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Well about a year ago there was some discussion on these boards about the ratings of Farscape vs Lexx.
Many people including myself have accused Sci-Fi of manipulating and cheating the viewers by showing half season then calling it quits for 3-6 months before showing the rest.
As of this season Farscapes numbers have dropped to insane lows. Because of which Sci-Fi will be dumping Farscapes new episodes to re-run older episodes in hopes that SG-1 viewers and Dead Zone viewers will start to understand the series better.
http://www.farscapeweekly.com/hiatus_2002.htmPay particular attention to summer through Winter. This is when Lexx new episodes aired.
The most damning of all the info is the Series3 bar denoted in maroon. The massive drop comes after Yo-Way-Yo, and into Series 4 of farscape the ratings begin at the same low.
Much much more info on Sci-fi.com boards. But the Farscape fans there seem to feel its a total mystery.
[ 16-08-2002: Message edited by: LexxLurker ]
So Sci-fi is planning another con-trick then, having used Lexx to make the figures for Farscape look good, they now plan the same trick with SG-1, will they ever learn?
Why bother trying to continue to disguise it’s failings, Sci-fi’s arrogance beggars belief, for me their constant plugging of it was a major turn-off, and I’m happy that it has backfired on them, sci-fi fans obviously do not like being dictated too in what they watch.
Sci-fi should concentrate their efforts in a more worthwhile enterprise, it reminds me of a certain football club in the UK trying to make everyone else believe that a certain south american on their books is the best in england and will not accept otherwise!!!
Farscape has been badly devised in it’s promotion and concept, and many Sci-fi fans can see through the Sci-fi channel’s futile attempt to make us think otherwise.
Squishy
squishy, long time no see (due to my absence more than yours-i thought about looking you up while in england visiting mr and mrs sadgeezer, but all the clusterlizards had unlisted numbers! )…all seriousness aside, i guess i am one of the people lexxlurker was referring to; friday nights in the u.s. for me was farscape while waiting for lexx…and in the beginning, i liked farscape, for different reasons…but when the lexx hiatuses were on, i would lose track of farscape, and later found that the plot had gotten a bit too harlequin novel in space for me…ah well, for nostalgia’s sake at any rate, i miss the old farscape as well, particularly zhaan, and the idea of parallel development of a plant based sentient life form…whatever, saddy and newkate introduced me to red dwarf while i was in england, and i have to say i really liked it, and saw a lot of the lexx sensibilities in it; a bunch of losers mucking about totally out of their depth in space
quote:
Originally posted by FX:
squishy, long time no see (due to my absence more than yours
speaking of long time, no see… hehehe… I just thought I’d say hi. I’m still lurking about here and there but I can never think of anything to say. But, I DO miss YOU, FX. You’ll always be my girl. Just thought I’d let you know that
The SciFi lineup on Friday nites is really lame. Before I became a fan of Lexx, I was a Farscape fan. It was something worth sharing with the kid on Friday evenings.
I like Farscape, or I did like it. Most eps now seem to be rehashing of old ideas. If I am home when it’s on, I turn on the box, otherwise I don’t bother.
SciFi Friday prime is a big yawn now.
[ 17-08-2002: Message edited by: PeridotEyes ]
Farscape, was something that came on before Lexx. That’s it as far as I was concerned.
I have always maintained that if Lexx had tenth of the promotion of Farscape and a bit more of a stable timeslot …. it would have blown Farscape out of the water.
Scifi programming decisions are one of life’s great mysteries. Why’d they move Farscape to 10 PM and give SG1 the 9 PM slot? There’s always a drop off at 10 PM. This is SG1’s last season and Farscape was supposed to be the Scifi franchise. And this is just more proof if anyone needs it that the policy of long hiatuses for their programs just doesn’t work–but they can’t seem to stop doing it….
I’ve lost track of their schedule since Lexx is gone, really uninspired stuff. But hey, they’re offering us more Tremors next year.
elmey
quote:
Originally posted by FX:
squishy, long time no see (due to my absence more than yours-i thought about looking you up while in england visiting mr and mrs sadgeezer, but all the clusterlizards had unlisted numbers! )…all seriousness aside, i guess i am one of the people lexxlurker was referring to; friday nights in the u.s. for me was farscape while waiting for lexx…and in the beginning, i liked farscape, for different reasons…but when the lexx hiatuses were on, i would lose track of farscape, and later found that the plot had gotten a bit too harlequin novel in space for me…ah well, for nostalgia’s sake at any rate, i miss the old farscape as well, particularly zhaan, and the idea of parallel development of a plant based sentient life form…whatever, saddy and newkate introduced me to red dwarf while i was in england, and i have to say i really liked it, and saw a lot of the lexx sensibilities in it; a bunch of losers mucking about totally out of their depth in space
Ahhh, it’s a shame you didn’t, you could have packed me in your suitcase and taken me back to America with you, might be a bit funny going through customs when they x-ray you’re luggage and spot a cluster lizard amongst your underwear!!!
