An Open Letter to SyFy

October 10, 2015

Dear Syfy –

This year, it seems like the network is at a crossroads, with many shows losing viewers or failing to gain them during their first season.  I liked many of this year’s freshman crop of shows and strongly supported them by watching and on social media. I admit, I prefer the science fiction and fantasy genre, rather than reality shows and wrestling. But, I think those shows are encountering the same problems.  Last season, it appeared as if the network put careful thought into supporting its new shows:  Dominion, Znation;  its planned 2015 new shows, 12 Monkeys, Killjoys and Dark Matter, as well as its on-going shows, Defiance and, to a certain extent Haven.  These shows received convention support and cross-publicity on sister NBCUniversal network channels, as well as some channels outside the parent company.  This resulted in very good ratings for Dominion, Defiance and Znation.  All three ended with about 1.5M viewers in 2014.

Cut to 2015.  Programming decisions seem to have heavily influenced the success of Syfy’s shows.  I’m going to focus on Dominion, since that is the most obvious victim of poor scheduling, although ratings for EVERY SINGLE SYFY SHOW this season plummeted, several by about 50% (see the inset below).  I believe there are three significant factors which account for ratings decline: dates aired, time aired and show pairings.

 

Syfy Show Ratings as of October 10, 2015

Dates Aired.  Last year, Dominion premiered June 19. With an 8 episode run, its finale aired August 7.  The significance to these dates is that it was truly a summer show.  This year, Defiance began its run on June 12, ending its run August 28.  Dominion aired on July 9.  The problem with a 13-episode summer show starting in mid-July is that it ends during the fall network show premieres.  Dominion’s finale aired October 1 and it faced at least one network premiere on that date.  Additionally, no one at the network seems to have been aware of the fact that NFL football would begin preseason in early August as it does every year.  Thursday night NFL vacuumed up 6 MILLION viewers from the available viewer pool.  Given a choice between a live sporting event and a show that can be timeshifted, viewers will watch the sports show live, and timeshift non-time-sensitive programming.  Adding to this buzzsaw, the Republican Convention occurred the week before NFL preseason began, and THAT garnered 5 MILLION viewers.

For LIVE viewing, presumably far more valuable to the network, it's essential to avoid viewing disruptions, as once a viewer is interrupted, they are more inclined to shift to time-phased viewing, and might actually put off watching the show indefinitely, even if they like it a lot.  So, lack of foresight in when the show was started really damaged Dominion’s sustained viewing.  The listing of on-going ratings below demonstrates the impact of competition of live events (convention and sports) AND illustrates Dominion’s continuing popularity, as the show was increasing viewership until the live show competition began.  Plus, L+7 ratings showed continued strength. The Republican Convention aired Thursday, August 6. The NFL preseason kickoff aired Thursday, August 13.

 

Dominion Show ratings as of October 10, 2015

Time Aired.  Dominion was pushed from 9pm to 10pm.  This is detrimental because of many people’s work schedule. Plus, the overall audience at 10 pm is smaller.

Show Pairings.  Last season, Dominion and Defiance were shown back-to-back, greatly enhancing the audience for both.  This year, inexplicably, WWE Smackdown wrestling was moved from its 10-year tenure on Fridays to Thursday, and Defiance was moved from Thursday night to Friday night.  It seems an obvious choice to have left Dominion and Defiance paired or to have paired both successful returning shows with the two freshman shows (giving both a boost).  Instead, the revised scheduling doesn’t seem to have helped ANY of the five shows (including wrestling), with NO show achieving near the ratings from 2014.  Stacking three SF shows on Friday likely damaged the one airing at 10pm (Dark Matter) due to sheer fatigue.

When it comes to making decisions on renewals, economics is certainly the consideration. That makes choosing to keep jointly produced shows with unfortunately mediocre ratings (such as Killjoys and Dark Matter) easy, because splitting production costs with other production companies reduces the network’s costs.  But, for homegrown shows, economics demands better ratings, and frankly, Dominion’s ratings would have been FAR higher had it been aired earlier in the year, earlier on whatever evening it was scheduled AND had it been paired with a similar genre show. This mistake is rectifiable, and audience can be recovered, simply by avoiding these mistakes next season.  With its continued neglect of Dominion, when it was evident what problems it was encountering, the network showed that it is not committed to supporting excellent, innovative programming.

Without assurance that it will support its shows (like the presence 12 Monkeys had at NYCC for its second season), it’s likely that I, as well as many other fans, will wait to see what happens with renewal decisions before committing to watch a new series.  This is a Catch-22 which will result in dismal ratings. Ultimately, this marks the death spiral of a network, which is in no one’s best interest.  It would seem to be more practical to renew an existing show with an established base and properly schedule it, than to have to fill in space left empty by that show, as well as the gap left by the departure of wrestling. 

I hope the network gives the critically successful show Dominion another chance.  I might not be able to watch Hunters, The Expanse or Childhood’s End, at least not when they initially air.  I can’t invest in watching shows that Syfy will not support or cultivate, causing a level of anxiety that I (and many other fans) am not willing to endure.

Thank you very much for consideration of this issue.  I wish the network continued success.