An open letter to SyFy regarding Caprica's demise

Dear Syfy,
I agree with Dawn of the Battlestar Cafe. I am also a long time science fiction fan. It has been far too long since I have made it a point to watch a television series on a regular basis. I made time for Caprica. It unfolded like a good book for me and I really hope the next chapter is a Season 2. Have I bought Caprica merchandise? Yes, I have from the NBC store. It appears there really are a lot of Caprica viewers that were not reflected in the ratings. The Sci-Fi genre can be a hard one to sell, but I assure you we are an extremely loyal audience.
Please reconsider your decision to cancel Caprica. The buzz is it’s the best sci fi show on tv. Give it time to grow.

Thanks

Stormin N
True Science Fiction fan

I make mine the words of “Dawn of the Battlestar Cafe” and of Stormin N.

I just want to add that looking for ratings at specialized audiences is just not a trusteable way to figure out the success of failure of niche show. For instance, researching 4000 residences is quite good for polling who’s watching popular sports but it is not that good if the subject is more specific.

Caprica is not a cheap pop show. But if it is complex and somehow elitist, then the marketing strategies must be suited to audience.

I remember that in the 1980ies Scientific American Magazine had advertisement of products like expensive cognac, swiss watches and things like that… Obviously companies advertising at wrestling shows won’t be happy advertising at Caprica and SyFy must look for commercial support at the right places.

Yours,

CdAB

Dawn of the Battlestar Cafe is right, after all the build up of the Caprica universe, I feel nothing less then ripped off.
In Brazil the Show started on 10-25-2010 and was announced dead on the 27 in the US. I am a fan of Battlestar Galactica. This event will leave a scar on the Syfy channel, I really just hope the fans keep talking about Caprica!

Renato.

I love Caprica and it saddens me greatly that it was canceled. It is one of only 2 shows, and the only for my wife, that I watch on Syfy. It being my favorite of the 2. It disappoints me that Syfy would cancel a show before it really had much time to take off…

Caprica was the one show my family could watch altogether and it raised questions that we could discuss after each episode. As a love of the sci fi genre, it saddens me that you would cut it off at the knees before we could become invested in it as much as we could Battlestar Galactica. I have contributed to the Apple Campaign and have joined all the Facebook campaigns and petitions I could sign. I have bought the dvds of season 1 and 1.5. I have talked the show up with my friends. Really you are doing a disservice to your loyal fans by canceling a show in its infancy that could bring you a huge following. Please don’t be so short sighted, we need shows like this to raise questions, bring families together and entertain. The loyel BSG fans want to see how the whole story played out. Don’t disappoint us and leave us hanging. We will love Blood and Chrome that much more.

I agree with Dawn of Battlestar Cafe. Please save Caprica! It is the best series that I have seen in a long time. I came into Battlestar late, but I have bought all the DVD’s. I will do the same for Caprica. Please give this story a chance to develop! It needs time, as many great series do. Caprica’s viewers may never show up on the Nielsen’s. My friends and I will be very disappointed if this show is cancelled in it’s infancy. Give the show some decent scheduling, and give it a chance. Why would we want to invest any time or interest in Blood and Chrome, if we think you will just cancel that prematurely also?

I’m in Australia. Here we have only just begun to see Caprica on free-to-air TV. What we have seen so far has been excellent television with obvious potential to become another Battlestar Galactica. I would like to add my voice to the thousands of fans crying out for this series to be given a chance to develop and to echo the words of Dawn of Battlestar Cafe above.

When will SyFy understand its base market is tired of silly made for TV movies and actually give shows like Caprica the time,effort,and time slot(not to mention release schedule ) they need to make money for the network? Caprica was a huge buzz word over the last year with many people waiting for it to continue .The fact Syfy released it on such a poor schedule and moved it to a horrible time slot doomed the show .It was not the watchers fault SyFy pushed a show into a poor time slot.Reconsider SyFy as your market has spoken.We helped make this channel popular and we can walk away from it just as easy leaving you with even worse ratings across the board for all its future productions

While I echo everyone here thusfar, it is so very typical of our ADHD world to want to jump straight to the mindless action. I own every BSG DVD I am aware of and watched every episode of BSG & Caprica first run. I have never loved and hated a person as much as Ron Moore at the cliff-hanging end of every show! While Caprica is just winding up, anyone who saw BSG unfold knows this is going to be a bumpy ride but the deep characters, intense writing, and incredible production staff are once again going to knock it out of the park. BSG should have received numerous awards for it’s writing, acting, and (under)use of awesome CGI to enhance the story as opposed to trying make the show. Caprice is right there following along and upholding the value of the BSG brand.

