How Does Shark-Jumping Really Affect Audience Numbers?

When fans say a TV series hasjumped the shark , do the masses really notice ? We did some research on Battlestar Galactica ’s consultation numbers to see if bad moments in the show get audience away .

The chart above showsNielsen Ratingsthat cadence audience numbers on the wye axis , and every episode of Battlestar by season and episode number on the X axis . ( We left out the last two episode , as that data was n’t in yet when we did the chart . )

One matter you ’ll acknowledge right aside is that the show ’s evaluation decline very gradually , which is a normal shape for hearing stats to take with any TV serial . So that does n’t indicate that the show went downhill . It just means that most idiot box shows tend to slough audience number over a menses of years . Another thing you ’ll notice , if youcross - computer address with this handy episode guide on IMDB , is that many of the biggest hearing spike are colligate with time of year conclusion and time of year premiere . These “ case ” episodes do n’t always meditate the vogue we ’re looking for here .

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So now there ’s the query of how you determine which episode are shark jumpers . manifestly this is somewhat immanent , but we did have at least one semi - documentary measure . Weran a public opinion poll last yearasking readers which sequence of BSG they thought were shark - jumpy . So three of the episodes we list above get vote from 500 or more people who thought they were shark jumpers . These were : “ Twelfth day , ” ( where Roslin was “ cured ” of malignant neoplastic disease by hybrid Hera ’s fetus blood ) ; “ Crossroads , Pt . 2 ” ( when Bob Dylan was in the cupboards and we learned who the Final Five are ) ; and “ He That Believeth In Me ” ( when Baltar founded a love furor ) .

https://gizmodo.com/when-did-battlestar-galactica-jump-the-shark-394000

Other shark - jumpy episodes were fingered by opinion - maker we poll informally at South by Southwest ’s Interactive Conference this year . These included “ confederate , ” when Baltar go to live on the Cylon Base Ship , which many critics also agree was a bad turn item for the show ; and “ Unfinished Business , ” the packing episode which divide buff over the doubt of “ good or ass . ” Pretty much everyone agreed that “ No Exit , ” where we find out about Ellen and Cavil ’s icky relationship , was a dirty dog . And I personally bewilder in the episode “ Kobol ’s Last Gleaming , Pt . 1 , ” when crazy Roslin decide to get the Arrow of Apollo and stick it in the Temple of Athena , because it was a abominable low power point in season 1 . Just because a show recover from a shark jump does n’t mean it is n’t one .

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So now to the actual question at hand : Did the show abide when it jumped those shark ? If people were recoiling from a shark startle , you ’d expect to see audiences go down or at least not go up after that episode . Not too astonishingly , well-nigh all the shark jumps were play along by such a decline or flatline . In fact , the only shark jumpers not comply by fall were “ Unfinished Business , ” which many people actually did n’t hate ( so it might be an outlier example ) ; and “ Crossroads , Pt . 2 , ” which as you ’ll recall was followed by the TV movie “ Razor , ” which air so long after crossing that it became an event episode rather than a strict follow - on .

As a event of our glorious , semi - scientific research , I think we can tentatively say that consultation are in fact passably reactive when a show spring the shark . They at once tune out the undermentioned episode , not even giving it a 2d chance for an installment or two . We also see that they will come back , however , peculiarly if the show live on off the air for a while and returns with an result episode like “ Razor . ”

CONCLUSIONS : Using Battlestar Galactica as an example , we ’ve examine how audiences answer when a show leap out the shark . What we found is that a pregnant percentage of them almost directly abandon the show for an episode or two . But then we see them returning again , often in large telephone number . TV watchers are more discerning than you might think , but only in the little term . They wo n’t add up back the following workweek if you serve them something that tastes like shark with saltation sauce . But they might return to chow down in two calendar week , and invite their friend along .

Lesdilley