Rob Jensen <ShutUpRob@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> It seems that SOME idiot at NBC Uni forgets about how badly
>>> the long window between the initial airing of season 1 eps
>>> of Battlestar Galactica in the UK affected the ratings for
>>> the show here in the US two months later.
>>
>> How badly did the window affect the ratings? Wasn't that the
>> highest rated season of BSG, and also the highest rated sci fi
>> show on the channel?
>
> Let's put it this way: everyone from the show was *begging*
> the audience at Comic-Con to NOT watch the interweb bootlegs
> for the second half of the first season, before the ratings
> started to rise with the increasing critical acclaim. It was
> hurting their ratings *that* much.
Sorry, Rob, but this is just plain wrong.
Ron Moore was begging the fans to not download the episodes
after the British airings, true. He was concerned that this
would significantly lower the live viewing figures when the
show started on Sci Fi.
(The fact that any of the hypothetical downloaders would have
to be Neilsen viewers for their downloading to affect the
ratings seemed to be lost on him. But I digress...)
But that was *before* the show started on Sci Fi. It certainly
wasn't at Comic Con, and didn't have to do with the "second
half of the first season".
BSG Season 1 aired on Sky One in the UK (the source for the
downloaded caps) from mid-October 2004 through late January 2005.
The episodes aired on Sci Fi from mid-January through early
April 2005. Comic Con did not take place between the start
of the series in the UK and the start of it in the US.
And the truth is that the ratings on Sci Fi were *huge* (at
least, relative to anything else on Sci Fi) during that first
season. They showed that Moore was making a mountain out of
a molehill. If anything, it seemed clear that the people who
downloaded the episodes after the British airings helped get
word of mouth going that the show was one to watch.
-- jayembee
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