Syfy announced today that Caprica has been cancelled and the remaining episodes will be pulled and aired some time next year. My first reaction was silence.
My next reaction was sadness over the loss of this wonderful community of people who supported Caprica. I began this website on February 17 of 2009 but I conceived of it much earlier. Battlestar Galactica was ending and I had just become a fan. I hadn’t seen the first three seasons. I was in awe of the plethora of intelligent discussion among such a diverse group of people that was taking place online. When I first heard that Caprica was being conceived I was excited at the notion that I might be able to join in, maybe even be a source of great news. Today I feel awful having to share this news. And that thought alone I guess is what caused me to be silent.
But I keep going back to – why? Why did this happen? Isn’t that the question Caprica would have asked? I know there will be all kinds of finger pointing and looking the other way, but there are people responsible. One phrase I’ve been seeing for the last few weeks is, “There just aren’t enough viewers.”
Why?
Ask this question and someone will undoubtedly shout, “Because it sucked!” But, that’s not good enough of an answer for me – because it didn’t suck. Actually Caprica was pretty awesome. I won’t be so ignorant as to tout myself as an entertainment professional, but I have my opinions and I want to share them.
As someone who owns two websites, I’ve dabbled in marketing a little bit. As an amateur I’ve learned a few things along the way. Immediately – in fact before I even began my first website – I realized how important marketing is to the success of a product. You wouldn’t be reading The Caprica Times today if I hadn’t marketed it in a way that would bring you here. If I were unsatisfied with the number of viewers – I’d go out and market my sites. I’ve never spent any money to do this and each time I’ve done it my viewers have increased.
What’s crazy to me is although initially it was a lot of work to market my sites, it became easy. Once I picked up on certain principles it couldn’t have been anything else but easy. Market to the right people, market at the right time and market what makes you good. Simple! If I could do it I’m sure you could too.
I do not believe that Caprica was marketed properly. I believe that it was severely damaged by the timing of the release of its episodes. Let me walk you through the timeline us fans have endured:
- It began with the end of Battlestar Galactica. The last episode had 2.4 million viewers and aired 3/13 and 3/20 of 2009.
- The pilot to Caprica was experimentally released on DVD one month later, 4/21/09.
- The excitement of the remainder of BSG fans for this new show was slowly drained away as we waited 9 months more for it to debut on television 1/22/10.
- Once it did air we were treated to a show that thoughtfully moved along at a solemn pace. Just as it began to pick up speed it screeched to a hault after only 9 episodes on 3/26/10.
- By that time there were roughly 1.1 million fans – not a great number, but not a terrible one either. To our strong disappointment we were told that the remaining episodes would air in January of 2011. This would be a 10 month wait.
- It was then passed down that Caprica would be moving from Friday to Tuesday nights to make room for WWF Smackdown. Viewers who had work in the morning now had no option but to DVR Caprica.
- On 9/9/10 it was announced with less than a months notice that Caprica was to return on 10/5/10. Many fans still don’t know that it even returned as there was a rush in promoting it.
- And here we are today, 10/27/10, with only 4 episodes shown and Syfy announcing Caprica’s cancellation and removing the remaining episodes from television despite many favorable reviews.
For me this paints a clear picture of how this show was mishandled and as much as Syfy may want to wipe their hands clean of responsibility, their name is all over this product. I’d like to talk about that name. During the course of Caprica, what was once the Sci Fi Channel changed its name to Syfy. With that came a new slogan:
Imagine Greater
I look at how WWE Smackdown had replaced Caprica on Friday nights, and I just can’t help but wonder – where is the imagination in wrestling? I don’t think it’s a secret that sensational wrestling for the most part isn’t real. I guess you could say this makes it “imagined”. But is this not a cheap version of an imagination? I watched wrestling as a child. Twenty years later I can’t say I remember with great excitement anything about it. I do remember shows like Twin Peaks and Quantum Leap – shows that made me think. They made me think about my life in a way I never had before.
Caprica made me think about my life in a way I never had before.
WWE Smackdown draws ratings, absolutely. I think it was a smart decision to acquire the show, but at what cost? Is Syfy doomed to turn into something different than its name suggests, like MTV did? If your aim is to have the most popular programming regardless of its relation to science fiction why bother having your moniker even resemble Sci Fi? Bad marketing? Maybe I’m just bitter.
