Defiance Season 1 Ratings Complete

[Remag Div]

If Season 2 has the same ratings I wonder if they will cancel it.

[keysmachine]

One doesn't need to be a 'doommonger' to notice that overall the ratings for Defiance have been less than stellar. To be sure it pulled decent numbers both at the start and end, but the middle of the run was lackluster at absolute best. When a dirt-cheap to make show like Pawn Stars routinely pulls 1.4 and a drama like Burn Notice (whose numbers I tend to notice as it's one of only two shows I bother watching) routinely pulls 1.0 -- 1.2, not to even mention the insane numbers Under The Dome is getting, well... 0.7 isn't exactly anything to write home about.

Is it good for SyFy? Yes. But I suspect the problem there is that the whole idea behind Defiance was to improve SyFy's flagging fortunes, lack of cred, and dismal numbers with a big budget "transmedia" (lol) experience that would get people talking and eyes watching.

I suspect Defiance did what it had to in order to continue, but only just -- and I mean only. I certainly wouldn't rule out a third season, but I wouldn't bet on it, either. A year before new episodes for a show that only barely performed up-to-snuff and for which there's next to no buzz (and, that, really, is the elephant in the living room, the lack of BSG-style, or even SG1 level buzz)? I guess we'll see, but it doesn't sound like a recipe for increased viewership to me.

The show clearly did better than the game, and I'd give the former far more chance of a long and happy life than the latter. Not that I think the Defiance servers are at risk of being taken out behind the shed for a lead enema, but honestly it might be kinder if that was exactly what happened.

In any event, at least now when someone asks who could possibly screw up worse than SyFy... We have a definitive answer.

Hold the doom flag high for everybody to see.

but TNT's FALLING SKIES actually had worse season 1 numbers than what's been posted here. not only did it go into season 2. but the numbers gradually began to improve as the writing and the actors got comfortable in their world and characters. still though as far as viewership went it didn't climb much.

But Season 3 rolled through anyway. And not even half way through Season 3 TNT renewed Falling skies for a 4th season. Numbers have picked up a few million here and a few million there.

point is just because you want to see this game/tv show burn. doesn't mean its going to. 2 million viewers for a sci-fi show is phenomenal. and it will only grow so long as the writing gets better as well as the acting.

[Shogo_Yahagi]

SGU may have had somewhat better ratings than Defiance but it did not have as many ways to watch it as Defiance has, so the ratings are the only reflection of its popularity. Stargate Atlantis is another matter but it may well have had production costs that required higher ratings to guarantee better ad revenue.

I'm not sure about Stargate Atlantis, but Stargate Universe had lower ratings than Defiance in season 1 and its season 2 ratings are roughly half what Defiance had this season, with almost half the episodes failing to get a million viewers.

Sanctuary and Alphas well I can't say, never watched and I could look up what their ratings were but again how a show can be watched also helps determine how popular it really is. If popularity ends up being based solely upon tv ratings and the ratings are not where execs want them to be (stupid yes a lot of the time) then they get cancelled.

Sanctuary's last season had only 1 episode that drew more than 1.5 mil., and most of the season was under 1.3. The first part of the third season hovered around 1.4, but the last half of that season was dismal. There was a long stretch near the end of the third season in which it couldn't break a million viewers. In its last two seasons, it only had one episode (the season 3 premiere) that did better than the worst episode of Defiance, and it didn't do much better.

Alphas had a good premiere, but slumped hard. By the season finale, it was down to about 1.1 million viewers.

[Sliverbaer]

Quite amusing line from those Nielsen ratings articles.

"Congrats to that 0.007% for continuing to get to dictate what the 99.993% get to watch on TV!"

[Smoky]

I don't watch Defiance on TV because I don't have cable. I generally watch tv on Netflix or Hulu. In fact I don't watch anything besides sporting events on regular tv. Nielson numbers are out dated and they need a new method of collecting data that more accurately reflects viewership.

[djmhn]

(as others have stated) Nielsen Ratings focus more on advertisements, Networks use Nielsen Numbers for Advertising Prices....it's all about the money for them.

As far as the numbers themselves go....you can't fairly compare SyFy with networks like ABC or FOX.

The Big Bang Theory on ABC, for example, has been known to go over a 5.0 rating, and that is not even their highest rated show.

Compared to larger, Prime Broadcast Networks, Defiance is doing terrible

Compared to other Cable Networks like SpikeTV (whose highest rated show averages between 0.8 to 1.2)

or, when compared to other shows on SyFy (which can go as low as 0.4) ... Defiance is doing fairly well.


Also, I'm not sure where you got those ratings...but I believe the numbers are off...I remember Defiance getting a 1.3 for their premier....It was the most watched premier SyFy has had since Warehouse 13 in 2009

[Myria]

Hold the doom flag high for everybody to see.

Out of curiosity, do you really think cheap ad hominems add anything useful to the discussion whatsoever?

but TNT's FALLING SKIES actually had worse season 1 numbers than what's been posted here.

Hmmm...

S01E01 - Defiance: 1.0 Falling Skies: 2.0
S01E02 - Defiance: 0.8 Falling Skies: 1.5
S01E03 - Defiance: 0.8 Falling Skies: 1.3
S01E04 - Defiance: 0.8 Falling Skies: 1.4
S01E05 - Defiance: 0.6 Falling Skies: 1.4

Not even close, as far as I can see.

point is just because you want to see this game/tv show burn.

And I said that where, exactly?

[Myria]

Also, I'm not sure where you got those ratings...but I believe the numbers are off...I remember Defiance getting a 1.3 for their premier....

Source is in the OP, you can go back through the Monday rating posts from there. Keep in mind that the numbers are based on Live+SD. I occasionally see Live+7 numbers quoted (SyFy's announcement uses them), but have found no regular source for cable Live+7 or share numbers.

I've seen the premier episode 1.3 number thrown around for millions of viewers in the 18 - 49 demo, but no source. Either way, not the same as the rating point system, which is based on a percentage of the theoretical maximum number of viewers.

[bigdirty]

Pretty sure TNT has a lot more subscribers than SyFy. You're talking about a major cable channel to a minor genre channel. TNT has some huge contracts and high-budget programming. Of course more people are going to watch Falling Skies. The constant negativity blows ***.

[Bored Peon]

Lol you can not compare TNT with ANY other cable channel EVER.

TNT has been playing the SAME shows during its daily broadcasts for YEARS.

I mean seriously anyone even know how many times they have run Los Vegas, Angel, and Charmed from season 1 until their series ends over and over?

Any network that would do such a thing hardly really gives a @#$% about their ratings.

Different networks are going to cancel shows when the ratings fall below THEIR standards, not neilson standards. Like CW waited until Hellcats and Ringer waited until the view fell well below 1 million viewers before canceling them in their second season. Had that been NBC or ABC it would have gotten the axe well before that point.

I do not forsee Defiance going away on TV any time soon. Not while it still has sponsors like Dodge and Axe. Not many TV shows these days have such direct sponsors.