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Authors: Robert E. Wood
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addition, the series did not receive as much media coverage in the UK as it did in the US, and much of what it did receive was negative.
RATINGS
Prior to Space: 1999 ’s American premiere, Time magazine posed the question, ‘Can a $6.5 million show tailor-made for national TV survive rejection by all three networks and win success anyway? … With confidence bordering on brashness, ITC predicts that it is giving the networks their biggest ever prime-time challenge and in the process producing the season’s first big hit … Space: 1999 is a futuristic Arthurian fantasy … Space: 1999 ’s success could not only bite deeply into the audience ratings for the network shows, but perhaps even sink a couple in the first critical weeks.’ [1]
When it debuted in the US in September 1975, Space: 1999 proved to be a success, as reporter Harry F Waters commented in a piece entitled Spaced Out in the 20 October 1975 edition of Newsweek : ‘With what looks like a record crop of fall-season flops, the television networks have few programmes to cheer about. And the surprise hit, Space: 1999 , isn’t one of them. The British-made science fiction series is getting cosmic ratings … but it is not a network property.’
Specific details on the ratings for the series included the following: ‘During the month of October (airing on Los Angeles station KHJ-TV), Space: 1999 appears to have earned an average 9.4 rating in the local Nielsen survey … A respectable if not spectacular score for an independent station, especially in a market as crowded as this one. In November, Space: 1999 averaged an 8.7 rating … WPIX in New York averaged a 9.5 over the past two months; the Cleveland UHF station which carries Space: 1999 showed little fall-off from the amazing ratings it had been getting. The Chicago independent station was still racking up a 12 rating.’ [2]
Further ratings details included: ‘(On Channel 7 in Washington, DC) up against two situation comedy reruns, two talk shows and a Star Trek rerun in its 7.00 to 8.00 pm Saturday time slot, Space: 1999 finished first four times and second three times in the eight weeks rated so far this season locally by the A C Nielsen Co. Nationally, the record has been spotty. In markets like Seattle, Portland Ore, and San Francisco, viewers ate it up. In Philadelphia, against [the variety show hosted by] Lawrence Welk, it got an early cancellation and Welk – who appeals to older folks – is reportedly killing it elsewhere in competition. But with the younger crowd, Space: 1999 is doing well in the so-called “demographics” – the “whos” rather than numbers in the all-important ratings. In Channel 7’s book, for instance, the sci-fi hour was very successful with both men and women in the 18-49 age group – the people who buy things.’ [3]
‘In Chicago, Space: 1999 recently took 35 percent of the television audience, outrunning The Wonderful World of Disney , pro football, and even the World Series. The show did equally well in New York and Los Angeles.’ [4]
It was also reported: ‘ Space: 1999 … has been a consistent ratings winner throughout the country. One New York public relations agency reports that for the first five weeks since its premiere, the show won its time period in all leading markets except Los Angeles. The local Arbitron rating for its 13 September premiere in Cleveland was 15, or a 32% share of the audience.’ [5]
To put those ratings into a more recent context, Star Trek: Enterprise premiered on 26 September 2001 with a 7.0 rating, but on several occasions in its first season it scored only a 3.0. By its fourth and last season, ratings were even lower – at their best scoring a meager 2.2 (for the final episode on 13 May 2005) and at worst an abysmal 1.4 (on 22 April 2005). Another modern comparitor would be the revived Battlestar Galactica . A brief sample of ratings for this space series includes one of its better performances at 2.6 on 14
RATINGS
Prior to Space: 1999 ’s American premiere, Time magazine posed the question, ‘Can a $6.5 million show tailor-made for national TV survive rejection by all three networks and win success anyway? … With confidence bordering on brashness, ITC predicts that it is giving the networks their biggest ever prime-time challenge and in the process producing the season’s first big hit … Space: 1999 is a futuristic Arthurian fantasy … Space: 1999 ’s success could not only bite deeply into the audience ratings for the network shows, but perhaps even sink a couple in the first critical weeks.’ [1]
When it debuted in the US in September 1975, Space: 1999 proved to be a success, as reporter Harry F Waters commented in a piece entitled Spaced Out in the 20 October 1975 edition of Newsweek : ‘With what looks like a record crop of fall-season flops, the television networks have few programmes to cheer about. And the surprise hit, Space: 1999 , isn’t one of them. The British-made science fiction series is getting cosmic ratings … but it is not a network property.’
Specific details on the ratings for the series included the following: ‘During the month of October (airing on Los Angeles station KHJ-TV), Space: 1999 appears to have earned an average 9.4 rating in the local Nielsen survey … A respectable if not spectacular score for an independent station, especially in a market as crowded as this one. In November, Space: 1999 averaged an 8.7 rating … WPIX in New York averaged a 9.5 over the past two months; the Cleveland UHF station which carries Space: 1999 showed little fall-off from the amazing ratings it had been getting. The Chicago independent station was still racking up a 12 rating.’ [2]
Further ratings details included: ‘(On Channel 7 in Washington, DC) up against two situation comedy reruns, two talk shows and a Star Trek rerun in its 7.00 to 8.00 pm Saturday time slot, Space: 1999 finished first four times and second three times in the eight weeks rated so far this season locally by the A C Nielsen Co. Nationally, the record has been spotty. In markets like Seattle, Portland Ore, and San Francisco, viewers ate it up. In Philadelphia, against [the variety show hosted by] Lawrence Welk, it got an early cancellation and Welk – who appeals to older folks – is reportedly killing it elsewhere in competition. But with the younger crowd, Space: 1999 is doing well in the so-called “demographics” – the “whos” rather than numbers in the all-important ratings. In Channel 7’s book, for instance, the sci-fi hour was very successful with both men and women in the 18-49 age group – the people who buy things.’ [3]
‘In Chicago, Space: 1999 recently took 35 percent of the television audience, outrunning The Wonderful World of Disney , pro football, and even the World Series. The show did equally well in New York and Los Angeles.’ [4]
It was also reported: ‘ Space: 1999 … has been a consistent ratings winner throughout the country. One New York public relations agency reports that for the first five weeks since its premiere, the show won its time period in all leading markets except Los Angeles. The local Arbitron rating for its 13 September premiere in Cleveland was 15, or a 32% share of the audience.’ [5]
To put those ratings into a more recent context, Star Trek: Enterprise premiered on 26 September 2001 with a 7.0 rating, but on several occasions in its first season it scored only a 3.0. By its fourth and last season, ratings were even lower – at their best scoring a meager 2.2 (for the final episode on 13 May 2005) and at worst an abysmal 1.4 (on 22 April 2005). Another modern comparitor would be the revived Battlestar Galactica . A brief sample of ratings for this space series includes one of its better performances at 2.6 on 14
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