Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

The two hour season premier of Sci Fi Channel’s new Battlestar Galactica series is a ratings success. The show earned a 2.6 household rating (3.1 million viewers) ranking it as second among all cable programs. Battlestar Galactica was also the Sci Fi Channels highest-rated first quarter series telecast ever and its second highest series telecast behind Stargate Atlantis series premiere in the summer.

The is great news considering the positive reviews the show has been getting. And hopefully will spur SciFi to confirm a second season of the show. Battlestar Galactica moves to its regular timeslot on Jan 21. It will air at 10pm on Fridays following Stargate SG-1 at 8pm and Stargate Atlantis at 9pm.

Over at Big Dumb Object, James makes a throwaway comment about how low a viewing figure 3.1 million sounds to him. When you consider that the population of the US is some 300 million, I can see where he’s coming from.

Coming originally from the UK, I’m more aware of the differences between television in the two countries. Although satelite has made significant inroads in the UK via Sky, cable remains relatively uncommon and so the focus of tv viewing is overwhelmingly on the terrestrial (network) stations, of which there were only five when I left the UK. A hit show in the UK on in prime time on a major channel can pull in 20 million viewers. Thats in a population for around 60 million.

For comparison, a hit show like say Friends pulled in around 25 million viewers when shown in prime time on a major network (NBC) and from a population of 300 million. That shows you just how much more fragmented the viewership is in the US.

For a cable channel to manage 3 million can only be considered a resounding success.