Posted by Marc Martin on
URL: https://www.shado-forum.com/UFO-ANNUAL-1972-tp4023946p4023954.html

On August 19, Shado-cabinet [via SHADO] <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Was 'UFO' deemed a flop by the Andersons & Lew Grade of ITC?  On a UFO
> site FAQ it states that Lew Grade never commissions a second series for
> any production such as 'Captain Scarlet' or even 'Thunderbirds' (unless
> of course the American TV channels request a second season).  So does
> anyone knows what were the actual viewing figures, or critical response
> to UFO etc, was it a hit?

Yeah, I don't think anyone at ITC even waited to see if it was a hit or not.  From the sound of it, the special effects stages were dismantled and the models thrown away before the first episode aired anywhere.

Although the popular story is that the ratings were high in the two largest US cities (New York and Los Angeles), so a network was considering ordering another season.  But this was now the spring of 1973, almost 3 years after UFO finished filming.  So it's not like anyone had considered making a new series in 1971 or 1972.  Apparently there was then a dip in the ratings, and the network order was cancelled, and the pre-production work that had been done was then used for Space:1999.

Marc