The SCI FI Channel is making a bold move to take over the coveted Sunday night 10PM/9C timeslot from conventional network television by moving its highly-acclaimed and award-winning SF drama “Battlestar Galactica” out of its normal Sci Fi Friday Night pen. The move will officially take place beginning January 21, 2007, according to Variety.
The SCI FI Channel has been embolden to make this move by the increased ratings, publicity and growing fanbase of the steamy and darker updated version of the 1970’s classic show.
Sunday night has traditionally been the cable channel’s weakest night of the week and management believes that by moving its number one hit show to Sunday night, they can capture some of that advertising revenue and ratings numbers that will begin their week of programming with a very strong start. In the past the cable station has normally ran a mix of original movies and acquisitions on Sunday nights.
Speculation aside, Sci Fi exec VP of programming Mark Stern said there are two reasons for moving the series: “Broadcast and cable networks realized Friday was not such a bad timeslot, so it’s not the easy lay-up it once was,” he said. “Sundays have bigger HUT levels and will be less competitive come January when football leaves the schedule…..Eureka [proved] we can launch a show successfully on a new night beyond Friday,” Stern added. “Sunday is the home for premiere programming and for us, that’s ‘Battlestar.’ ”
Battlestar’s lead-in will be the new SF detective drama “The Dresden Files” at 9PM/8C. Stern said the cabler is hoping that “Dresden” will bring in a new and broader audience to Galactica.
Battlestar will have at least two major competitors when it makes the move, CBS’ “Without a Trace” and ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters,” but SCI FI is confident that not only can Battlestar hold its own against them, but will eventually surpass the network competition.
Well, this will free up my Fridays. By then the 2nd season of “Doctor Who” will be over, “BSG” moves to Sunday, and “Vanished” has been cancelled. The only thing left is “Monk”.
Until “Stargate” comes back, that is.
Won’t be there for Galactica, but i will certainly check out The Dresden Files…
I don’t like the move at all!
I always DVR the show so I can watch it either Fri or Sat night and then review it again while listening to Ron Moore’s podcast commentary. It gave me the entire weekend to enjoy it.
Kevin
I think this is a horrible idea. If they thought the show was getting too much competition on Friday nights, what makes them think that it will do well against even stronger, established hits?
The fact is, the show is struggling because they split BSG from the perfectly solid SciFi Friday lineup. Both Stargates suffered, BSG suffered, and now they’re just compounding the damage.
Idiots…
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
The reason that ratings for the Stargates and BSG have been down is becasue they got split up. And now rather than put ’em back together again they’re tearing ’em apart further. Stupid!
Although I agree that this is probably a horrible idea for the ratings, it actually works great for me. I currently watch absolutely nothing on Sundays, at least until “The 4400” and “The Dead Zone” are back on.
Talk about a dumb move…
First they ruin Stargate SG-1 by cancelling it on the eve of it’s 200 episode and then…*then* they decide to do this to Battlestar?? Is the blind leading the blind here or something? You fix it by reinstating SG-1 and then put BSG and Atlantis back where they belong on Friday nights! They had a good formula and they messed with it and all three shows are suffering.
If they think the can get more dollars with Battlestar on Sunday, I’m cool with that. Especially, tied with the Dresden Files which, hopefully, will keep them from canceling it too quickly.
And an open friday gives a chance for new shows.
I guess I’m not understanding why separating the “Stargate” shows from “BSG” made the ratings for all three shows go down. Are you saying that “BSG” fans watched “Stargate” just because they didn’t have anything better to do while waiting for “BSG” to air? And vice versa?
I don’t feel that way.
I only watch the show I’m going to watch, regardless of what the shows are that surround it. So, if “BSG” moves to Sunday, I’m fine with it. The problem I have is if the show conflicts with another of my favorite shows. And no, I don’t have TiVo or DVR or whatever. So, I have that problem. Except, not with Sci-Fi Channel shows, since they usually run them twice a night.
Until “The Dead Zone” and “The 4400” return in the summer, I don’t have anything to watch on Sundays, so this is okay for me.
I saw this news and went–huh?
BSG’s ratings are already down this year becuase of moving up an hour on Friday. Will this hurt the ratings more by moving it to a more competitive time slot and night?
Are they trying to kill it off like they did Farscape?
If SciFi does a Farscape to BSG, I am going to swear off the network forever…