But that brings me to something else. I know I’m not the only one bitter here. I’m not going to just forget about this in a year or two when Battlestar’s Blood & Chrome airs. And I think that’s terrible. I love the Battlestar Galactica story and I was glad to see something else was being made. Now I don’t know if I want to go through it again. I ask myself,
If Caprica was mishandled and cancelled, why should I believe Blood & Chrome won’t be?
I want to support the people behind Blood & Chrome, but I’m having a hard time supporting the people behind them – Syfy. Although I won’t put words in his mouth, it seems as though Ron Moore, creator of Battlestar Galactica and Caprica, feels the same way. Earlier this year he signed a two year contract with Sony and will not be involved with Blood & Chrome as of this writing. Blood & Chrome was to be a web series but with Caprica out of the way will now be a pilot. Syfy seems to be toying with whether or not to go to series and support something Battlestar Galactica related. With a lack of support for Blood & Chrome from the beginning, I keep thinking to myself,
If this has all happened before, it will happen again.
And now I feel like a character on Caprica faced with a choice I never truly asked for. Do I support the programs on Syfy that are science fiction related and include some level of intelligence and imagination? Do I write off Syfy as a channel with an identity crisis pandering for ratings no matter the cost? Or maybe I should go back to where I started years ago – not having turned on a television in years. And now what do I do with The Caprica Times? I wish I had a head character to guide me on this one.
Thank you to all of the creators, cast and fans of Caprica. It’s been wonderful sharing so much with all of you and I’m truly sad that it has ended. You’ve inspired me in so many ways and I wish I could give all of you the best things I could imagine. I hope everyone walks away from this and into a greater future. Apotheosis.
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22 comments
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Rick says:
October 28, 2010 at 7:24 am (UTC -5)
I agree with much of what you said, especially around the incredibly poor scheduling of the show. This has been happening for years, from all the networks: shows are presented very tentatively, and the potential audience never really has a chance to get into it. The first season of a show needs to have a guaranteed 22-24 episode run, and the whole season needs to run, with no breaks.
The way they do it today, shows are guaranteed to die.
SamuraiArtGuy says:
October 31, 2010 at 4:18 am (UTC -5)
Well, I certainly don’t plan to watch Smackdown, Ghost Hunters or Monster of the Week…. Seriously, SyFy (Stupid Stupid renaming) has no idea what the Frak to do with an Actual Science Fiction series. And yes, they are certainly going to mangle Blood and Chrome, no wonder Ron Moore won’t be involved.
And SyFy’s practice of chopping the now industry standard “short” season of 13 episodes into two short-run segments with nearly year long hiatus breaks between episode runs was clearly NOT a way to build a show’s audience. Particularly ACTUAL science fiction which requires a little more involvement and commitment from viewers. I know that the strategy was to stretch out a series run, while filling the breaks with with their cheap to produce drek, slightly overlapping their more SF flavored better series, Eureka, Warehouse 13, Sanctuary, and … for what it’s worth, SG:Universe (short bus bastard child of Lost in space & Voyager). But the approach just bleeds away viewers, and was further undermined by all the issues you discuss above.
I actually wish there was a channel that actually understood something about Science Fiction and an SF audience, and cared. The current version of SyFy is painfully corporate, uncaring, greedy and incompetent.
Burgy says:
November 3, 2010 at 12:55 am (UTC -5)
This stupid network has made one blunder after another. I knew it was bad news when they changed their moniker to SyFy, apparently thinking that was trendy and cool. Caprica was really getting going, and was absolutely the best sci-fi show on TV. I even put up with the exceedingly mediocre “Stargate Universe” because it was paired with Caprica. But no more – I won’t be watching anything SyFy does until Blood & Chrome, which I desperately hope they won’t screw up. And how in the twelve worlds did Stargate Universe survive the axe if Caprica was cancelled anyway??? Stargate diehards or not, that show can’t have had half the audience Caprica did. I’m just sick over this. If anyone knows of a “Save Caprica” petition or website or whatever, sign me up. This just blows my mind – I’m seriously stunned.
