The skewed scale of measuring a show’s success...



There are only a couple of things I find worth watching each week. The aforementioned Enterprise is one show and in a similar vein Battlestar Galactica is another. Reworking the original concept of the 70’s series, BG is turning into a fun show to watch: better cast, better effects, great cinematography and good character driven stories. It is one of the more entertaining things on TV at the moment.

So with Enterprise’s announced cancellation, it was a bad news/good news kind of week.

Battlestar Galactica has been a ratings winner for SCI FI since its Jan. 14 premiere. The latest episode, Feb. 4's “You Can’t Go Home Again,” scored the show’s best ratings yet, with 3.2 million viewers.

SCI FI Channel has ordered a second season of its hit series Battlestar Galactica, which has aired five episodes of its first season of 13 episodes. Details of the renewal—including which cast members will return, how many episodes will be produced and when the second season will commence—were still being worked out at press time.


Battlestar Galactica is considered a success on the SciFi channel with 3.2 million viewers but, UPN announces the cancellation of Enterprise and it’s interesting to note the numbers:

Berman said of the precipitous fan drop-off in an interview conducted after UPN announced Enterprise’s fate. “We’ve always seemed to have a big drop from before Christmas to after Christmas, which I’ve never quite understood.”

Enterprise attracted more than 13 million viewers in its debut, but by the fourth season, that audience had fallen to just 2.9 million.

Battlestar Galactica has a former Victoria’s Secret model running around as the ultimate Cylon bad girl, certainly something which increases the geek appeal of the show.

They tried to push the heat up on Enterprise the same way, it was a big departure from any of the previous entries of the Star Trek franchise - although Jeri Ryan was bought in to help boost ratings on the insipid Voyager. “Shower” scenes aside (see image below), Enterprise is a show that is really getting into a groove. I think it’s a shame what’s happening. There are other shows through the years which wound up being favorites (notably Deep Space Nine and The X-Files) and I seem to remember right around the fourth season was when the shows got really, really good.