I watched Dollhouse at 9pm & the rebroadcast of SGU at 11pm.
How do they score that?

Well I like many other fans have been having their doubts. but so far I'm impressed.

I think they might be trying too hard to make SGU appear to be the next BSG. I've noticed a grittier look, which is logical since the people are on a ship falling apart, but still they should avoid making this a clone. The grittier look is a breath of fresh air though.

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this story was: What would the ratings be for the only two Science Fiction shows on Syfy if they were given a night during the week that actually has the audience they want at home so they could be available to watch the shows? The Friday night positions on the schedule according everything I read from the folks on this website is the dumping grounds (so to speak) for dead or dying shows. Wake up Syfy put these flagship shows on during the week so they can grow an audience. Tuesday would be much better than a dead Friday.

Really..? I am a big fan of the SG franchise but I haven't been able to get into this new vision. Loved original SG and Atlantis even more than that, but this one to me misses the mark. All the drama seems to be relayed through bickering and weak character development. Feels forced and I don't totally love the casting choices. I loved BSG which this has been compared to but still am not sold on this. Okay, so it's not my cup of tea but I haven't given up on it yet..maybe it needs to grow on me. Oh, to me Dollhouse is like a hundred times better so there's that. I would honestly love to see all this money put into more SG1 and Atlantis movies, with this money they could come out alot faster. Please...

"I watched Dollhouse at 9pm & the rebroadcast of SGU at 11pm.
How do they score that?"

That's the thing, right? Lots of people don't even watch shows when they are broadcast anymore. Is the model broken? Methinks yes.

These stats can be interpreted in many ways...

How about the fact that there is no real Science Fiction on this month except SGU and Sanctuary (which we did not get a report on here, surprisingly!) When there is nothing else, one makes sure to get to what there is...

Another stat that would make a great impact is the days BBC-Am is running Primeval, Torchwood, and Dr Who, how does Syfy's lame day sched compare to them?

Reality is just the result of negotiation between the observer and the observed. - kh

What I absolutely love about this SG is that is is different, yet similar. I was very nervous about the whole "voyager" plot line, but now that they explained why the ancients did it, i go "omg thats amazing! and if i were an ancient, totally makes sense"

I think the casting choice is DEAD ON! great choices, all the way from the Nerd Computer math genius guy (not good with names yet) to the very gritty and disturbed "bad ass" who was locked up in the bridge (i guess filling the role of Te'lk)

But to me, its all topped off with Lou Diamond Philips. While I'm not his biggest fan, he does add a sense of "realism" to the show. He is an established actor, and not just another unknown

he is this shows Richard Dean Anderson. I only hope he was more of a role and they can keep him around and not kill him off ( i wish that he made it to the Destiny as the groups "leader" but idk, maybe the will involve him more some other way)

I love the homage to General Hammond, buy naming the ship the Hammond.

Also, and I'm praying here, this may also give us teh chance (FINALLY!) to see the "Furlings" race.

This show so far has been all good for me!

Lets look at it this way. Fridays SUCKED! for awhile not having a "flagship" show on

for awhile fridays were the SHIT!!!!

SG1
Atlantis
BSG

then, nothing.

I'm grateful to have 1 of the epic shows return. I now look forward to fridays all the more every week.

thank you Scifi, please keep SGU for a long time to come!

I'm psyched! This is great news. Love the show. This past week's episode was even better than the premiere. Looking forward to a long viewing relationship with this new franchise. If we continue to keep the numbers up, perhaps MGM will be able to feel more confident in investing in another SG-1 and/or SG Atlantis movie. It's all connected. People who are choosing not to support SGU because they want the movies or SG Atlantis back are only hurting the franchise.

Beating Dollhouse at this point isn't really something to write about. There is greatness in Dollhouse, but it has never actually been great. Or good, for that matter.

After the meagre first season, I decided to keep watching Dollhouse only for Summer Glau, Keith Carradine and Michael Hogan, but I had to force myself to choke down the second episode. Haven't seen the third episode yet. I don't think I can keep going, despite the great stable of actors for this season.

SGU needs to meet their big, bad nemesis. Until then, it's Lost In Space meets Stargate.