derrick says:
November 7, 2010 at 8:50 pm (UTC -5)
it got cancelled cause it was boring and noone watched.
they problem was it’s way way way to slow to develop. They stretched a season and a half they should have told in 3 episodes.
and they should have focused on the cylons not this family, mob, terrorist religion stuff. That was never interesting even in the BG remake. but just like sarah conner chronicles it was way way way too slow. people won’t wait. Show needed to move much faster.
derrick says:
November 7, 2010 at 9:00 pm (UTC -5)
i never heard of Blood and Chrome until today but after reading about it it sounds alot better then caprica and a lot closer to BG. i kinda liked caprica but if that’s the future i’m perfectly fine with axing this show cause like i said. it was really slow.
Burgy says:
November 9, 2010 at 4:12 am (UTC -5)
Interesting to note: SyFy has a viewer comment line (212-664-3571; thank you to Battlestar Cafe for that) where viewers can, you know, leave comments. I just called, and their voicemail is out of storage space – maybe they’re being flooded with Save Caprica calls! Let’s keep the barrage up, and get Caprica back on the air!!
David says:
November 10, 2010 at 3:47 am (UTC -5)
Just read your post after searching the SY FY website looking to see when the next episode would be aired. I have not watched television regularly for over 5 years, and was horrified to find the network had changed their name along with their commitment to Science Fiction. The plethora of Horror movies and reality shows and claptrap about ghosts and wrestling left me saddened. I, for one, would prefer to watch anything science fiction related no matter how dated. I was working nights when the BSG series aired, and fondly remembered the campy version produced long ago, but the gritty portrayal of the Sci Fi series was pure enjoyment in the few episodes I saw. Caprica, as well, was about the paths we all choose in life, not to mention the dangers of technology which we are becoming aware of in real life these days. The political drama and personal introspective nature of the show, showing the many facets of life which are common to all peoples, and the way religion occupies the void in our quest for a larger meaning in the mundane everyday sea of humanity really caused deep introspection into my own life. I am really going to miss it, and agree with you about the network’s commiyment, and I am now hesitant to greet any new shows from Sy Fy with anything save suspicion. Thank you for your insight and opinions.
RockinYankee says:
November 14, 2010 at 1:17 am (UTC -5)
OMG. Once again another network has screwed me over om a show I like. They did it to me with Jericho, and now this?! When will these network bozos learn to stop messing with the day a show is on?! Count me as another HUGE fan who just found out they brought it back a few weeks ago, and not Jan 2011!! Now to find that they canceled it!!!
Especially on a cliff hangar!! WTH? (PLEASE some other network…buy the rights and pick this up!!
Why do I bother paying obscene amounts of $$ for cable every month to fatten these jerks wallets, when they cant keep a good show on. Wresting? Please. They did fine on Thursday’s a few years ago!! I can honestly say that I will no longer watch this channel umtil they air the last episodes, and then never again.
Allan-John says:
December 22, 2010 at 9:58 pm (UTC -5)
This show has a HUGE following here in Australia. I meet new people all the time in my line of work and form many acquaintances with them. One wouldn’t believe the diverse range of folk who watch Caprica and none are happy about its ending. I have friends around the world who enjoy it. My boyfriend in Germany is part of a large group who watches it. As with Star Trek, the Battlestar Galactica series can be taken in many ways. Caprica can still be extended – endings may have been revealed but the journeys are still to be uncovered. New series, perhaps about the first Cylon war, will also be well received. I don’t accept low ratings as a reason to cancel this show, because I don’t believe that their are low ratings; the data is flawed, and doesn’t reflect its broad, international appeal.
Your Mom says:
January 3, 2011 at 3:13 am (UTC -5)
“But, that’s not good enough of an answer for me – because it didn’t suck.”
Uh, wrong. Caprica sucked and it sucked real damn hard. Good riddance.
Theo says:
January 12, 2011 at 6:42 am (UTC -5)
The reason it lost it’s viewership is because the show has been on the air for like TREE Years, and is still only on it’s FIRST season..The show was good, but not good enough to keep people interested after 8 and 9 month hiatus. They should have put more money into this made more episodes and SyFy could have canceled that SGU show. talk about a sleeper….
