Stargate Atlantis: Season 4 (Open Spoilers)

[provenlogic]

Just watched it again, UBER COOL! Next week, Lifeline is going to break the bank! Up for a heist!? Hell yes we are! I loved the action, the CGI was great (though there could be some better modeling on the city... seems they didn't use Rainmaker's model... but i nitpick (is my line of work after all)), and the character moments, oh the character moments, so good. Great episode, next weeks will be even better! I'm interested to see where they go with RepliWeir.

OH! And Rodney FINALLY called Sheppard 'John' for the first time in 4 years! And said 'i'm sorry' too! How cute is Rodney!?

 

[HOT4MEN]

Thanks for the info! Love the pics! I always had & still have a thing for Sheppard & Beckett. Love Carson & John. Now that Carson was wrongfully killed off, I don't watch anymore. I might try to watch again.

 

[provenlogic]

Well you missed the best premiere ever tonight!! Why weren't you watching!?

Carson will be back this season, i hope you know.

 

[provenlogic]

^ OMG this really is a spoiler thread. RepliWeir? Beckett coming back?

WTF - I'm glad I downloaded it and watched it before you told me all about it

(any justification I can find for 'borrowing' TV from the innerweb I'll use )

LoL it does say open spoilers , only condition is that spoilers should be avoided until after the show first airs (aside from the ones in the initial post), now that Adrift aired, it's fair game!

Well Beckett's not back until the end of the season, but that's common knowledge. But RepliWeir! Can't wait to see where this goes. If you watched the crappy pre-screen version of Adrift, man you did yourself an injustice! The Music and Sound Effects were GRRRRRRREAT!

 

[Xenos Morphe]

My guess is after being captured on the replicator planet, Weir works out a truce and an alliance, stays behind as an ambassador, the replicators repair Atlantis and supply them with all the ZPMs they need, and Atlantis returns to the planet they were originally on. This maybe a result of Rodney messing with the replicator code, or Weir's already altered nanites, or more likely, none of the above. I'm just happy it's back!

 

[provenlogic]

I dunno, actually i'm envisioning Weir sacrificing herself to buy time for the team to escape. And the replicators, not wanting to kill her, as she is part replicator, they keep her... Until the mid-season finale .

 

[_AJ_]

yeah i got season 3 on dvd and was dissapointed by the no actors on the commentaries

ep 1 was pretty good but i dont really like how they have done the 3 part episode thing a double episode would have been nice but cliff hanger after cliff hanger gives me the shits

 

[Xenos Morphe]

I dunno, actually i'm envisioning Weir sacrificing herself to buy time for the team to escape. And the replicators, not wanting to kill her, as she is part replicator, they keep her... Until the mid-season finale

That's even better. She could come back as some evil, pregnant turncoat, with tenticles or something. The new queen of the replicators leading a rebuilt armada against Earth.

but i dont really like how they have done the 3 part episode thing a double episode would have been nice but cliff hanger after cliff hanger gives me the shits

Agreed. There's enough there for a movie instead of the 3 parter. Oh well. I'll just have to wait for season 4 to come out on DVD and splice my own movie together.

 

[provenlogic]

Sooo, the ratings for the season premiere, "Adrift" were pretty bad. It scored a 1.2, the lowest ever for a premiere. It appears that Atlantis is the most DVR'ed (and downloaded) show on the SCIFI channel, the most DVR'ed network in the U.S.. Thus it's not getting the live viewers necessary to get good ratings numbers.

With the show's renewal for a 5th season on the line, this is pretty bad news. The latter half of season 3 held some of the lowest ratings ever for Atlantis, and it looks as though that trend is continuing. SCIFI's decision on whether or not to renew Atlantis for a 5th season will be based on the latter half of season 3, and the first few episodes of season 4.

Ratings from other countries besides the U.S. have no impact on SCIFI's decision to renew or not, as U.S. viewership is what determines ratings, which in turn determine what SCIFI can charge advertisers, which is how they make their money. If a show costs more than it's anticipated revenue from advertisers, there's no reason to keep it.

 

[xwings]

You live less than 15 minutes from the Bridge studios!? Color me jealous. I'd probably be arrested for stalking the place.

I need to move to Vancouver. Though i hear it rains a lot there.

I would lock myself in Joe Flanigan trailer

 

[Corny]

is it still like that, that it is out in canada a bit before it gets aired in the us? then you shouldn't wonder if it is the most downloaded show

 

[provenlogic]

I wouldn't lose hope over low ratings/viewers for episode one.

People are still adjusting to the end of the summer and returning to/starting college/school etc. (at least that's the way it goes here).

If I were living in the States I'd definitely be tuning in for episode two and every one after that.

The only problem is that SCIFI only has a VERY few episodes to go on before they HAVE to make their decision. They're going to make it before the end of the month, they have to if theres going to be another season because the production team has to get started by next month. So SCIFI will only have the last half of season 3, and MAYBE 4 episodes of this season to go on, if they wait that long.

What REALLY angers me is that a lot of "former fans" on a certain other stargate message board, fans that aren't happy about a certain character leaving and another coming on board this year, are openly elated at the low ratings, rubbing it in everyone's faces and heralding it as the end of Atlantis, and they're happy about it.

is it still like that, that it is out in canada a bit before it gets aired in the us? then you shouldn't wonder if it is the most downloaded show

No No, it's not like that any more. It's airing in the U.S. before anywhere else now. Except of course for the episodes that were leaked online weeks beforehand because SCIFI included pre-air copies in their press junkets and people stole them and put them online.