Wraiths anyone?

SGU is boring...it's hard to follow the characters and they are not that likable...I loved SG-1 and Atlantis, but SGU is downright Depressing.

SGU sucks!! Bring back Atlantis already. I watched the 2nd episode just to give the show another chance, and halfway through I wanted to throw my remote into the TV. The characters are all moronic. The special effects? Nice SAND "SyFy"..is that really the best you could come up with?!? What's with the tough guy?! He's not intimidating at all..just annoying. And don't even get me started on the body jumping. If I wanted to watch a drama filled with idiots, I would watch 90210. At least a couple of them are decent actors to boot. One last rant, what's with the whole name update? SYFY?!?! Obviously someone thinks that's going to appeal to women. I'm a woman, and I only have one thing to say....FAIL. When you bring back Atlantis, I'll start watching again.

I'm hoping the characters start getting smarter. They're stuck on a broken ship and people sit around waiting to die? I recall Ming Na - a name recognizable actress they haven't used at all yet - sitting on a table looking all hopeless and weak this past episode.

Why aren't they ripping apart all the various ancient supplies? Sure it's a plot point so they can keep discovering goodies as needed, but at least make an effort at portraying realistic attitudes without forcing a storyline.

Oh while I'm wondering about the story, has anyone else wondered why the floating cameras haven't been mapping the damaged sections? Sure it's another plot point, can't have them runnning around the whole ship, but when you have something obvious either use it, or make an offhand remark on why you can't (Like the floating things only have so far a range, or they need atmosphere, whatever)

As it's still early perhaps things will shape up. But so far they're all like the hysterical doctor in Lost in Space running around without thinking.

PS. Fix the captcha already. If I get it wrong (I don't think I did) give another chance, don't just lose the submissino.

what people don't seem to realize is that watching a show really doesn't do anything for the ratings. Neilsens get their ratings by a box on a tv, which is only on 25000 sets in the country. 25000 homes in a country with 300 million people determine what you watch from week to week. so if a potato farmer in Idaho doesn't watch dollhouse, that could make a difference of tens if not hundreds of thousands in the ratings. THE SYSTEM IS BEYOND FLAWED!!! oh, and repeat showings have no bearing on the ratings. so watching the show at 11 means nothing if it originally aired at 9. We can put a man on the moon, send a rocket to mars, fly around the world within 24 hours, and talk to someone across the country in real time, but we can't get an accurate ratings system? SERIOUSLY?

SGU is way better than Atlantis. Atlantis was terrible. i stopped watching after season 1 and the series finale felt like Stargate Voyager's finale.

I will admit, I wasn't a big fan of SG-1. I LOVED Atlantis, though and would hope that there will be more.

This being said.....I'm digging SGU. I love the characters. I barely know them and I want to know more. No one is a stereotype of previous efforts and while the humor is sparse (They're lost in space), there's enough going on to keep me wanting more.

@anastasia

Having boxes in 25,000 homes (or whatever it is) will in fact give you a very accurate representation of what the 300 million people in the country are watching, as long as the sample is not biased. It's called statistics, and the Nielsen people are paid to do it right. Now, there are other factors that are complicating it nowadays (DVRs, repeat airings, internet views, etc.) but the "potato farmer in Idaho" example is very flawed logic, to say the least.

I actually like the show. However, no where as good as SG1. It might be as good as Atlantis but different. The Jury is still out.

I like the Eli character. He is to only character so far that I think a viewer can relate to. It might be weird but he seems the most real so far.

I hope they speed up the pace, introduce more aliens, show more of the advanced technology on the ship. Also please more action. We aren’t interested in the boring stuff. You can just mention it and proceed to the more exciting aspects of the story.

I am not sure if I get the Scientist yet. Unlike the past to Stargate series, the military members have yet to grab any interest for a view. In SG1 O'Neil and Samantha instantly gained the interest of viewers.

I also want them to introduce the Furlings.

I think instead of evolving to little aliens like the Asgard, they should have evolved into large furry animals.

If they want to show them as visiting earth, you can even make them look like Bigfoot. However, I think I would go a different route and try to create an entirely new creature. Maybe a smart creature that walks on more than 2 legs.