Flying Lemur says:
January 24, 2011 at 1:31 pm (UTC -5)
I watched all of Caprica on Hulu (www.hulu.com) including the last 5 episodes.
My wife and I both enjoyed the show, but when she caught me watching the last 5 episodes after we already knew it was canceled, she asked me why waste the time because the show is canceled….
All I have to say is the last 5 episodes were awesome; better than the ones before them!
Best of all, they wrapped the show up cleanly, even giving you a hint of what would be to come if there were to be a second season.
Thank you Eric Stoltz (sp), cast, et al, for bringing this world to life and making it one of my favorite sci-fi shows of all time.
Ranked up there with FireFly, another show canceled after one season.
Preston Poulter says:
February 22, 2011 at 4:49 am (UTC -5)
Both my wife and I really loved the show. We’re going to miss it terribly. Never seen a SciFi show as good as that one.
joe from tampa says:
March 6, 2011 at 5:48 am (UTC -5)
compared to the original bsg, and the new bsg, caprica was lame. the problem with caprica was that it claimed to be some kind of prequel to bsg, and it was totally a twilight style trama as opposed to a war show (like bsg was). if caprica had actually had some action, even a little, and i’m not talking ‘omg im a girl stuck in a robot body omg omg omg’ action, i’m talking shoot the fucking cylon basestar to shit with thermonuclear weapons action, it would not have been cancelled.
tai says:
May 4, 2011 at 7:21 am (UTC -5)
This is going to sound extremely elitist and cynical, but…
The unfortunate reality is that the majority of the developed world seems to be dumb, ignorant, or both. This is especially apparent in American culture where our country’s success has made us complacent. We are also a materialistic bunch whose greed often outweighs respect for what I’d like to think are our more human qualities such as imagination, curiosity and originality. What it does is make us great entrepreneurs. Thomas Edison didn’t invent the light bulb, he stole the idea from someone else. The people running TV channels aren’t philosophers, scholars, artists or shamans. They’re businessmen, businessmen who understand that to make the most money, you have to cater to those aforementioned dumb and ignorant masses
If you’re among the few who *enjoys* thinking and appreciates originality and can see intelligence in a work of art, the day you realize that TV and pop culture represents what most people want will be a sad but sobering day. I only take solace in knowing Rebecca Black’s video has a world record for dislikes on youtube. lol.
kathy Mae says:
May 13, 2011 at 12:11 am (UTC -5)
OMG! It was the best show ever created for TV! The quality of the story, scripts, costumes, acting, directing, sets, color on and on. References to mob life of the past, terrorists and religious fanatics of the present, corporate success and excess of present and past, and virtual reality of the future all juxtiposed to real human drama of which the stories are as old as the hills and never ending, always current. Complex relationships that have heartbreak, betrayal, loyalty, passion, need, desire, fear, lonliness, love, hate, cruelty, . Relationships that developed, exploring truth and reality, morality and purpose, all of it in question brought about by tragedy, crisis, change and chaos. Kinda whats going on in our world right now. Genius I say! Bring it back! Another well written show is The Killing on AMC, same complexity of relationships, character developement, acting, cast, director, sets, costumes, writing, all of it well done. But I still want my Caprica Back! Really stupid to cancel that show. What a shock and tragedy!
BiGG SiPP says:
June 28, 2011 at 1:25 pm (UTC -5)
Im sorry to hear that Caprica is no more i really loved the show and to see smackdown get a better nod is shameful. I just watched the entire season of Battlestar Galactica on Netflix and was extremely satisfied. To anyone out there rwas the last episode of Caprica a let down , A cliffhanger or does it end the series respectfully?
