After four months of hype from the press on how great it is, one would've guessed the season opener of Battlestar Glactica would've scored Sci Fi's highest ratings. Sadly, while the show was the highly rated in the all important 18-49 demographic, it only scared up 2.2 million viewers, 900,000 less than the previous season opener.
Of course, there are other factors here. Season 2 opened in the summer time, when the only thing on is reality programs and re-runs. Plus, it also aired and hour later 10 pm on the west and east coast (9pm central). It also faces The CW's Smackdown!, now airing on the former WB networks (and moved from Thursday to Friday), which has shown a huge increase in viewership, and is the same audience that BG goes after.
There could be some that might even suggest that its lead-in, the new version of Doctor Who, could be effecting Galactica's ratings. Back when BG launched season two, the lead-ins were Stargate: SG1 and Stargate: Atlantis.
But, again, it was summer.
Was delaying the start of season three a good idea? One would guess that due to the fact that BG was, and still is, a critics love machine that it could survive the start of the broadcast networks TV season and the baseball play-offs?
Does anyone think that history is repeating itself?
Farscape was the same thing, loved by critics and hard-core fans, but slipping ratings geared the show to a halt when the bean counters at Sci Fi could not justify the shows budget with the low-ratings.
This does not bode well.
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