Unless this weks show is really good,ill be taking it off my DvR list,
Its jjust another season of BSG with fewer characters that I dont care about.

Are you seriously going to rerun this SGU vs. Dollhouse ratings story every Monday? It's getting old.

Well, the 24 hour DVR numbers are out, and the Dollhouse ratings went up - by an additional 50%!

Like so many others, I'm really sick to death of Sifffy (oh, the agony of needing to type something so stupid!) unnecessarily bashing Dollhouse to promote it's own show. I watch NEITHER real time, and I'm getting tired enough of the Dollhouse-bashing here to wait a few more days to watch SGU. It's not much, but the numbers are small enough that the impact could be felt.

I love my SciFi Friday. I watch Smallville, Dollhouse, Sanctuary, and then SG: Universe. A great night for TV.

So, how much more "let's bash our competition while we promote our own show" will we have to read on this website? This really low grade journalism IMHO.

I bet that Sci Fi would find Dollhouse to be a better show if they weren't competing with it on the same time slot with a new show that they are trying real hard to push...

SGU is still just "Ok" but at least my interest is peaked. . . .for now.

Well, RMerlin, you don't have to read anything when it comes to it. You know the source, and you ought to know that this is a blog, not NPR. They've never tried to pretend to be objective reporters

That said, Dullhouse IS struggling. SGU DID beat it. What more do you want this blog to report on? Why should Syfy care what the ratings on Dollhouse are beyond how it matches up against those of the show bankrolling this site?

Here's a million dollar question (and I am not paying). What happen those guys who went through to the stargate to one of the three locked-out planets in episode 3? We know that they didn't make it back. We know they were told that they would die. But, that isn't the million dollar question (again, I am not paying). What actually happen to them?

@impish:

You do realize the characters have been on that ship less than 24 hours right? Exactly how much exploring are they supposed to accomplish in that time. They were a little more focused on conserving their air supply which was running out.

Let me start out by saying that I'm a big fan of both SG-1 and Atlantis both. That said, I will also add that so far I'm really enjoying SGU as well. Yes, the theme is a bit darker and grittier but I think that that gives this show its own unique feel. One thing that I found good about the last episode was the fact that it was on a desert planet, I had noticed from SG-1 and Atlantis both a lot of the "Alien" planets looked remarkably like the forests in and around British Colombia, hopefully they will vary the alien planets they visit a bit more in this series. I'm also hoping that with this new series that they don't encounter humans on nearly every planet they go to, that amazingly enough speak english and that they will in fact actually meet a greater variety of aliens species. So I give the new show at least one thumb up for the time being and hopefully it will just keep getting better and better from here.

they could always do more Fireflyepisodes for Fridays :-)

Well, huge fan of the ORIGINAL SG1 and Atlantis. I watched the next show this past Friday and I have to admit, I was impressed at times with the acting and scenes. Very realistic...BUT, where's the action?

So, I went online and got an "outline" of forthcoming episodes of the show that are publicly available and was not impressed. I am sure that the acting and character dynamics will improve and want to draw you in, however, the dramatic effects and ACTION are glaringly missing. Atlantis BLOWS this show away in concepts, action, dynamics and effects. I know this is early, but by this time Atlantis was far more exciting to me to watch! I do realize that this was the basic aim of the show to have less action, more character dynamics and such, but it is becoming Surivor, StarGate Universe to me.
I'll continue to check out the remaining episodes, but the more I think about it, the less I am impressed with the overall feel and tone of the show.

I like a lot about SGU, but I don't like having another Baltar--another genius scientist who's probably a traitor and at a minimum has a secret agenda. Bah!

I am finding SGU watchable. I think its fitting my missing BSG niche. That being said as I watch it I tend to sigh a bit at the fact that they really do seem to be stealing IDs from other sci-fi shows. When the one guy started to see his dead Priest guardian who said "He has a plan".

That being said, despite the fact that Eli should be wearing a sign that says "Audience Surrogate". I find his character fun.

My only problem with Fridays episode is that havent they established that the Star Gate pulls you into it when you touch it. I didn't think you could just stick an arm in.