Nelson says:
August 10, 2011 at 4:53 am (UTC -5)
I found Caprica to be in the nature of truly well done science fiction. It had intriguing and well developed characters who’s lives intermixed and diverged over the course of the story. It had moments of techno wizardry as well as interesting retro throwbacks. Specifically, some scenes and details reminded me of the movie GATTACA. The plot, if a little disjointed at first, begins to coalesce more and more with each new episode. It is nice to see that there is still writing with depth and intelligence out there. It seems to be lacking in most current television programs. I enjoyed the fact that there does not have to be a resolution at the end of every episode. I think it is sad that to many people have lost the intellectual fortitude to handle lengthy engagement. I read several comments that discussed this flash bang 15 second advert. spot mentality as if it is something beneficial. Some talked about this in comment as being good Sci Fi. I would have to say before you talk about good Science Fiction……..Read Some. The genre is based on great stories such as Isaac Azimov’s Foundation Series and others. I mean even Star Wars has a quite a fair amount of non sensory overload story line in between the explosions. In fairness I do understand the complaints of the BSG groupies, but lets be honest the basis of the Caprica story was the idea that it takes place years before the nukes, the robot domination, the devastation of humanity, etc. The story was written that way because that is how linear timelines work. There are to schools of thought that can be applied to this show. If you want a whole lot of CGI fluff without much content then its not for you. If you can handle using your brain for more then just auditory and visual stimulation then its a good watch.
indrid says:
August 30, 2011 at 12:21 pm (UTC -5)
In all honesty, Caprica had a potential but didnt break ground and bring us a truly remarkable story. It had great special effects and cast potential but the subject matter was cliché at best. Battlestar Galactica was beyond this world and dealt with matters that were common to living beings but original in a non linear sense to that of our latest fads and breakthroughs. Caprica wanted too much to apply our latest reality video craze, artificial intelligence breakthoughs and tribal skirmishes and not enough of its own original “origins” from a world beyond our own. It had a great cast and dealt with interesting subject matter but nothing that could sustain a multi million budget that shows like House, CSI, Melrose place and the other crunch run of the mill types that deal with the same formulas. Caprica needed to be free of identifying with our commonality of pop culture and bring a serious blow to convention and the need to ‘sell’ itself. Millennium was one of those breakthrough shows. It didnt survive due to bad management but it remains one of the beacon examples of what great independent shows are all about.
David Curtis says:
September 13, 2011 at 10:53 am (UTC -5)
I have to agree with a comment made about how slow this show was at first. Frankly 5-7 shows in I was painfully watching this faithfully, out of loyalty to BSG. But I did see this series through to the end, and have to say like it really picked up momentum. In retrospect the whole series was actually quite good. The reason for the first half of the series seemed so slow and boring to some, is we had no idea the relevance and where this was all going. The writers did a great job at telling a story when we consider the series as a whole, but in the end it proved fatal to drag it out for so long. Had they put the concepts of season one and two into one season it would have moved along faster and would have held more interest to a larger audience.
Let’s face it! The final episode FINALLY BROUGHT US TO WHAT WE REALLY WANTED! I have no doubt that season two would have been awesome. We wanted Cylon Action, not mellow drama! Season 1 was mostly about the characters, and had less to do with the Cylons themselves. Season 2 was supposed to give us the evolution f the Cylons into mainstream society into their rebellion. They should have put the concepts of season 1 and 2 into one season, and then season 2 could have been the Cylon War! Now that would have worked, and people would have watched it from beginning to end.
If someone wants greater detail, and back story they can read the book! Give us some Cylon Action and we would have had a greater following, and the series could have survived through the end of the first Cyclon war. That is the part of the PREQUEL that really mattered. There are tons of BSG books that one could read if we wanted to immerse ourselves deeper into the family lives and mellow drama.
IN any regard, I am glad I saw this series through, and the last half that aired after it was cancelled was much better than the first half, and it left me wishing there was a season 2.
Before I close, the way this show was handled , giving huge gaps in time between shows etc. really is a bad idea. Syfy has cancelled several shows that I really liked. Thousands of fans are left feeling disappointed.
Thank you to this site admin for all his hard work.
susan engle says:
September 16, 2011 at 7:02 pm (UTC -5)
i dont recall a network show that has come close to caprica- i can honestly say that i have not felt drawn into any series in the last 10 years until i started watching caprica-too bad quality acting and writing isnt appreciated and cheesey shallow shows like swamp people and jersey shore seem to go on forever
David says:
June 9, 2012 at 6:25 am (UTC -5)
loved the show i guess we cannot expect anything intellectually stimulating or dep from scyfy just smackdown
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October 28, 2010 at 5:45 am (UTC -5)
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