Next time you’re here make sure you look me up…you can usually find me or other cluster lizards in the yellow pages under wedding planners or large party organisers, any job where we can get a mass of people together (yum)!!!…anyhoo I hope you’re well.Squishy
*giggle*
I, too, watched Farscape because it came on before Lexx. Like everyone else, I think that the SciFi Channel really wrecked Lexx‘s chances of becoming really popular because of it’s lousey scheduling.
Gawd I hated Farscape. It was fun for the first two seasons, but got old fast. I actually want to see it die because of the forums I frequent (other than this one) everyone hates LEXX and just loves the **** out of Farscape. They love it for all the reasons why I hated it.
It comes to no suprise that most of the people who did like in on those forums were kids.
So rejoice! Sci-Fi’s evil marketing ideas will eventually kill Farscape and ill be able to gloat on those forums, to rub it in on the reasons why Farscape was killed because many people think LEXX was canceled because it sucked.
quote:
Originally posted by thefrey:
It’s dead Jim.
Far from it. I’ve been keeping track of what’s going on. According to the folks at Henson, SciFi Channel is “talking” again. Also, there’s talk that Showtime may be interested. And then there’s word that Rupert Murdoch is interested in buying the Jim Henson studio which would mean that Farscape would move to Fox and get higher ratings than ever.
Oh yeah, and then there is the movie that’s in the works. And negotiations for an anime version of the show.
The only way for Farscape to be resurrected is to cut costs down. Those muppets arnt cheap, and they have to keep making them as they wear out after awhile.
1.5 – 2.0 million per show, and as it becomes more popular, the actors will eventually demmand more money. So basically you’ll see the cast being replaced more often.
I for one amd glad the show was canceled, almost everyone I know doesnt like LEXX, but loves the **** out of Farscape. They trash LEXX all the time. They just need something to fill the void of bad trek series, so they flock to Farscape.
[ 28-09-2002: Message edited by: Evil_Lister ]
Lister, you can leave your bias out of it.
Labor costs are probably lower than most shows. SG-1 costs about the same per ep, and you can bet that a non-trivial part of that is to pay Mr. Anderson.
Whoa, so Sci-Fi Channel has been screwing shows over in order to plug other shows and keep their ratings up!? That sucks. Not only does it suck, its what happened to Invader Zim. Dunno if anyone on here is a fan, but I loved it, and love ALL of Jhonen Vasquez’s works. But Nickelodeon pulled a lot of crap and was constantly screwing Invader Zim over! It’s normal slot was Friday at 9pm. Sometimes they’d just put that atrocity known as Fairly Oddparents on in place of it. Plus, when it was on, one fourth of the time it was the SAME episode! And then it was announced that it was cancelled due to ‘poor ratings’. Which in itself was BS, because ratings were GOOD, not GREAT, but GOOD. And they coulda been GREAT had Nick actually done a little thing called ADVERTISING. The real reason for its cancellation was from the Guys in Suits fearing that it would drive children to kill their parents, and the show was too ‘dark, and goth-natured’. Who owns Sci-Fi? If it’s VIACOM, expect more BULL**** Tacticts like that.
quote:
Originally posted by Evil_Lister:
The only way for Farscape to be resurrected is to cut costs down. Those muppets arnt cheap, and they have to keep making them as they wear out after awhile.1.5 – 2.0 million per show, and as it becomes more popular, the actors will eventually demmand more money. So basically you’ll see the cast being replaced more often.
I for one amd glad the show was canceled, almost everyone I know doesnt like LEXX, but loves the **** out of Farscape. They trash LEXX all the time. They just need something to fill the void of bad trek series, so they flock to Farscape.
[ 28-09-2002: Message edited by: Evil_Lister ]
Nicely put Evil Lister, my sentiments exactly.
Farscape died a death and should stay dead, it couldn’t attract an audience other than it’s core viewers, so it floundered, and to be honest as soon as SG-1 turned up that really finished it off. Lexx was killed off by Farscape because of it’s scheduling, and now SG-1 has killed Farscape.