So far I've found SGU to be quite good. I just hope they keep up the tension and the emotion that they have worked to create in the first 3 episodes. As for their major "nemesis" showing up, I figure they already have that in the ship that's falling apart.

SGU is doing well, but SGA would do better. Why do we have to kill one awesome show to start a new slightly alike show?
Where are the SG1 and Atlantis movies we were told they'd make.
Why not bring one of those stargate series back? Or a mesh of the two of them to run at the same time as SGU? They did it foe a number of seasons with SG1 and SGA.
Star Gate has always had a strong fan following, but a lack of respect from the networks carrying it.

Don't pay attention to DVR numbers. Please give SGU precedence and watch live at 9pm Friday. That counts the most.

SGU doesn't hold a candle to Atlantis and I only somewhat liked Atlantis. The problem is the characters suck, yet they seem to be going for a character oriented show. And I hate Eli and the way they all seem to defer to this loser nerdchild, when uber genius Rodney couldn't get any respect in the SG shows. Why doesn't black-psycho character beat his ass already? And what's with this Ford-redux? Are there any human blacks in the Stargate franchise who aren't crazy? I really want to like this show, but so far it's been pretty weak and uninspired. Dollhouse ain't great, but it's better.

This is news? What show doesn't beat something on Fox?

Actually the numbers came back for dvr and Dollhouse got like a million more viewers. Fringe and other shows like flashforward got big boosts.

I don't mind the "gritter" look of the show but I hope it does not devolve into a bunch people fighting with each other episode after weary episode. Times of trial tend to unite people and often brings out the best in them. (Katrina, 9/11, Flight 93) The consistent themes of the SGU are the value of teamwork and characters growing under pressure.

The thing I liked about SG1 and SGA was the mix of episode themes. Heavy ("the Other Side"), light ("1969"), humors ( "Urgo") and odd ("One False Step"). I hope this continues. If I want to watch all gloom-n-doom, I'll tune in CNN.

I loved the new Star Trek movie and can't wait for the sequel. Anybody else think it's the best Trek ever?

i love stargate.. and dollhouse :) o love both shows.

I little to character drivin like they said, Nothing even happened in the last ep. It was all "character dev" Screw that!! I want ACTION!!!!!! Bring on the bad guys and weapons!! SOmething better explode in the next ep, hope this aint BSG again with all the soap opra crap!!!

the new ST SUCKED!! Becasue they f-ed up the timeline, it could have all been done with keeping the timeline in tact, that would have been the better way....

I am sorry, but you have here essentially "Begbie in Space!".

That alone makes SG:U teh win.

All I could think of through the first episode of SGU is use the stones and bring in SG-1 they would shut everyone up and save the ship.

The only problem with the Syfy channel ratings is that Syfy continues to use truth and a certain amount of spin with it's ratings. Syfy will give you the total number of viewers, but only gives percentages of demographics: in fact, the debut had an underwhelming 1.12 in ages 18 to 49, so a 22% increase for this episode would take them to a still underwhelming 1.36 for ages 18 to 48. Beating up on Dollhouse is no big deal because that show is failing badly. To barely beat them is no great shakes. Syfy has a total viewership of about 2 to 3 million but it serves a very dedicated niche market. More power to them. I watch some of their shows and its a fun channel.

I personally think that SG:U is full of pretty stupid characters in VERY depressing situations.

When Atlantis first started it was similar situation (lost, far from home, no power, blah blah) but they weren't anywhere near as defeatist as this bunch.

Also, the storylines are pretty lame and 'stretched out', I saw how 'Light' was going to end from the instant there was the pan shot as Destiny dropped out of FTL in 'Darkness'.. Even my 13 year old commented the same.

ANY reasonably intelligent cast character (there are supposed to be at least 2 geniuses aboard) would have figured that out as a possibility too!

So far, my interest is waning, even though there's nothing else on Friday, they need to smarten up the writing, and brighten up the characters, I always liked the smart "optimism against all the odds" of Atlantis and SG1.

Oh yes, and Star Trek 'fast and furious' was REALLY bad, and a cop out to make a fast buck.