Moving to Sunday's in 2007..

Basq

Gone will be the Saturday afternoon fix of BSG!

Read here!

"Battlestar Galactica" is hitching its hopes to Sunday nights.

The critically acclaimed Sci Fi Channel drama will move from Friday nights to Sundays at 10 beginning Jan. 21.

Move will mark the first time Sci Fi has tried an original series on the night -- and the first time since its premiere in 2003 that "Battlestar" will have a new home.

Cabler usually runs a mix of original movies and acquisitions on Sunday.

Third cycle of "Battlestar" is off slightly from last season. Since its premiere Oct. 6, series has averaged 2.1 million overall viewers (down from 2.3 million) and 1.4 million in adults 18-49.

Sci Fi exec VP of programming Mark Stern said there are two reasons for moving the series.

"Broadcast and cable networks realized Friday was not such a bad timeslot, so it's not the easy lay-up it once was," he said.

In addition, he added, Sundays have bigger HUT levels and will be less competitive come January when football leaves the sked.

Frosh one-hour "Eureka" showed that "we can launch a show successfully on a new night beyond Friday," Stern said. "Sunday is the home for premiere programming and for us, that's 'Battlestar.' "

Sci Fi Channel also will debut its detective drama "The Dresden Files" Jan. 21 at 9, where it will lead into "Battlestar." Stern said the cabler is hoping that "Dresden" will bring in a new and broader audience to the latter.

"Battlestar" will have at least two major competitors when it makes the move: CBS' "Without a Trace" and ABC's "Brothers & Sisters."

Goodshape

Don't know too much about timeslot popularity but for me personally, Friday night is a terrible time for a show I love to air. It's exactly the time I don't wan't to be in watching TV.

Sunday's when I usually watch BSG anyway, so for me I suppose this is bad news really -- I won't get it until Monday or Tuesday now, but I hope the yanks share my view-time preferences and we get to see these ratings pick up again. Would hate to see the budget getting slashed or, heaven forbid, the show being canceled prematurely.

ixoy

In the US, the Big Night is Thursday night. Sunday is less heavy, and the big shows of that night are the likes of "Desperate Housewives" whose audience wouldn't be a threat really to BSGs'.
Friday nights it has competed against shows which could more likely have an affect on it (I think "Numb3rs" airs against it which would probably have more cross-base fan appeal)

Hopefully it'll be accompanied by appropriate advertising of the move...

Haruspex

The critically acclaimed Sci Fi Channel drama will move from Friday nights to Sundays at 10 beginning Jan. 21.

I guess this also means that the latter half (the remaining 10 episodes) of season three will air from this date as well. Bit of a longer wait than this year when we had episodes much earlier in January.

They've already begun to slow the pace of back-to-back episodes I see as the next new episode airs on 1 December. So no BSG for us this weekend!

If this move bolsters the ratings to guarantee another season then I'm all for it. Didn't The X-Files used to air in its later seasons in the States on Sundays or is it Sky I'm thinking of here?

chalkitdown1

Haruspex wrote:

I guess this also means that the latter half (the remaining 10 episodes) of season three will air from this date as well. Bit of a longer wait than this year when we had episodes much earlier in January.

Yeah, but, Season 2's episode 10 aired in September last year and we had to wait nearly 4 months for episode 11 in early January. The scheduling is much better this season. Waiting 1 month > waiting 4 months.

Haruspex wrote:

They've already begun to slow the pace of back-to-back episodes I see as the next new episode airs on 1 December. So no BSG for us this weekend!

Not to fret, the final 10 episodes next year will be airing back to back without any breaks. The only reason it's not on this week, I'd imagine, is 'cos it's thanksgiving in the States.

User45701

I was just thinking having a BSG the 2nd i get home from work on a monday is actually a very good thing. It will make me happy instead of the usual monday shight, so now there is
BSG
family guy
american dad
simpsons
robot chicken
All on a monday