SG Atlantis Cancelled

helimachoptor · 21-08-2008 10:31AM #1

http://www.gateworld.net/news/2008/08/istargate_atlantisi_will_end_thi.shtml

UPDATE: MGM has advised us that an official press release will be issued Thursday, which will hopefully answer many questions. Stay tuned to GateWorld.

The SCI FI Channel is ending Stargate Atlantis after five seasons, Multichannel News reports.

The show will go on, though, with a 2-hour movie that will air on SCI FI in 2009, and be released on DVD by MGM. The film will be written by executive producers Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie.

It's intended to be the first of an on-going series of Atlantis movies, according to the report. Stargate SG-1 has released two very successful movies direct-to-DVD this year (Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum), though neither has aired on U.S. television yet.

"The show will live on as a network franchise," the report also says. This could indicate that future Atlantis movies are a lock for SCI FI, or it may be a general statement about the cable network's commitment to the Stargate franchise.

Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, who created and executive produced Atlantis, pitched a third television series in the 11-year-old TV franchise to the network last year (story). While SCI FI has not yet announced a green light for that show, the end of Atlantis may clear the way -- the dollars available for original programming, that is -- for the next series.

Though Stargate Atlantis has been a solid ratings performer for SCI FI -- and was its highest-rated original program ever when it premiered in July 2004 -- in recent years series like Eureka have supplanted it in the "Live" ratings.

Atlantis remains an extremely strong performer in DVR-delayed viewing, though, often building as much as 25 to 30 percent on its premiere night audience.

Season Five will go out on a cliffhanger, with "Enemy At the Gate" expected to premiere in January. Expect the first Atlantis movie to wrap up that hanging storyline.

Stay tuned to GateWorld and the GateWorld Podcast for the latest developments and comments from the show's producers, and hopefully for some big Stargate Universe news in the weeks ahead. Discuss this story now at GateWorld Forum.

Stargate Atlantis airs Friday nights at 10 p.m. (9 Central) on SCI FI.

Nukem · 21-08-2008 10:41AM

Another one bites the dust

Mr E · 21-08-2008 10:48AM

Ah thats a shame alright.... Ah well. At least they're finishing off the story properly, so we can be thankful for that.

ixoy · 21-08-2008 11:25AM

Bastards! Sci-Fi Channel perma-banned from the Stargate forum...

Unfortunately it's no real surprise. A lot of people expected this as five seasons would take it up to 100 episodes and thus ready for syndication (100 being the magic number). So they cancel SGA after 100 and SG-1 on its 200th celebration - they just don't like people to be happy do they..

Ron DMC · 21-08-2008 11:43AM

Meh, it was getting stale I thought, and was never as good as SG1.

Let's hope this "new series" is a better.

BKtje · 21-08-2008 11:53AM

Bleh another sci-fi show goes the way of the dinosaur.

Severe lack of Sci-Fi on tv these days. Don't suppose Sci-FI channel has any more decent looking stuff in the works?

Ivan · 21-08-2008 12:04PM

Sorry guys, but I'm glad.

helimachoptor · 21-08-2008 12:07PM

Ivan wrote: »

Sorry guys, but I'm glad.

blasphemy!!
In all seriousness it wasnt as good as SG1 but i always watched it.

I'll be sorry to see it go, I'd a soft spot for Keller:D

Sherifu · 21-08-2008 12:07PM

Cock.

Winters · 21-08-2008 12:09PM

Not surprised after the deadful storylines of the 5th season so far.

Jumpy · 21-08-2008 12:11PM

helimachoptor wrote: »

blasphemy!!
In all seriousness it wasnt as good as SG1 but i always watched it.

I'll be sorry to see it go, I'd a soft spot for Keller:D

I dont know if it is a good thing, but I always related to Rodney Mckay.
I pretty much am him at work.
Which sometimes makes me unpopular. But its ok. I just blame it on Zelenka (the other guy)

J-blk · 21-08-2008 12:37PM

Damn, didn't really expect that... Yeah it was never as good as SG-1 in it's prime but I'll miss my Stargate fix - I hope the new series rolls around soon... And even though I generally like most Sci-Fi, I hate bloody Eureka....

