Defiance Episode 11 Ratings.

[Shogo_Yahagi]

Of course you can, and should. Ratings are inherently a competition and inherently a zero-sum game.

We'll have to agree to disagree there.

I would be stunned if the per-episode costs of something like Defiance wasn't at least two orders of magnitude higher than something like The Fosters.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think SyFy is going to pull the plug. I doubt at this point they could even if they wanted to. But I don't believe for a second that it's performing at anything near the level they'd hoped for.

Then you're dead wrong.

First, the numbers that Defiance is getting are high enough that it has, at least once or twice, been the highest rated cable drama in its time slot. (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...week-2/179394/) That's not highest rated sci-fi, it's highest rated drama in any genre, beating out well-established franchises that it competes against.

Second, Warehouse 13 was SyFy's flagship show, and they put it on after Defiance to boost Defiance's ratings. However, Defiance is getting significantly higher ratings than Warehouse 13. (http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...c-more/189925/) Defiance: 1.936 million, 0.6 in the 18-49; Warehouse 13: 1.422 and 0.5.

Third, Comcast used Defiance's ratings as an example of their successful strategy when justifying a multi-billion dollar investment to their investors. (http://news.investors.com/technology...ngs.htm?p=full) TL,DR? The company specifically uses Defiance's ratings to justify the cost of creating innovative new programming rather than relying on cheap filler.

Fourth, Comcast doesn't expect individual shows to make money. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffberc...nd-videogames/) While you're at it, did you notice that they called Warehouse 13 SyFy's highest rated show in that article? Not any more. Go back to my second point. Now add in the fact that the show already has a major sponsor dishing out tons of cash to promote the show. Compare Dodge's support of Defiance to Toyota's support of Warehouse 13. They're not even in the same league. Even Axe made Defiance-specific ads.

Trust me, the guys who signed this deal are knee-deep in scotch and gummi bears right now.

Also, despite the stereotypes, big sports events definitely hit ratings, even for sci-fi. I have a ton of friends who are big sci-fi geeks like me. They were all following the Blackhawks, even the ones who no longer live in Illinois. I watched Defiance and then flipped over to the game, because I'm hardcore like that. Even casual fans get interested when there's a big event. You are guaranteed to take a hit in the teams' home towns, even if you don't get hit anywhere else, and sports franchises are placed in major markets because that's where the people are.

[Sonickat]

Honestly I have no clue what point you're trying to make.

Regardless, ratings are, as I said, inherently zero-sum, that's why the point/share system is constructed as it is. Shows of all types are, should be, and will be compared, because in the end advertisers by and large don't much care about what kind of show it is, they care about whether or not said show brings in the demo they care about in sufficient numbers.

I agree. Which is why you can't take two shows from different demographics (by extension probably genres) and use them as a comparison for one another.

[Remag Div]

Knowing SyFy Season 2 could have 5 million viewers per show and they will still probably cancel it for something like Taboo Paranormal: I date a ghost

[3rdpig]

Knowing SyFy Season 2 could have 5 million viewers per show and they will still probably cancel it for something like Taboo Paranormal: I date a ghost

I started laughing at your excellent joke...then I stopped and thought "that's not really a joke, SyFy is likely to do just that".

Pititful, ain't it?

[Tyger]

v.v'

/headshake

[EV76]

EV76 was commenting upon the increase in this week's episode over the last couple.

On the plus side, even during the slump, Defiance has managed to keep its numbers higher than the Stargate Universe slump that got that show (the last I personally cared at all about on SyFy until Defiance) dropped.

@nathanpbutler, yep that is exactly what I was trying to say! Thanks for the assist. Hopefully the season ender will be the biggest rated yet!

[Shogo_Yahagi]

If you're predicting an early demise for Defiance, you may want to read the last two articles that I linked to. Comcast, SyFy's parent company, sees innovative new scripted programming as their way forward and considers it to be a better investment than low-cost filler material. They used Defiance's ratings as a specific example justifying this approach when justifying an almost 17 billion dollar investment to their shareholders. Cable programming generates almost 90% of their ad revenue, and a highly rated program allows them to increase ad rates for all of their shows on a channel, so it doesn't have to break even on the ad revenue sold during its time slot.

Sure, they will probably continue to have enough cheap reality show garbage to fill out the week's schedule and bring down their average cost, but the only way they can justify charging enough for ads in those timeslots to make a profit is by having some killer shows elsewhere in the schedule with good enough ratings to balance them out.

Given that they need highly rated shows to drive up ad prices for those turds, and given that Warehouse 13 has only half a season left to run, I'd bet that Defiance is more likely to run for 5 years than 2, barring some unforseen catastrophe. If they lose both next year, their ad revenue takes a nosedive across the board. By this time next year, Defiance will be their Monday night anchor show, and they'll be using its ratings to pull up the ratings of some whatever new show they're trying out as Warehouse 13's mid-season replacement. If nothing else, even if they decide Defiance isn't their long-term solution, SyFy will need time to develop some other show to take over as their flagship show.

Although many of us would have preferred to see shows like Eureka, Warehouse 13, and Stargate Atlantis get longer runs, all three of those examples ran (or will run) for 5 seasons, and have reasonably high episode counts considering that the number needed for syndication is dropping and alternative distribution channels like Netflix are making syndication itself less necessary.

[drackiller]

This last episod was very good in my opinion. I think, one after another, the show is getting better, providing good info but whit a good amounth of mistery.
That is good in my opinion.

[JxSiN]

There are only 3 programs on SyFy: Defiance, Face/Off, and crap (sorry W13 fans, I didn't like it but will say it is better than all the other crap on the station). The point is, I think Defiance is having great ratings being on a network that is basically synonymous for dog-poo. That's also a problem; Defiance would have better ratings if it wasn't on a network that is basically synonymous for dog-poo.

[Zydrate]

I think the show needs to pick up some speed. At the moment it's just not intense enough. The last episode was actually pretty good as I felt some conflicts were finally coming to a head.

Past few episodes, I found it hard to care what was going on.