Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Information, Lots of It....

Daybreak Part 2 was a huge ratings hit for the Sci-Fi Channel:

NBCU press release:
SCI-FI is #1 Cable Network

Series Finale is #1 Telecast for the Day Among Both Cable and Broadcast

Final Season Gains Double Digits vs. Season 3
New York, NY – March 23, 2009 – Battlestar Galactica wrapped a phenomenal series run on Friday evening with a finale episode that topped the competition on both cable and broadcast. As previously announced, Friday’s two-hour (9pm to 11pm) episode on SCI FI delivered a 1.7 household rating with 2.4 million total viewers watching live (1.5 million Adults 18-49 and 1.6 million Adults 25-54), becoming the most-watched episode of the series in over three years. In addition:

Battlestar Galactica Finale Ratings Update

· Battlestar Galactica was the #1 entertainment program on television Friday night for adult male viewers, beating all non-sports telecasts on cable and broadcast for both Males 18-49 and Males 25-54, including new episodes of both Dollhouse and Sarah Connor Chronicles on FOX.

· In both the Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54 demos, the Battlestar Galactica finale was the #1 cable telecast for the day, and SCI FI was the #1 cable network in 8-11 PM prime for both demos as well.

· For its full fourth season, Battlestar Galactica averaged a 1.8 Household rating, 1.6 million Adults 18-49, 1.7 million Adults 25-54 and 2.3 million total viewers. (Note that this does not include the final DVR playback data for the final 2 episodes, and in season 4.5 to-date the series has added over 700,000 viewers per episode from 7-day DVR playback.)

· Season 4 is up vs. season 3 by + 13% in Household ratings, +15% in Adults 18-49, +16% in Adults 25-54 and +14% in total viewers.

· This is the best full season performance for Battlestar Galactica in Adults 18-49, Adults 25-54 and total viewers since season 1.

In addition, fans flocked to SCIFI.COM on Friday to bid farewell to the series, resulting in a surge in Battlestar Galactica traffic versus the season 4.0 finale by +20% in page views, +45% in unique users and +20% in video streams. Battlestar Galactica was also the #1 section of SCIFI.com on 3/20/09 across all key metrics.


The BSG cast and crew watched the finale together at a screening in North Hollywood Friday night. (Being at the screening doubled the emotional power of the finale itself for me, because not only was it moving to say goodbye to the characters on screen, but it was also an amazing thing to watch the actors, writers, producers, crew, family and friends, and all the guests there say goodbye to the show together. It was really an honor to be there, and to see it with them.)

Zap2It has a poll that shows most fans enjoyed the finale. BuzzSugar's poll has similar numbers. Mark Verheiden makes a great observation about the different kinds of BSG fans, and how that effects reactions. Spike and Angel pretty much showcase the discussion on BSG's finale.

The Digital Bits and TV Shows on DVD have news on the release of season 4.5 and the complete series on DVD and Blu-ray.

Ron Moore was interviewed by Maureen Ryan, Alan Sepinwall, Sci-Fi Wire, Reuters, TV Guide, and Fan Cast.

After Ellen did a live chat with Jane Espenson. Michelle Kung talked to Edward James Olmos for The Wall St. Journal.

Slice of Sci-Fi offers their top ten episodes of BSG. Daily Record points to the Six Best Moments. The Washington Post has 10 Business Lessons from Battlestar Galactica.

Geek Tyrant has the history and an inside look at Battlestar Galactica. Geek Tyrant and io9 examine the original idea for the end of BSG that Ron Moore had in mind before the writer's strike, as Moore detailed in his podcast for Daybreak.

Compare and contrast 1978 BSG, and 2003 BSG.

Steampunk Cylons from Dvice.

Check out some awesome on-set photography from Maurice Woodworth on Flikr.

Marc Bernardin in Entertainment Weekly ponders what's next after BSG. Speaking of next, AICN posts seven clips from Caprica.

Ginia Bellafante for the New York Times writes that BSG raises questions about earth. The Guardian reports on the recent UN talk on the themes of BSG. Other UN clips here, here, and here.



Technology Review reports:

An international team of scientists in Europe has created a silicon chip designed to function like a human brain. With 200,000 neurons linked up by 50 million synaptic connections, the chip is able to mimic the brain's ability to learn more closely than any other machine.


If your interested in some of the other science debates surrounding the finale, I suggest you visit the Galactica Science Blog, Brad Ideas, and check out these various Wikipedia articles on, Mitochondrial Eve, the population bottleneck, most recent common ancestor, creationism and the abduction theory, panspermia, transpermia, common descent, and cosmic ancestry. Discover Magazine has answers, along with an interview with BSG's science advisor Dr. Kevin Grazier.

2 comments:

General Boy said...

Great Googlie-Mooglie! Thanks for the info! GB

Unknown said...

I second that ! woderful job !

@YouTube TV Clip :
BSG at the UN is not crazy but only natural.
But this clip is just a caricature.
And we probably all know that... :)

Nonetheless, I recommend watching the entire UN talk,
Especially to those that the Finale didn't fully satisfy.