JohnK · 21-08-2008 12:48PM

Ah crap now what am I going to watch?

Overheal · 21-08-2008 01:31PM

*looks up*
*looks down*
*looks left*
*looks right*

Is it April again already?

Mr E · 21-08-2008 01:34PM

Well we've had April's weather for the last 5 months, so why not?

The Gnome · 21-08-2008 01:36PM

/falls to knees in rain

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

This is it now, after BSG ends I'll have nothing... NOTHING!

is_that_so · 21-08-2008 04:24PM

Ronny Mitchell wrote: »

Meh, it was getting stale I thought, and was never as good as SG1.

Let's hope this "new series" is a better.

Ivan wrote: »

Sorry guys, but I'm glad.

Wincest is best! wrote: »

Not surprised after the deadful storylines of the 5th season so far.

If it is a judgement call by the producers then it's a rarity in TV. Sorry to see it go but all things considered it may be time to move beyond the Earth-centred focus of the franchise.
The only positive in my view is that it won't drag on embarrassingly as SG-1 did for close to 3 seasons. The two SG-1 films, especially Continuum, have shown that there is scope for feature length episodes.

ixoy · 21-08-2008 04:57PM

is_that_so wrote: »

If it is a judgement call by the producers then it's a rarity in TV.

It's not. It can't be a co-incidence that 5 seasons gives them 100 episodes which is what they need to sell syndication rights, which is one of the ways they can recoup the costs of the show.

I still enjoyed the show on a weekly basis and for those glad it's gone, I'd rather ye stopped watching it than be glad it's ending.

AlmightyCushion · 21-08-2008 06:41PM

Assholes.

senordingdong · 21-08-2008 07:08PM

Unfortunatly I have to say I'm not bothered.

I'm sure everyone knows my feelings on Atlantis at this stage, but it did continue to churn out a good one every now and again.
As someone said, better it ends now then dragging out like SG-1 did but to be honest, I feel like this thing has been dragging since season two.

Sci Fi channel don't seem to like sci fi at all...

Bajingo · 21-08-2008 08:16PM

Im dissapointed but not shocked...it sad there will never be another stargate again...I liked the series yea it was no SG-1 but it delivered...however im glad it isnt going to drag on...SG-1 was brilliant upto series 7 but after that....

If they make a spin-off it probably wont be very stargate related it will be on a ship perhaps and stargate wont be in the name...

cant see it happening for a while either

Ivan · 21-08-2008 11:04PM

ixoy wrote: »

It's not. It can't be a co-incidence that 5 seasons gives them 100 episodes which is what they need to sell syndication rights, which is one of the ways they can recoup the costs of the show.

I still enjoyed the show on a weekly basis and for those glad it's gone, I'd rather ye stopped watching it than be glad it's ending.

And I'd rather they put out 2 semi decent stargate atlantis movies and 1 great one, than drag out the series for another 3-4 seasons.

Honestly, a large part of the premise and the story direction was laughable but it was still watchable for a quick stargate fix. But if the cancellation of this show means another stargate series gets the limelight, as seems to be the case, then I'd personally fire Rodney out an airlock faster than you can say "Frak".

User45701 · 21-08-2008 11:34PM

they are making a spin off SGU? Stargate Universe.

the thing is they had 3 choices

More SG1 Movies
Another Season of Atlantis
Stargate universe

my understanding is that they only had enough money for two of the above. The Atlantis tv movie mention might be the one and only feature legenth atlantis movie just to tie up the story.

