: : Yes, luv, but it is also one of the time slots with the toughest competition to beat! At the time TOTSS had to run against cable channels' Sunday night movie as well as two top-rated TV-series. When you are the new kid on the block you don't stand much chance then. Take The Lost World and its German time slot: Sunday afternoon with no competion in sight (and you will not seriously call "Sliders" a competion, right? :) ). This was an easy victory and IMHO one of the reasons the show got its legs on the ground here in Germany in the first place. If they had put it up against, say, X-files or ER it would not have stood a chance as the newbie that it was - in other words: It would have ende up as raptor food. So let's hope, if and once the Lost World returns, they will keep it in its safe time slot.

: I kindly disagree. Sure there was competition on Sunday evening from other channels, but still, at this time of day there is a large enough overall TV audience for TOTSS to have attracted a loyal following. The fact that S-RTL is a small channel with a very limited core viewership seems to have a lot more to do with the struggling ratings.
: As for TLW, "Sliders" IS a competition, insofar as it was an already established show with solid ratings when TLW came along. Please also keep in mind that TLW more than once was aired opposite "Hercules" and still managed to narrowly be ahead in the ratings. The initial success of TLW was mainly due to clever early marketing by Pro7. If I remember correctly, they aired the rather spectacular 3-part BBC documentary on dinosaurs (with special effects that at times made "Jurassic Park" look pale) and got sensational ratings. They followed up on the final part with the TLW-pilot the next day (in the coveted 8:15 p.m. time slot :). Pro7 cleverly emphasized the "dinosaur aspect" of the show to attract viewers who were interested in the documentary. Consequently the pilot and the first few regular season episodes received extremely good ratings for an action/adventures series, especially when one considers the 2:30 p.m. time slot. When "More than Human" was first aired it was seen by about 2.5 million viewers, a market share of well over 20%, "Nectar" still had 2.06 million viewers (15.2%). You can find most of the ratings at www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~tokra/lost_world.htm. The ratings eventually dropped to a more realistic level, but that clever marketing strategy gave TLW a strong start which the show would likely not have had otherwise.

They even managed to beat "Hercules"? Wow, I am sorry, I didn't know that, Jan! That, of course changes the picture significantly, since Hercules does have one of the most faithful fan comunities in the country (me NOT being one of them).

What I don't understand considering these kind of ratings is the fact, they almost always feature Hercules, Xena and Buffy in the "TV-Highlights" (Germany's No 1 SciFi/Fantasy magazine), but that there is hardly anything new regarding TLW (even though the last info I got from them before the accident was that they had something planned regarding TLW and the upcoming season). Will try and contact them again in a while to see if there is any news. Because of the accident I didn't manage to contact them regarding the DragonCom and I guess it is too late to do so now.

Hugs,

Chiara