Catacombs Reference Library
Trade Press
1975 Ratings Far Out

Space: 1999 Ratings Far Out

BackStage, 3 October, 1975. BackStage is a trade weekly, published since 1960.

• The "rating" is the percentage of adults aged 18-49 who watch the show. Some adults are not watching television, so this is always the lower figure. This is used to set advertising rates. A 17 rating means 17% of adults in New York were watching the show at 6:30pm on 21st September 1975.
• The "share" is the percentage of adults 18-49 who are watching television at that time. It measures the show against the competition on 4 or more other channels. A 36 share means 36% of the television audience were watching the show, while 64% were watching one of the other channels.

By Ted Green

All the advance P.R. on Space: 1999 promised that the new science fiction series, starring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, would be the most successful new show this season.

I've just seen some of the ratings from around the country, and ITC's claims seem to be coming true. In New York WPIX scored with a 17 rating and 36 share average for the hour.

At 7:00 when it was opposite the Family Hour shows, Space: 1999 achieved an 18 rating and 37 share, as compared to Disney with an 8 rating and 16 share, Three for the Road, 8 rating and 18 share and Swiss Family Robinson with a 6 rating and 13 share.

Results around the country are similarly outstanding. In Los Angeles on RKO General's KHJ, during its third outing; Space: 1999 won a whopping 10 rating and 21 share of audience, beating all competition.

In Indianapolis Space: 1999 on WLWI, the ABC affiliate, drew an 18 rating and 42 share, higher than the combined rating and share of the CBS and NBC affiliates.

In Cleveland Space: 1999 is running on Independent UHF station WUAB. It achieved a No.1 position in its time period, opposite its affiliates with a 15 rating and 32 share, one of the best for a UHF station.

This pillar will keep on checking out on Space: 1999's ratings just in order to convince ourselves what we have predicted.