I just dug out an old magazine, a Not Of This Earth fromt he early 90's that had a huge article on Battlestar Galactica.
One of the things they talked about was that ratings were not what did Galactica in. It was consistantly in the top 15.
What did it in was the cost to ratings ratio. Sitcoms are cheap and easy to make, but Galactica cost $1 million per episode. While it could turn a profit at that cost, it cost more than every shoe that got better ratings. Why spend $1 million dollars an episode for a 26 market share when Mork and Mindy is getting better ratings at a fraction of the cost?
You know what's cheaper than sitcoms? Reality shows.
I fear commercial programming is doomed.
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