How good would BSG have been had we known who all 12 were the first two or three weeks? How interesting would CSI be if we knew who did it in the beginning of the show? If I want mind numbing TV I have hundreds of channels like MTV, Sports, WWE, the news and do on. I want something DEEP and Caprica offers that. Please let the story develop. You can’t sample a show like this by asking thecwrong pilot group. When the action of season two kicks in you will pickup even more viewers who will then want to catch up.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Wayne.

Director of Programming,

As a master student in literature, I am one to appreciate intelligent stories and artistic depth. Battlestar Galactica has become a new science-fiction classic, and thus has elevated your channel into the ranks of science-fiction legends like Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, or even Frank Herbert’s Dune.

Caprica tells the core of the story, is the heart of the series. Sacrificing Caprica will ensure that your channel remains just another ordinary channel… But, finishing Caprica would set up the path for Blood and Chrome to become the new Star Wars by popularity, and the new DUNE SAGA by intellectual and artistic worth.

Do not forget what makes your channel unique : art and intelligence in the stories it tells. Caprica is the most clever story I’ve seen on a TV screen yet. Investing in it, I believe, will ensure the success of Blood and Chrome.

Thank you.
Vincent Godin-Filion

I echo the statements of everyone here. The swift cancelation was head spinning! I’ve noticed that SyFy seems to be in the process of rebranding itself, into some sort of reality based sci-fi version of BRAVO TV. Ghost hunting and yeti hunting, Monster and legend chasing and now, TV prop hunting. Come on Universal! Have better respect for your viewers! Lest you want to loose them.

Caprica was one of very few tv shows that I make (made) the time to watch. As a BSG fan, I was excited to see how the background story would be told. I appreciated the context- and the sharp contrast- that the slick, urban world of Caprica provided to what follows. At the same time, I loved how it created a complex world that didn’t rely on BSG to be interesting. Certain characters- Clarice, Amanda, Adama, Sam- had that compelling complexity that makes characters live. With each episode, I found myself more invested in finding out what would happen to these flawed, conflicted individuals.
It seems strange that Syfy would invest so much time (and money) laying the necessary ground work for a character and problem driven drama, only to ax it once it really hit its stride. This is a decision that I hope will be reconsidered.

P.S. I will not be watching Blood and Chrome, because contrary to what your executives or focus groups may be telling you, this loyal viewer was never into BSG for the battle scenes. They were an occasionally exciting, but mostly annoying, interlude to the real action- the story.

Also, at this point, why would I commit to watching anything on Syfy if it can be canceled at the drop of a hat or the season might be shortened or chopped in half, leaving me to wait half a year to see the rest?

Caprica was awesome. Emmy award winning written all over it. I wish the network would give it a chance.

“Caprica” is art! In this day and age where TV’s links to art are drifting and its links to business have become overvalued, the television show “Caprica” proves that that the medium of TV – as an art form – is not yet dead. Like art, TV can be a vehicle that speaks to important motifs replete throughout human civilization. “Caprica” thus poignantly addresses contemporary issues of morality, technology, corporate ambition, ideological idealism and religious fundamentalism. These are all issues relevant to modern society, which we will continue to face over the course of the 21st century and beyond (if we are lucky).

By cancelling “Caprica” you are destroying valuable art, and this act echoes horrendous events that have occurred throughout human history. While I don’t believe your cancellation of “Caprica” is based on any actual intention to suppress the show’s intellectual ideas, I do think your decision to cancel, justified by questionable viewership statistics that don’t consider 21st-century realities, is based on corporate ambition; and therefore it serves the same immoral purpose as deliberate suppression of intellectual ideas.

