The only problem to shooting a show in case a network decides not to
pursue it is where does one get $18 million or so per season in order to
continue filming? And if the ratings drop, how does one convince the
stations to carry the show instead of higher rating series?

The B5 series will live or die on the ratings. Fortunately, the last
seven new episodes have continued the trend of increasing ratings, and we
just went from #20 to #18 in the overall ratings for syndication, which
is extremely good.

jms