Id like 1 to see annualy

1 sg1 movie
1 sga movie
1 season of stargate universe

keep everyone happy if they can afford 2 sg1 movies a year they could do one of both and they could do it for longer instead of just picking one and then running out of stories.

robby^5 · 22-08-2008 11:00AM

It had to end some day, better it be canned now then go down the SG1 route... glad to hear they'll be making the films though, Continuum was the best Sg1 story in years, hopefully they'll be able to pull it off for Atlantis too.

ixoy · 22-08-2008 02:09PM

Apparently it was a mutual decision to end it, so it's not quite cancelled:

The decision to end Stargate Atlantis and jump to the movie format was made mutually by the SCI FI Channel, MGM, and Stargate Productions in Vancouver, executive producer Brad Wright told GateWorld today. Rather than canceling the show because of under-performance, the Powers That Be decided to go out on top while Atlantis is still popular enough to support the release of DVD movies.

"Once we realized that with the prospect of another series going forward ... and SG-1 movies going forward, this was the right way for the partnership between MGM and us and SCI FI to go forward," Wright said in an exclusive interview. "If they weren't in complete agreement on where to go next, if it wasn't a joint decision, there wouldn't be a movie deal already in place."

"The show was doing well. But you don't wait until the show isn't doing well before you try to launch movies. If you are going to go do movies when the show has still got life left in it, that's a good time!"

Assuming that the cable network will eventually pick up Stargate Universe as a television series, Wright said that the franchise will be stronger than ever with four "brand" legs to stand on: Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis in the movie format, Universe on television, and the upcoming video game Stargate Worlds reaching into yet another medium.

"And that's good for the franchise," he said. "Riding one horse until it's tired is not going to make it evolve into movies.

"And you know, SG-1 owes Atlantis a debt in that sense. It helped revive the franchise for SG-1. And I think that's how it's going to proceed between Atlantis, SG-1, and Universe. And the game! That's going to help, too."

But is it too soon for the third series? Could Stargate be teetering on the edge of brand exhaustion? Despite the naysayers, Wright believes that the Stargate franchise is stronger than it has ever been as it heads toward 2009.

"It will wear out when we stop making good shows that people want to see," he said. "And as long as we are putting our hearts and our effort into making the upcoming series and upcoming movie as good as they can be -- and as long as we still feel they're vital -- I think it's going to keep going strong."

dr.bollocko · 22-08-2008 02:16PM

It's gone!
Woohoo!
/runs.

Overheal · 22-08-2008 03:57PM

I agree there - good to go out on top. Look what it did for Firefly

and we have Stargate Worlds to look forward to as well, if you're a gamer: http://www.stargateworlds.com/

Saruman · 22-08-2008 04:06PM

I liked Atlantis actually. that sucks. Still the new season just started back on sky and i thought it was a little poor (first ep). Something just seemed to be missing in it.

I think one of the biggest problems is the wraith. They beat the Ancients, maybe by numbers more so than anything to do with their technology but in 10,000 years they still have not developed shields? the gould could have wiped the floor with them.

User45701 · 22-08-2008 07:19PM

the main reason the wraith have never been a threat was so little food for them, they woke too early.

22-08-2008 07:26PM

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Assholes.

To be truthful, if you look at a lot of shows that get cancelled, they're often the shows that have a high young/male audience. Precisely the audience who are most likely to download stuff on the internet. I guess that's part of the reason they're going down the DVD route, as people are more likely to buy a DVD, even if they have downloaded it for extra features etc... People are less inclined to buy expensive box sets.

If stargate was free online like Southpark is now, I'd wager they wouldn't have these problems.

don ramo · 22-08-2008 10:53PM

its a strange one for sci-fi really, ending atlantis and BSG together will deffinately hit there ratings, they better hope universe and caprica do well,

sure we all saw this coming, atlantis broke the trend when they got the 5th season, its was the first sci-fi original series to push past the 4 season mark,

this really sucks major ass, although the show hasnt been the same since season 2, but i still love it to pieces, rodney is the best, they should get him for universe

SG Atlantis Cancelled

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