Is the upcoming season of Stargate SG-1 really the show's final year? Not necessarily, if The Sci-Fi Channel can help it.

It's a question that's asked every year, ever since Showtime cancelled the series in 2002, after five seasons. SG-1 got a new lease on life when it was picked up by The Sci-Fi Channel, where it became their highest-rated series. According to a recent article in Multichannel News, Stargate SG-1 currently makes up 22 percent of the cable network's primetime (8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern/Pacific) line-up. In March, the Season Seven finale scored a 2.1 household rating, Stargate's second-highest ever. (The highest, a 2.2, was in January.)

With the arrival of Season Eight in July, Stargate becomes the second-longest running science fiction series in the U.S., after The X-Files -- which ran nine years.

"We love it, we embrace it," Bonnie Hammer, Sci-Fi Channel president, told Multichannel News. "It's such an amazing franchise. I couldn't honestly say to you: Now it's Season Eight and it's over. It just might not be."

Despite the show's strong performance for the network, two significant hurdles stand in the way of its renewal: the budget, and the on-going participation of actor Richard Dean Anderson ("Jack O'Neill").

Stargate SG-1 now costs about $1.7 million per episode according to Multichannel News, a likely factor in Sci-Fi's decision to order 20 episodes this season, rather than the usual 22. The network does not share in additional revenue that the studio earns through syndication and DVD sales. And the network has also invested heavily in the new Battlestar Galactica series, which has kicked off production with a 13-episode order -- and a price tag even higher than SG-1's.

SG-1 executive producer Michael Greenburg thinks the show will go on. "If the demand is there, I think the show will be there. I think it can continue. Sci-Fi's a fairly new network. We're the highest rated show they've ever had. We've broken their records. It just feels like it's too early to go away."

"I don't know if Rick would continue. But who knows? You never know until the offer's on the table. But I think the franchise now is becoming bigger than the people."

MGM and Sci-Fi have developed a spin-off series, Stargate Atlantis in part to take the place of SG-1 when it eventually bids farewell -- but the two shows can certainly co-exist, Greenburg said.
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