 

[provenlogic]

Just wanted to pass along a bit of good news to everyone.

David Hewlett (Dr. Rodney McKay) and fiance' Jane just welcomed into the world their first son, Sebastian Flynn Hewlett, 9 pounds 4 ounces. Mum and son are doing well.

Congratulations to David, Jane, and little Sebastion!

:thewave:

 

[provenlogic]

Old news, . I wonder why i didn't mention it here?

It happened like, over a week ago. Stupid iTunes motherf*ckers. Another episode that won't get ratings because it was leaked.

 

[provenlogic]

I like the new look and feel too. I just hope it's not going to be their last season. Should find out in the next 2 weeks. I'm worried.

 

[Martkell2007]

Don't feel bad because of low ratings. A lot of people who love scifi, like me, just keep missing episodes. I got all hyped up for the season premiere of Atlantis only to miss it and the next episode because I kept forgetting to set the DVR for record. So I'm forced to get the episodes via bittorrent.

 

[provenlogic]

Don't feel bad because of low ratings. A lot of people who love scifi, like me, just keep missing episodes. I got all hyped up for the season premiere of Atlantis only to miss it and the next episode because I kept forgetting to set the DVR for record. So I'm forced to get the episodes via bittorrent.

Well see that's the problem. The more people that miss the episodes the lower the ratings. And DVRing doesn't count in the ratings (well there's a debate, i'll get to that). So what happens is people DVR it, or Download it, and don't get counted as having watched it. Thus it doesn't get a good rating, i.e. 1.2.

So advertisers LIVE by that rating number. It determines if they're willing to pay top dollar to run ads during the show's time slot. If they aren't, SCIFI has no way of recouping the money spent on the show, much less make a profit. And if they can't do that, they have no reason to keep the show, so they'll cut it. And like i said, unfortunately DVR viewership doesn't count, BitTorrent's don't count, any viewers outside of the U.S. don't count, and iTunes and Amazon downloads don't count, neither do DVD sales.

So if SCIFI doesn't order a 5th season, that's it, game over, and they've made it quite clear that that decision will be based on the ratings of season 3.5 (which were poor) and the ratings they get from the first 2-4 episodes of season 4. They'll make their decision before the end of this month.

Now, do DVRs really count? Yes and no. This is the first season ever that Neilson (the ratings counters) are factoring DVRs. They are releasing 3 different ratings per episode. Live, Live + 3 Day, and Live + 7 Day. The Live ratings, as always, are available a few days after the airing. However, the DVR ratings take over 3-4 weeks to tabulate. And to the good part, advertisers don't really care about anything but the live ratings. Why? Because you can FF thru commercials with a DVR. So the industry goes by the live numbers still.

To put it in perspective, the pilot of Atlantis made a 3.7 (5+ million viewers), the season premiere of season 4 made a 1.2 (1.7 million viewers), that's a 68% loss in 4 years. On the same note, last year's premiere made a 1.7, so that's a 30% loss in just 1 year.

So you can see why i'm worried.

 

[Luka]

Tonites episode was really good, I like Ronan heavy episodes, wink wink. I liked the Carter- Ronan scenes aswell, I think that it was important for them to have a strong opening scene between them.

 

[Martkell2007]

And DVRing doesn't count in the ratings (well there's a debate, i'll get to that). So what happens is people DVR it, or Download it, and don't get counted as having watched it. Thus it doesn't get a good rating, i.e. 1.2.

So every time I record my shows to watch them, which I do for all my favorite shows, my view isn't counted? Sci-fi lovers are most likely tech-savvy, meaning they'll use tech like DVR. So they should find a way to count DVR esp with sci-fi. I don't know anyone who loves shows like star gate, eureka, painkiller jane, battlestar, etc who doesn't record them on DVR to save time by skipping commercials.

 

[provenlogic]

So every time I record my shows to watch them, which I do for all my favorite shows, my view isn't counted? Sci-fi lovers are most likely tech-savvy, meaning they'll use tech like DVR. So they should find a way to count DVR esp with sci-fi. I don't know anyone who loves shows like star gate, eureka, painkiller jane, battlestar, etc who doesn't record them on DVR to save time by skipping commercials.

Which is EXACTLY the problem. No, the DVR viewership has never been counted. This is the FIRST season in history (for all channels, not just SCIFI) that neilson is attempting to collect DVR data. However, like i said, it takes weeks and months to tabulate those results because the system for recording DVR viewership is brand new. None of the networks have gotten any DVR viewership data for any of the premieres that were several weeks ago. It may be another month before they do, and Atlantis' fate will have been decided long before that.

And like i also said, while neilson is trying to start collecting DVR data, advertisers pay little attention to it because people do exactly what you said, skip through commercials. The entire ratings system is flawed now that DVRs are in so many households. It sux that networks are still putting so much stock in the live viewership ratings. And what sucks more is that the amount of DVRing of Atlantis is estimated to be about 16-25%. Which could offer a significant "future altering" boost in ratings. But they're not counted, as of yet, and whether they would even matter to advertisers is unknown at best.

So there's this crappy cycle of destruction. You're right, SciFi viewers are the most tech-savvy group out there, and much more likely to DVR shows. And the more we do so, the less viewers the show is counted as having, and the less it's ratings, and the less chance it has to get renewed. Battlestar Galactica is ending after this last season because of this (it's low ratings, and no promise from SCIFI for a definite fifth season).