The truly horrendous irony here is that the very premise of the show “Caprica” is a world drunk on its own success and unable to see how it is inadvertently laying the groundwork for its own destruction. By cancelling this show you are demonstrating that North Americans (or “Capricans”) are not ready to confront the truth about their destiny, and instead prefer to stay drunk on their own success. Forget the implications of morality, technology, corporate ambition, ideological idealism and religious fundamentalism as we move towards the future! Let’s pretend that nothing matters except individual interests, whether you’re the Guatrau, Daniel Graystone, Sister Clarice, or Zoe Avatar all serving your own purpose. Let’s all follow our own individual pursuits and who cares about pulling together as a people???

In the words of the great Cmdr. William Adama, “we never answered the question, why? Why are we as a people worth saving?” Perhaps if we have a vehicle and artwork such as “Caprica” to engage our intellectual minds and address these questions, we may be able to navigate collectively through our competing interests in a manner that allows for all of us to flourish. This public initiative to save “Caprica” has already demonstrated the ideological idealism of so many important people from many, many countries and generations, and it has all been channelled through the most effective technological means. Don’t you realize that you are dealing with several of the smartest and craftiest people on the planet? These are people you do not want to alienate.

Your network still has time to adapt to the 21st-century. You can still reconcile your ambition as a profit-driven corporation with the equally important moral responsibility that any powerful network such as yours has to society.

Please heed the Voice of the People. Please do the right thing and bring back “Caprica” !!!

Our family has been such fans of BSG and Caprica that we chose our cable service package based only on being able to see SyFy. We rarely watch TV (regular or cable), but we made it a point to never miss either of these shows.

I found the Adama family to be especially compelling characters and was really looking forward to seeing their story develop.

There are so few TV shows that make the viewer think, that it’s a shame to lose this one.

I want Caprica in a 2nd season! This is epic!

Wow. Great show that made you think. Replaced by the WWE that requires you to check your brain at the door. Basically this is commercial television in a nutshell – most intelligent free thinking individuals make their various purchases based on history with a product or research if it is a new product. A thirty second spot on TV doesn’t sell to that crowd. However, place a shiny object in front of a wrestling fan and count on a sale Monday morning.

Oh well – back to reading for entertainment…

I am a 40 year old male not your typical target audience for this type of programming. I bought season 1 of BSG on a shopping spree about a year ago did not think I would like the remake after growing up with the original. To my shock was throughly engrossed with it and rushed out to buy the remaining seasons and spent every available hour watching it. As I watched the final episode I felt as if I was losing a friend, but there was that closure…I was at the same store and found the DVD of Caprica and was excited that maybe I could finally see how BSG got it’s start. When Caprica the movie ended I was praying that it wasnt going to be left like it was and that you were going to make it into a series for TV or a DVD mini-series. You could not imagine my enthusiasm when I found out it was going to be a TV series and that I could enjoy each and every week. At the end of every episode it made you want to come back for more it made you think the entire week it was like an addiction. The story line was well told the plots were always right on the acting and special effects were outstanding. Some say it started out slow but I did not think so, it was starting to build into it’s own show and lead us to what really happened with the first Cylon war. I have watched two of the five episodes that you will not air they are amazing especially the end to Dirteaters.
All of us devoted fans have made our voices heard from Facebook to Twitter to blogs we would love if you would reconsider and finish out the story for a Season 2 give us the closure that you gave us on BSG then lead us into Blood and Chrome.
I doubt you giving us one more season with all the viewer support you have will bankrupt the NBC, Comcast, SyFy network. These days there is not all that much to watch on TV most of us are fed up with reality TV, mind numbing television programming. My television is hardly on anymore for that mere reason. Just please let us so called few have a good quality television program to watch. Please bring back Caprica for one more season and give us that closure.