What the hardcore fans of Farscape fail to realise is that most people find the idea of Farscape lame, muppets are for the kids and look ridiculous if you want a serious Sci-fi programme to be liked. The stories were never that good and we’d seen it all before, it was totally unoriginal and didn’t seem ashamed to pinch it’s ideas from other Sci-fi shows.
It doesn’t have any bite and I watched it for 5 eps before I realised just how poor it was…so I got a can of paint threw it on my wall and watched it dry…much more interesting!!!
So the fans that are running around trying to save it are wasting their time, no one is going to buy it, it’s got itself a tag as being boring, and no one’s opinion is going to change, which is why it’s been canned. But it’s nice to see that Sci-fi have effectively admitted that it’s a dead duck, especially after the annoying constant plugging of it.
Farscape….goodby and good riddance.
ADMquote:
Originally posted by Flamegrape:
Far from it. I’ve been keeping track of what’s going on. According to the folks at Henson, SciFi Channel is “talking” again. Also, there’s talk that Showtime may be interested. And then there’s word that Rupert Murdoch is interested in buying the Jim Henson studio which would mean that Farscape would move to Fox and get higher ratings than ever.
Oh yeah, and then there is the movie that’s in the works. And negotiations for an anime version of the show.
It’s all rumour and speculation, most of it generated by the fans to try and raise their spirits.
I’ve seen that Sci-Fi has now said no to bringing it back, and Fox is not going to take such a huge risk. It seems like it’s Henson that is actually try to flog it to other studios, the reason being that his production company is floundering, animatronics are being used less and less in movies, CGI being the chosen path as it’s get’s to be cheaper to do each year.
Henson desperately needs a buyer and soon, and at the moment no one is really interested, sure they’ve had a sniff, but it’s clear that they won’t risk it.
The stats say it all, putting it on a larger network will bring in more viewers, but all that will do is make a comparison on Sci-fi’s figures but on a larger scale, so yes expect an increase, but an increase that won’t be good enough for a large network like Fox.
But the problem actually is Henson, he got greedy and Sci-fi didn’t like it, and Universal/Vivendi will no doubt have spread that message to other studios.
ADMI enjoyed Farscape forthe first two seasons and some of the third season. It lost me when they started killing people off and then resurrecting them. There were some outstanding eps, but the most recent hash was just tooo much. I haven’t missed the show and if it does return, I most likely won’t watch unless there is absolutely nothing else on. As with many, I thought of the show as something to watch before Lexx came on.
None of this matters, Lexx rules above everything else in the sci-fi world. And it will kick Farscape anus now n forever..
So what’s the truth? I have been reviewing this thread off/on and have come to these conclusions:
1) Lexx fans and Farscape fans had a significant crossover
2) The really passionate Lexx fans are/were probably more tolerant of Farscape than vice versa
3) When Lexx did not follow Farscape, it hurt the audience for Farscape
4) Some Farscape fans truly despized Lexx, at worst Lexx fans were bored by Farscape particularly after season two
Okay,sound right?
And where is the source for objective proof? I spent an afternoon cruising the Net looking for ratings info but could find it for the prime time shows only…If you check the SciFi wire at Scifi.com, they carry a list of the top 10 Scifi channel shows every Monday. Other days of the week they have the list of top network scifi shows and so on. I imagine they archive the info–I find their search engine useless, but you may have more patience than I do.
Maybe someone else knows of other places to find more extensive lists of scifi show ratings. Most of the trade mags (Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, etc.) carry ratings as well, but you have to either subscribe or at least register with most of them, and then you’d have to wade through the list of every show on TV.
I think you’ll find that for some reason viewership for SciFi’s Friday Prime has always dropped off at 10 PM, no matter what show was in that time slot. One of Farscape’s problems was the move to 10PM. It does make you wonder what Scifi was thinking, since Stargate viewers were used to tuning in to that show at 10 PM on Showtime. Programming seems to be a truly arcane “science”
I think you’ll also find that it’s very hard to make a judgement just on the raw numbers.
Like most statistics they can be interpreted in a variety of ways. I’m not sure how much the ending of Lexx hurt the Farscape ratings. When SG1 started, Friday Night Prime ratings certainly went up as a whole. I doubt SciFi made their decision on Farscape based on ratings. Aleck probably had the best explanation in the earlier cancellations thread:
On cancellationsAnd in case you’re REALLY interested in some of the ins and outs of ratings, here’s a link that may seem odd, but has good basic resources.
You should NEVER have to waste a perfectly good afternoon looking for ratings info
elmey
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