Antelope

You can't really compare ratings of TOS with the mini. Back in 1978 people had the choice of how many national networks? I remember as a kid that HBO was new and something rich people had. Most of us in 1978 were lucky if we had 13 stations of cable with only three networks and PBS. The other stations were local independents or the precursor of TBS. The non-networks all played reruns of old movies and series. The night "Saga of A Star World" opened it was fairly well marketed and was only competing against realistically only two other network shows and who knows what on PBS. Back in 1978 I think it would be hard for any network (ABC, CBS, and NBC) show on Sunday night to have had less than 15% of the TV market unless the networks asked people not to watch. Now with 99 channels on my cable system and over 500 on people's dish systems I think rating comparisons with 1978 are irrelevant.

If Monday night football would figure this out they would quit firing their hosts since they will never see the old ratings again either!

I lived in Europe with the military and had only one TV channel, AFN. Guess what? They had a 100% television audience of Americans in the area they reached. Something tells me this had nothing to do with the quality of the broadcast.

Galactica couldn't be made today if production cost didn't shrink. We are still in the same crunch we were in 1979. What is the cost to make this show relative to the size of the audience. Cost have shrunk dramatically (technology) but so has the potential audience (cable). The good news is there is a lot more money to be made in reruns in sindication. Something TOS could never count on.