Source: Media Week
Submitted by: Kurt Armbruster (SoSF Fan)
Ratings Box: What’s Hot/What’s Not
ECW Scores on Sci Fi Channel:
The Tuesday 10 p.m. premiere of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) on Sci Fi Channel was the most-watched show on cable with almost 3.4 million total viewers. ECW ranked No. 1 among key adults 18-49 (1.89 million) and adults 25-54 (1.68 million), with growth versus the prior four-week time period average of 457 percent and 347 percent, respectively, in the two demos. ECW on Sci Fi was the best performance for any program on the network this year in adults 18-49, and the best among adults 25-54 since the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica on Jan. 6, 2006. The median viewer age of ECW was 32.3, 16 years younger than the second quarter to-date time period average of 48.
Well there’s a death knoll for everything we hold sacred. 3.4 million people who could give a crap about scifi tune in to watch the insanity.
I give up on broadcast TV, cable or otherwise. Someone let me know if there is something interesting to watch (like Red Dwarf, Dr Who and BSG) and I’ll wait until it comes out on DVD. Camel? Meet Mr. Straw.
And if anyone has the above mentioned debacle in a digital format, even a snippet, I’d like to see it for the nausea factor. Who knows? Maybe it was prime enlightening entertainment. I’m willing to be wrong. Doubt I am…
Dunno what the sci fi channel in the USA is like but here in the UK its a bit of a joke. It only ever shows 20 year old c-grade shows and films which were old in the 80s.
The only good stuff is the odd monster movie or the saturday night creature-feature type specials.
are you kidding me? 3.4 million people???
i guess the only thing you can say is–you got it:
motherf***in’ snakes…
Aw, for cryin’ out loud.
If they *really* wanted to have wrestling on SciFi, it could’ve at *least* been something like Kaiju big Battel (www.kaiju.com) or somesuch.
Jeez.
You got to be fooking shitting me. I always thought the “rating” system was cooked more than Enron’s books, and this just proved it.
What’s exceptionally sad is that Doctor Who, by comparison, is less than half that.
Perhaps “they” are right, and that 90% of the viewing public are lowest common demoninator after all. 🙁
Well,… it is ridiculous, sign of the Apocalypse and all that…
But think about it. Those 3.4 million sheep are now paying for us to get more BSG and Caprica. Let the pawns watch their crap if it means we (the ones with taste) get to watch the good stuff. And maybe some of the 3.4 might see an ad for a real SciFi show and convert.
Doesnt surprise me at all, people always flock to the lowest common denominator when it comes to entertainment. Now if it was celebirty deathmatch…then I might subscribe to cable even to see that
Hey Mark, only if the celebs in the deathmatch were the real deal —- I can think of a few I would like see taken to the mat (if you know what I mean) 😉
All this means is that wrestling fans will follow a show any where. USA Network had a show they didn’t want to try out on its corp channel so they used the SciFi Channel instead. So what..big deal.
Come on the sheeple love wrestling! Sci-Fi channel has been moving in this direction for some time now. Those Saturday night monster movies are real bad. It only gets worse.
Unfortunately, it’s a slippery slope from here.
Just remember these are Network execs.
Hey, Wrasselin’ makes huge ratings. Skiffy’s never seen ratings this big! But look, the audience fizzles to nothing when ECW’s over.
We need more ratings! How can we get them? I know! More wrastlin!
ANd on and on and on…
To Roy:
It is a big deal, because the wrestling is taking a spot that a much better show could occupy. It’s bad enough that the networks have become a reality-type TV show wasteland. But now it’s happening to my beloved Sci-Fi Channel? No!
First TechTV, now this. We’re quickly running out of channels to call our own.
Oh, so the ECW they’ve been saturating the channel with is the same wrestling ECW mentioned on “Slice”? Didn’t see it. Don’t know anyone who did. Who did they use for their ratings base; stunt monkeys?
Yes I’m back. Must be a SaMM (Sam?) thing, but I came across this in http://www.gallifreyone.com/news-archives.php?id=4-2005 (Outpost Gallifrey)
The Guardian says that “BBC1 floors Celebrity Wrestling,” reporting on the weekend’s ratings debacle for ITV: “ITV1’s audience share fell below 17% on Saturday when its two new entertainment shows were trounced in the ratings. Celebrity Wrestling, despite all the pre-launch hype, failed to topple BBC1’s Doctor Who, while ITV1’s Hell’s Kitchen sank to its second lowest audience so far. ITV’s decision to replace Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway with a string of grappling D-listers failed to pay off – Celebrity Wrestling attracted just 3.8 million viewers and a scant 21% share. Ant and Dec signed off with a bang last week, beating Doctor Who for the first time in four weeks and helping ITV1 to an all-hours share of 20.8%. Saturday Night Takeaway, averaging an audience of more than 7.1 million, nudged ahead of Doctor Who, which pulled 7 million viewers, its lowest audience to date. This week, however, BBC1’s timelord attracted nearly twice as many viewers as Celebrity Wrestling.” Broadcast Now also covers this.
So, if the British tired of wrestling (& theirs even had celebrities) about 14 month ago, about how long should it take for the US to catch on/up?
Interesting stat, SaMM. Thanks for posting.