Ratings for Galactica Are Up

According to this report:

For the week ending Jan. 28, NBC Universal's USA and Sci Fi both had reason to celebrate. Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica and The Dresden Files saw ratings bumps in their second weeks on Sunday night (Jan. 28). Dresden averaged 1.89 million viewers (up from 1.73 million for its series premiere) and Battlestar averaged 2.05 million (up from 1.8 million last week). The shows' Jan. 21 premiere numbers may have been diluted by competition from the AFC Championship game on CBS, which drew nearly 50 million that night.

This in from Broadcasting and Cable. Read the full article here. This is fantastic news! Just enough to offset the fact that we'll be waiting for two weeks for our next Galactica fix. Blah.

Ratings Slip

Reported by Gateworld.net:

Season Three ratings slip from premiere

Friday - October 27, 2006 | by Darren Sumner

Battlestar Galactica fell in the ratings in the two weeks following its heavily publicized season premiere -- not at all unusual in the television world, but enough to make fans look twice after SCI FI Channel's recent cancellation of Stargate SG-1.

After premiering with a strong 1.8 average household rating and an estimated 2.2 million viewers for the 2-hour season premiere on October 6 (story), Galactica's "Exodus, Part 1" earned a 1.6 average rating in its second week.

"Exodus, Part 2" fell to a 1.5 rating on October 20.

Both episodes improved significantly on lead-in Doctor Who, which earned a 1.2 rating on October 13 and a 1.1 on October 20.

Galactica's premiere night got a noticable bump from DVR delayed viewing, with a "Live + 7 Days" rating of 2.0. (This is even with the show's second season finale in March.) Though an impressive increase and evidence of the show's Tivo-loving audience, note that this does not cancel out the 1.8 rating of "Live + Same Day," the number is regarded as more significant to advertisers.

Battlestar Galactica averaged a 1.9 rating for its winter 2006 season (the second half of Season Two), and a 2.0 for Season Two overall.

Brand new episodes of Battlestar Galactica continue every Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern/Pacific on SCI FI Channel!

Hopefully, that'll reverse itself someway.

Ratings are in!

Word in from Gateworld.com about the ratings for last Friday's return of Battlestar:

Season Three premieres with strong ratings

The third season of Battlestar Galactica bowed with strong ratings on Friday, October 6, up slightly from the winter 2006 run and smashing SCI FI Channel's records for October, where until now it has aired reruns almost exclusively.

The 2-hour season premiere, "Occupation" / "Precipice," earned a 1.8 average household rating and drew an estimated 2.2 million viewers.

This is a two percent increase from the second half of Season Two, which aired on the cable network from January to March. The show saw bigger gains in the viewers age 25 to 54 demographic (seven percent), and viewers 18 to 49 (4 percent).

The new episode of Galactica brought up the network's ratings an impressive 75 percent from the same period a year ago, representing a total viewership increase of 93 percent. The same key demographics increased more than 100 percent.

Along with lead-ins Heroes (off-network rerun at 7 p.m.) and a new episode of Doctor Who (8 p.m.), SCI FI averaged a 1.4 rating for the 4-hour SCI FI Friday programming block.

New episodes of Battlestar Galactica continue every Friday at its new time: 9 p.m. Eastern/Pacific!

Webisodes 3 & 4

I've been a bit busy lately, so I haven't been able to watch the newest webisodes until now. Story thus far is one of the pilots (Duck?) and his wife, where he says that he didn't join the Resistance because of her. Well, Ep 4, she dies when Cylons attack the temple. I wonder what he'll be up to...

I was a little annoyed that they didn't show the Cylons. I guess they don't have very much of a CGI budget for this.

In other news, the SciFi Wire posted up some information about the hits that the episodes have been getting:

SCIFI.COM's Resistance Scores Big
The first two webisodes of Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance, SCIFI.COM's 10-part, five-week online prequel series, broke traffic records for SCI FI Pulse, the site's broadband channel. The first two installments generated 1.2 million streams in one week, achieving in seven days more than half the total number of streams SCI FI Pulse delivered in the previous month.
"The phenomenal success of The Resistance proves that there is a definite audience for webisodes that can have an impact on TV viewing," Craig Engler, senior vice president of SCIFI.COM and SCI FI Magazine, said in a statement. "Response on our online message boards indicates that not only are our existing fans excited about season three of Battlestar Galactica, the webisodes are creating new fans. People who have never watched the show before are very excited to become new viewers."
New two- to three-minute installments of The Resistance will debut every Tuesday and Thursday at noon ET, leading up to the Oct. 6 season premiere of Battlestar Galactica on SCI FI Channel.
The webisodes are from the creative team behind the show and chronicle the days following the events of the second-season finale. Life on New Caprica held the promise of protection from the Cylons, as well as breathable air and solid land. But Cylons discovered the planet, and humanity has been forced to live under Cylon occupation. As Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) and Chief Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) organize an insurgency, the Cylons campaign for peaceful co-existence, while eliminating anyone resisting. As life among the Cylons becomes unbearable, two former members of Galactica's fleet—lifelong friends Jammer (Dominic Zaprogna) and Duck (Tucker Clellan)—must decide whether resistance or compliance is in the best interest of humanity. The storyline of the online prequel will lead viewers seamlessly into the third-season on-air premiere.