Thank You for reading this

“The Dominion” is truly dead. Between the fraking wrestling, the fake, low-budget ghost hunter shows, and the crappy B-movies on Saturdays, is it a wonder they changed the name from “Sci-Fi” to “SyFy”. Where is Voyager? Where is TNG & Enterprise? Why was there no BSG (TOS & re-imagined) to prime us for the return of Caprica? SyFy, you’ve lost me for good this time.

Whilst I may not have seen the BSG series, I did tune into Caprica. I was intrigued, hooked from the very first show, and am just now finding out about the cancellation, of which I am VERY disappointed in. This show was/is one of the best on TV that I’ve seen. It captivates you, it intrigues, makes you think, leaves you hanging with MORE then 1 twist, anxiously awaiting the next episode for the twists to be revealed to some extent, and the next twists to be presented and anxiously awaited for. Most of the series I watch are on USA or TNT-Burn Notice, Leverage, White Collar..and whilst all are really great shows, Caprica to me trumps them all. I’m not particularly a big fan of the Syfy stuff I’ve seen lately, but Caprica, was/is one thing I’d definately make sure to tune into…Please Bring Caprica back…

THank You
Anthony J. Vitulli

Dear SyFy/NBC Universal,

I watch a very small number of television shows, two of which are Stargate: Universe and Caprica – the latter being my favorite, the one I make time for, the one I schedule my week around. Caprica, like Battlestar Galactica, is a rich, deep show, full of moving storylines, great writing and excellent actors. The themes are highly relevant to todays audience, and, I assure you, this whole cancellation debate has let an enormous amount of people know about the existence of Caprica. If you bring it back for a second season, and advertise it in such a manner that its coming will be visible to all fans, new and old, your ratings will rise substantially. If not, then I assure you that I and most of the Caprica fanbase will boycott your network. After all, Stargate: Universe is nothing but an inexpensive show riding the wave of sheer glory left behind by Battlestar Galactica, so I’m sure I can live without it. As for “Blood and Chrome”, I’ll gladly ignore its existence until Caprica gets renewed.

So Say We All,

–K. DeWitt

I love that Caprica didn’t just present us simple cookie-cutter characters and situations: this is bad, this is good, this is right, this is wrong. It encouraged us to think and rethink (as so little else in this world does.) People can’t just be put into a little box, and that’s all they are or will ever be.

Simple thinking will be the death of us. Simple thinking is fearful thinking. Simple thinking will not help us.

Non-US viewers are loving the show – and they’re only starting to see it. It’s more nuanced and more complex than a lot of what comes out of Hollywood; and there are audiences hungry for that. Sometimes, the greater reward comes to those who are leaders rather than trend-followers. Yet you seem to be institutionally content to follow trends.

I was annoyed when you broke the season in half with such a long initial wait (from March 2010 to January 2011.) I was somewhat happy when its return was unceremoniously moved up to October, but didn’t know how well that would work – seeing that you’d previously announced that it was coming back in January 2011, and many many people took that as your final word and weren’t planning on checking in until that time. Now domestic viewers are *still* only just finding out about the cancellation, international viewers are thrilled with what they’re seeing and dismayed at the cancellation. There are clearly people who want to see more of this story.

Better bring it back now before the government suppresses everything anyway, and all you get to show is whatever movies they vet and preapprove.

Either you’re in a lot more financial trouble than your shareholders think you’re in, or the larger NBC family has already decided to cancel SyFy and it’s just a matter of time before you’re pruned from the tree.

I don’t believe that you have the intestinal fortitude to stick by your earlier assertions that you were behind the show for the long haul. I believe you’re going for the lowest common denominator, and if you continue to carry any science fiction it will be shows that have already been produced and proven to have an audience – because you are no longer able, institutionally, to Imagine Greater.

Prove me wrong.

