What Syfy Isn’t Telling You About Caprica

12 comments

8 pings

1. 

   patty says:

   November 12, 2010 at 9:13 am (UTC -5)

   Wow. The time-line really puts it into perspective. It’s even worse than I thought! How can anyone claim that syfy was behind the show after seeing this?

2. 

   Stan says:

   November 12, 2010 at 2:36 pm (UTC -5)

   There is one more thing that isn’t being stated by SyFy…

   The move to not show the final Caprica episodes until after the DVD release is about generating more sales of the DVD. Why else would, in sweeps month, a network pull a show reaching about 1M viewers for reruns of older shows that will not perform as well? Mind you, the DVD will be out just before Christmas.

   The net effect is that once people in the US buy the DVD, there will be no need to watch the airing of the episodes, thus the ratings for the final shows will be further reduced, thus ensuring death to the series, and leaving doubt in other networks executives.

   I only hope that if this show goes away and isn’t renewed or picked up on another network, that the creative minds (Ron, Jane, etc.) will publish books to finish the story. I won’t be watching SyFy any more (or at least as long as it is owned by the network conglomerate that can’t get out of their own way – and I have little hope that Comcast will make better decisions. You would think that the once Comcast takes over that the decisions can’t get worse!)

   SyFy, your comments make me feel like you think I am intellectually superior, and you are trying to get me to watch a channel for intellectually superior by giving my more firing, blood, and guts. If I wanted that, I’d watch Hawaii 5-0! I watched three episodes of that show, and gave up. The biggest reason is that I am 40 something, was interested in the show for nostalgia, by daughter goes to the University of Hawaii and plays in the band, the UH band was filmed for by CBS, and CBS chose to give the cameo to the University of Maryland!

   Like the Cylons, I have a plan to watch the final shows, and I won’t share it publically, because, once SyFy realizes that there is a very low cost alternative to watching the show AND not supporting SyFy, then they will yank the alternative from my doing.

   Finally, the worse part about all of this, SyFy is a CABLE channel that doesn’t get it’s sole financial dependence on advertisements! In fact, SyFy falls into the category of channels that are on tiers in order to specifically subsidise the lesser watched channels. SyFy exists because of the money we spend on our cable bill to watch it, and our money and efforts to get what we want results in wrestling and cooking shows.

   And for all of you people out there who question who I am, this is my first comment on any of the myrad forums since this whole thing started, so there aren’t a few people making the numbers look good by posting multiple times. There are many that are monitoring and wishing. My wife, didn’t like BSG, but loved Caprica. My daughter in UH? Yeah, you guessed it, loves Caprica too, but is too busy being a senior in college to spend time to keep up with all of this, she wants it back too. So, here is one person, directly representing three (3) people.

3. 

   Scott says:

   November 12, 2010 at 6:06 pm (UTC -5)

   The ratings would be 0.319% percent of households leaving 99.68% not sampled.

   37000/115,900,000 = 0.00319 * 100 = 0.319%

   I thought the number of households was more like 10,000 but that’s another matter.

   I always wonder what is the “margin of error” in these ratings. It never seems to be reported.

   I really wish SyFy would have continued airing the episodes. At least the 5 already produced and made a final decision after the season finale.

4. 

   ari says:

   November 12, 2010 at 8:22 pm (UTC -5)

   You said: “The Nielson numbers used to determine ratings in 2011 will measure viewing habits of 37,000 of 115,900,000 households. That equates to 3.19% of total viewers – leaving 96.81% of viewers with no influence on ratings.”

   The percentage is actually much smaller, .319%, leaving almost 99.7% of viewers with no influence in ratings. (Had to do the math longhand because my calculator got the same answer as yours, but there’s no way 37,000 is 3.19% of 115.9 MILLION! ONE percent of 115,900,000 is 1,159,000)

5. 

   capricatimes says:

   November 12, 2010 at 8:54 pm (UTC -5)

   Thank you for the correction Scott and ari. You should find it fixed now!

6. 

   Alec says:

   November 13, 2010 at 4:39 pm (UTC -5)

   Not enough viewers to justify renewing it but enough viewers to squeeze $40-something out of for 9 episodes.

7. 

   Alec says:

   November 14, 2010 at 9:41 pm (UTC -5)

   I think you should email the article to feedback@syfy.com with Cc to mark.stern@nbcuni.com, Dave.howe@nbcuni.com, and Thomas.Vitale@nbcuni.com. It may be stuff they already know, but it might change their perspective to be confronted with it, and be confronted with the fact that we know these things.

8. 

   Alec says:

   November 14, 2010 at 9:50 pm (UTC -5)

   Adding the content of Stan’s and my comments would be good, too.

9. 

   Wayne Hurlburt says:

   November 16, 2010 at 3:37 am (UTC -5)

   TV companies themselves are actually going to have to create some kind of curve to address this issue. Today’s technology and also sales of DVR’s etc. are pushing people to use them, and why not they paid for them, so they should be able to use them.

   Also people seem to be working longer hours or even two jobs now-a-days and that’s why the microwave has gotten so much use over the stove for a good majority of people these days as well….lol. People just want to relax and with DVR’s (which thanks to the growing technology age, we have them) people can do just that. This allows them to do what needs to be done working etc. to pay the bills, and then in their own time watch the shows they really like.

   Sure this makes it hard on the TV companies, who depend on advertisement to help support the bills and their company, but technology isn’t going away, it’s only getting more in-depth. The internet itself is a tool that has in the last 10 years or so become a media outlet, where people can share media across nations, internationally etc. It’s not just for businesses, it has become, for some a big player in the entertainment industry.

