I posted the following in the KLG part 2 thread initially, but it got a little lost in all the discussion of that ep. Anyway, the more I thought about it, the more I thought there might be something in this, so here goes...
Y'know, I may have been watching too many Oliver Stone movies lately, but I've always wondered whether there was more to the staggered, UK first airdates than just Sky's money.
Look at what the situation was in the USA a few months ago. The die-hard TOS fans were slagging TNS off and vowing not to watch it. The general public probably either had no opinion at all, had heard their TNS-hating friend, or simply thought of Battlestar Galactica as that campy 70's series with the guy from Bonanza and Face from the A-Team in it.
That's a pretty negative vibe, and not something likely to add up to bonzer figures for your US season premiere, no matter how good the work actually is.
However, the series starts to air on Sky, to excellent reviews, high levels of fan satisfaction, and correspondingly high viewing figures. New fan communities quickly spring up, episodes are uploaded and sent across the Atlantic, and positive word of mouth there rapidly spreads.
Now, far from being the remake of a crummy 70's series, the TOS whiners have shrunk into the white noise, and BG starts to look like the best thing on US TV, before it's even aired!
Lo and behold, the first few episodes get bumper viewing figures, and the same sort of reviews they did in the UK, and a continuation seems to be done and dusted just three weeks into the season.
Now I know R&D posted that open letter on the Sci Fi BBS asking fans to be good and not download episodes early, but do you really think they meant it, or were they merely saying what a good Exec Producer is supposed to?
As far as I can see everything that's happened has created the sort of momentum in the US market that could never have been achieved had the series aired in the UK and the US at the same time, and must have done their chances of an early pickup a huge favour. Sure, it would have been a bit of a gamble to plan this sort of thing up front, but RDM does keep saying how much he believed in the material...
So, is this all a coincidence, or a totally deliberate, and very inspired marketing operation?