Remember, ratings is how a tv channel makes money.
The more people who watch, the more who buy the sponsors' products. The more people who buy the sponsors' products, the more the sponsors will pay for their ad time.
In the end, running a tv channel is a very simple equation: you want to pay as little as possable for shows that will attract as many viewers as possable from the best demographics possable.
Sci-Fi could go to all Jerry Lewis all the time, but if people don't watch that then Vivendi
will go bankrupt. Vivendi is not going to push Sci-Fi to not spend money (since nobody wants to buy ad time on dead air), but they are going to push Sci-Fi to spend money only on things that will have a rapid return on investment. Making the original investment plus 1% in 6 months beats making 200% of original investment but no money comes in for at least a year.
So, Vivendi is only interested in buying a BSG series under 2 situations:
1) It won't begin production soon, so that they don't have to pay for it soon. Delay it 6 months and NBC pays the bill.
2) It will be ready immediately and start raking in massive advertising dollars.
Most likely, a mixture of the two. Buy 5 episodes right away and hope that keeps the fans happy for 6-9 months.
