more interesting (mainly Kiva and Ginn) becase even alot of the SGU fans were pissed when they bit the dust, and there are alot of comments on many boards that if those two were bumped to recurring characters it might have increaced ratings because of the impact they had in thier brief airtime. But what would a bunch of fans know anyway......

This speaks volumes for the quality of the writing on SGU. It is astonishing that the characters the creators and writers spent the most time planning for and "developing" all turn out to be a big failure in the chemistry and sympathy departments, while characters that are introduced briefly for a few episodes and don't receive as much attention from the writers end up being the ones viewers like the most. It is clear to see that TPTB don't know how to write character driven drama. Or likeable characters at all for that matter. They work best (by accident?) when the writers aren't really trying but rather working on plot driven sci-fi. This became painfully obvious during the later seasons of SGA when Mallozzi and Cooper started "developing" their characters and we got episodes like Brainstorm, Identity, Trio, Inquisition...

In light of this I think Mallozzi and Cooper (and even Wright) are going to have a second very rude awakening if they think they can start working on another franchise that is based on character driven drama. They simply don't know how to write the stuff! Seriously, Mallozzi should stick to cartoons if he knows what's best for him, and Wright & Cooper probably some fast-paced adventure/mystery series.

 

[Tropicana]

Now now, let Mallozzi try.

He might succeed, you never know. Work is work and beggars can't be choosers in this day and age. If life takes you to the outskirts of the highest peaks of the Siberian mountain ranges, gosh darn it, you have to take it.

So if Mallozzi and Cooper are successful in this new "franchise", kudos -- just don't ever come back to Stargate.