Caprica is an amazing show. It is one of the most well-written, thought-provoking, intelligent shows on TV. In the same way that BSG would just blow your mind with its inside-out way of looking at the world(s), Caprica has a powerful and amazing ability to make us see the flaws in humanity from an “inside-looking-out” perspective.
Please give the wonderfully talented writers, producers, actors, and crew an oppertunity to bring this story to life. It hasn’t truly been given the oppertunity to really get off the run-way yet, let alone fly.
There is so much potential there. And, while I am not yet able to view them, I (along with everyone else on the internet) have heard how phenomenal the last 5 episodes are.
Please consider that basing the success or failure of a show based on ratings of live viewership is just not realistic with today’s media. I am almost 30 years old and most everyone I know from my generation and younger watches TV via either DVR, Hulu, OnDemand, or Netflix. I myself very rarely watch a TV at the moment that it is actually airing. I have 3 children under the age of 5 and if I were to watch TV when it aired, I would only see programs airing after 9pm CST each evening. Please consider that there is a much larger audience out there than you may have realized and we all want to get to see this through to it’s conclusion. And, in agreement with one of the previous comments, it will only make watching “Blood and Chrome” that much better. Fans may feel very nervous to invest themselves into Blood and Chrome if Caprica is treated in such a hap-hazard manner.
Thank you for listening. Please re-consider your decision to cancel the show.

So Say We All,

Jen

This is truly sad news to hear NBC just turned their backs to their Caprica fans. I hope this makes the evening news! If someone or someone who knows anyone in this industry could give us a plug, we the fans, would be most appreciative!
READ THE FULL ARTICLE @
http://www.capricatimes.com/syfy-ignores-fans-apples-for-caprica-donated

‎”Own a piece of Caprica, and help a good cause at the same time. Syfy is auctioning off Zoe’s purple dress, a signed DVD set & a script signed by Ron Moore & David Eick. All the proceeds are going to support underprivileged children.” SyFy is this suppose to make your fans feel better-’cuz you’re giving it to charity?! Unreal! It is so difficult for me to understand that after all the protests you’ve received, feedback, tweets, emails, letters, phone-calls, faxes, and even a few darn, good advice on how to increase your fan base, you still completely ignore your fans!There is no way YOU DID ALL YOU COULD DO TO SAVE THIS SHOW as you said in your press release! You claimed changing the viewing night from Friday to Tuesday was to help the show do better–which is crap–when it came out so abruptly. You provided little fan fare of Caprica’s return, very few TV announcements ran on any channel than SyFy, and you didn’t have time to do any printed advertising. It is so clear that the cancellation was planned by the executives before you aired the four episodes in November! You know it’s true! It doesn’t take much to put it together. First you brought Caprica back unexpectedly 2 months early–after an 8 month hiatus; then you provided very little publicity that the show was returning as mentioned above; you asked very cryptic questions on the Caprica FB page that seemed to taunt negative responses, and then after only 4 episodes you declare the show is being cancelled. Something really stinks about this. The apples delivered to you, which were bought with personal contribution by Caprica fans, were turned away–our statement was totally snubbed by everyone at NBC-Univ. How rude can you be–very! Perhaps you were busy organizing the sale of Caprica’s set merchandise–ya think? I am a fan of MSBNC – but just knowing NBC Univ is an affiliiate affects how I feel about them at this very moment. In PROTEST, I will not be watchng any further SyFy, and may just remove the channel from my Direct TV line up. This is how much you have disappointed me, a hard-core Science Fiction Fan! Most of your daily and evening SyFy shows are not any good anyway. There was a few British Horror shows that aired on Sun.; but that’s gone now too. So you wanted to pull in more 20 year old viewers, eh? Well I can tell you now, you needed to put in some good looking, large breasted women w/ deep clevage exposed, along with more virtual sex. Then the 20 yr. olds (who enjoy the visual more than a cerebral challenging story line) would have come with out a complaint! I am ashaamed of how you handled such an excellent show. NBC-Univ / SyFy doesn’t care about it’s fans, and we are important to your survival! Goodbye Caprica you will be sorely missed…FAREWELL SyFy-you will not be missed! My Caprica fans, please excuse my long rant.