   People can get old TV shows, Movies, Music Videos the list goes on. A computer is about one of the cheapest all around devices a person can own. They can even live without TV, because sooner or later the shows will be accessible to them. They just don’t have the privilege of seeing as it airs. Actually most shows that air, now today are available within hours after it airs live, on the internet. People can save a lot without having to pay for cable etc., and in the rough times of lack of money, this is just what a lot of people do.

   Is it right or just to the TV companies, well not really, but that is what technology brings to the table. Also people, who work second and third shifts, cannot watch prime time TV and have to rely on VCRs, DVRs or even the internet as their source for these shows.
   They don’t have the privilege, LITERALLY, to watch them as they air.
   How many businesses do you think depend on second and third shifts to keep their businesses thriving? Well these people that work these shifts should be allowed to have their voices in the TV shows being made and aired. They pay for cable services etc., so why shouldn’t their voices count? They can’t be counted on live surveys, so actually the DVR ratings are their only voice, for which can be calculated under today’s technology, anyways.

   Caprica really didn’t get it’s just review, for cancellation! Based on .890 million viewers for its premiere airing!

   Our main point is that the time slot Caprica was put into and the shows that were in the same time slot were already very established shows. Also NOT ONE of the shows that aired on that day/time, were making their premiere airing, along with having a sudden schedule change of date/day/time. They ALL had been airing steady episodes for weeks prior to this date and people knew they were on. With the exception of Stargate Universe, which started airing the week before (which didn’t do so well in the ratings either)

   For instance (2) of the biggest shows that appeared along side of Caprica were ‘Teen Mom’ (already having a steady 4 + million steady viewers) & ‘Sons of Anarchy’ (already having just under 4 million steady viewers). These along with the others in the 10PM time slot that Caprica 1.5 premiered on was unfair to Caprica as they were already pre-established shows that had an audience build up already watching their show.

   Along with the rush and abrupt schedule change, for Caprica’s 1.5 premiere air date, without any real advertising, to really give notice to the viewers that were watching Caprica or even the ones that have actually started finding it having some potential, of knowing the date had been pushed up to October 5, 2010 from the already established January 2011 (which most of the viewers were told it would air and were planning on the January 2011 air date, not a surprise October 5, 2010 release.

   How did you (Syfy) even expect the ratings to be anywhere good for Caprica on this day and time, without proper foreknowledge, that this is how and when they were going to air Caprica’s 1.5? As well as the definite strides it took in an attempt to save a show and actually give it 20 more episodes, for far less than Caprica did. Stargate Universe dropped almost completely in half (almost 50%) in viewers watching the show in just 8 episodes (according to the ratings of their Season 1 finale, and rounded out about a 27% drop over all not counting the Season 1 finale) that were being played out in a proper and just manner, with no gapping in the air dates.

   What is fair about this? Don’t get us wrong, The whole Stargate series, is a fine show, but we’re talking about numbers here and profit etc., most people keep throwing out about Caprica’s cancellation and that it is all about profit and numbers etc. Well it clearly wasn’t the case with Stargate Universe.

   (For Full Story On Above Comment – Visit This Link) http://www.thoughts.com/CapricaNeedsSeason2/three-reasons-why-syfy-should-re-consider-giving-caprica-another-season

10. 

    pat says:

    November 16, 2010 at 5:43 pm (UTC -5)

    Turn off SyFy, that’s the only way they will get the message. I’ve considered calling the advertisers in the Caprica timeslot and telling them I was boycotting THEIR product(s) as well, and why. As if that will help.

    I just don’t think that the writers wanted to go where the series was taking them. The world is depressing enough as it is.

    /jaded rant

11. 

    Casimiro Barreto says:

    November 19, 2010 at 8:38 am (UTC -5)

    What SyFy doesn’t mention is that they practiced censorship against Caprica. For several reasons they found script disturbing to (at least) execs beliefs (political, religious and social) so they decided to kill the show.
    .
    Now, they’re doing something more like a wild west space opera with good space jockeys killing bad cylons. They believe that a morally and politically empty show will gather audience without disturbing their personal convictions.
    .
    In a way we are fortunate they don’t edit books or newspapers but… wait… aren’t they part of NBC??? So I wonder… what kind of news services do a group that allows censorship of entertainment series have?

12. 

    ni says:

    December 5, 2010 at 3:53 pm (UTC -5)

    Also, yet another quite relevant fact should be added into the summary. Caprica was aired on SyFy channel, thus being available in few countries only. Syfy has not given any legal way (and thus eligible for ratings) of watching the Caprica from countries SyFy does not operate in.

    One might argue that SyFy provides their ‘web playback of episodes’ (or whatever way they are calling it), however this feature is not available for countries SyFy does not operate in. Exactly the same thing applies for apple itunes, as far as I know, the itunes store is accessible in few countries only.

    Thus, one reaches the conclusion that there were more ‘pirated’ copies watched than the original ones. Now, where are the statistics? And where is the problem with income? It again shows failure of Syfy channel, not providing a way to watch for the audience.

    -.-

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   November 15, 2010 at 3:22 pm (UTC -5)

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8. Quora says:

   January 6, 2011 at 2:35 am (UTC -5)

   How is both Caprica and Stargate cancelled?…

   http://www.capricatimes.com/what-syfy-isnt-telling-you-about-caprica Syfy are being extremely wierd about Caprica. The viewing numbers, it seems, were actually good enough to justify a second season. It’s bizarre the way that Syfy have treated Caprica…