Last Week's TV Ratings

My tv viewing consists primarily of cable news shows and sports.  I almost never watch entertainment programs any more.  Friday Night Lights being the notable exception. It is scheduled to return sometime this Spring for its final season on NBC.  I used to be a '24' viewer but Jack Bauer is retired and on the run and will not be seen again until they move this franchise to the Big Screen.   The working title for that project must be "124 Minutes".  Everything happens faster these days and Jack will just have to foil the terrorist plot a little quicker the next time we see him.

Despite not watching that many shows I do like to look at the TV ratings from time to time.  It does provide a small glimpse of what Americans are enjoying and what is influencing them.  A couple of  observations from the ratings of last week.

• The top rated program was the AFC Championship game between the Steelers and Jets with 55 million viewers. That is more than 1 in 6 of ever person in the U.S.  I was one of them.  It also was more than double the viewers of American Idol which was the 3rd ranked show.  The AFC post-game show was the second most watched at 32 million viewers.
• The top rated Cable TV show was Jersey Shore with 9 million viewers on Thursday night.  The Monday night version was 2nd rated with 7.7 million.  I have never watched the show but I do know who Snooki and The Situation are!  Pawn Stars on the History Channel was #3 and #4.
• Of the Top 21(there was a tie for 20th place) rated tv shows, 15 were on CBS and 4 were on Fox. NBC and ABC only had one show each.  This is pretty astounding.  I wonder whether any tv network has ever dominated the ratings like this. 
• American Idol's ratings held up the first week of the new season despite the changes in the judging panel.  They had 26 million viewers for the premiere episode last Wednesday night. That was 5 million more than 5th rated NCIS.  Thursday's American Idol was 4th but drew 4 million fewer viewers than the night before.  Does this indicate that Idol is vulnerable without Simon?  Keep an eye on the ratings for this week.
• There is not one cable tv news show in the top 25 cable shows.  WWE Raw, The Game, American Pickers and Sponge Bob are other Top 10 shows.  
• My viewing habits clearly do not match the majority of the population.  If you are watching Jersey Shore do you even care that we have $14 trillion in federal debt?  I predict that they will come to care.  We will come to a situation where it will become clear that the American people have been snookerd by all this deficit spending.  At that point there will be a lot of snookees and a lot of people feeling pain similar to being in the WWE Raw ring.  That will be a real Royal Pain.

See the TV Ratings for last week here

See the Basic Cable TV Ratings here.