‎>>I have to say that purple dress looks stunning on Zoey.
Caprica Fans:
They have announced (as most of you have heard) they will air the final five episodes of Caprica on January 4th back to back on the SyFy channel starting @ 6 p.m. – 11 p.m. EST.
What do you think….should all the US Caprica fans put aside thei…r anger for just one evening to watch and/or record Caprica? I would love all of us to work together and collectively blow them away with viewer ratings like they’ve never seen! Just that evening! Wouldn’t it be great to make THEM regret their decision to cancel this series! Can we do it? If you’re with me, comment with: So say we all~

Why do science fiction fans constantly waste their time with pointless campaigns like this one? We see this over and over and over, and it NEVER works. And on those rare occasionas, when it does work, the show ends up being a failure and getting cancelled anyways.

Yes, I enjoyed Caprica, though not as much as BSG. Yes, I wish it was still in production. Yes, I agree that SyFy badly botched the show. But ultimately there’s only ONE factor that decides the fate of the show: it had bad ratings. It’s an expensive show that is NOT making them money. That is the ONLY thing they care about. No amount of letters or tweets or apples is going to change that.

THE SHOW WAS CANCELLED. End of story. They didn’t say, “Oh wait, we’re just going to announce that it’s cancelled to try to get you all upset enough to try to bring it back” They announced that it was cancelled. They don’t make these decisions willy nilly. They don’t actually announce that a show is cancelled until it is actually cancelled.

The time to save a show is BEFORE it’s cancelled. And that’s not done by buying apples or nuts or other stunts. It’s by getting people to watch the show. If we can’t do that while the show is actually airing, we’re never going to actually get people to watch a show that has already been cancelled. Anything else we do now is utterly pointless. Maybe it will make you fell a little less impotent, but that’s all you’re accomplishing.

What did you actually expect would happen? They’d get a bunch of apples and decide, “Oh, now we understand. There’s a bunch of loonies on the net who want to watch this. So, we’ll drop tens of millions of our shareholders’ dollars to make them happy, only to have the show fail again next year and start this whole process again”? Did anyone actually expect that? Really?

If you were a programming executive for a television network, woudl you risk your job for a show that has already shown itself to be a failure? Would you really ask your stockholders to risk millions of dollars of their money because you hope that a cool show will eventually pick up a fan base? How would you explain that to your family, when you get fired for making bad business decisions and costing your company a fortune?

And why exactly would any television exec decide to save any failed science fiction show because of an internet campaign anyways? What exactly is our track record? Can anyone here name even ONE single solitary genre show that was saved by a campign that actually went on to be a ratings-drawing, money-making success? Even one? (Star Trek was brought back long before the internet was in most households. And The Motion Picture And Next Gen were over 30 and 20 years ago! They’re not exactly good examples.)

Yeah, fans sucessfully campained to bring back Jericho, after outcry from the net, and a ton of nuts. Which was quickly cancelled, due to low ratings — AGAIN.

And fans got Dollhouse a second season, although the network had actually already decided to give Joss Whedon a second chance to build an audience. (The show was NOT actually cancelled during the first season.) And it got worse ratings than the first season’s dismal ratings. They only aired the rest of the episodes because they’d paid so much for them!

And speaking of Joss, there’s proably the fan community’s biggest success story. Somehow, fans convinced the studio to take the failed Firefly TV show and make a movie out of it, spending 39 million dollars on it, and more for promotion! What’s truly amazing about this is that anyone was actually surprised when it flopped. (It actually managed to make slightly LESS than it cost to make when domestic AND foreign box office is totalled!) Did anyone actually think that people would pay to see a movie based on a television show that they refused to watch for free?!?

The only television show that even comes close to being in the “genre” that was successfully saved from cancellation AND went on to becoming a hit is Family Guy. But that would REALLY be stretching the limits of the term “genre”. And it had already found a proven viewer base on cable tv at that point anyways, on which Fox based its decision to go back into production.

With a track record like this, why on Earth would we be surprised when tv studios and networks ignore us?!? Do we actually expect them to spend tens of millions of dollars on us just because we obsess over these shows?

Any why would anyone expect any better from a network like SiFy, which went out of its way to remove BOTH the “science” and the “fiction” from its name?

Give it up, people. The show is over. Nothing you can do will ever change that.

I’m tempted to save this and post it evey time I see one of these pointells “Save ____” campaigns.