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Thursday, October 9, 2008
10/9: “Real Housewives of Atlanta” ratings modest
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We know what priorities are in the United States right now with the stock market tanking, the credit markets frozen and the Presidential campaign a month away. More than 63 million people saw the second presidential debate on various networks.
At the same time, Bravo debuted “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” to 656,000 viewers. That’s about 1 percent of the number of people who checked out the debate. (Of course, the show will get repeated numerous times so the number of people who ultimately see it will be significantly higher.)
For Bravo, that’s not a big number compared to its biggest shows such as “Project Runway” and “Top Chef” but comparable to the likes of “Kathy Griffin: Life on the D List” and “Flipping Out.” It’s also better than the opening frames for “The Real Housewives of the O.C.” (430,000 on March 21, 2006) and “The Real Housewives of New York City” (351,000 on March 31, 2008).
I don’t yet have local numbers but the “Housewives” probably drew fewer than 50,000 viewers.
The vice presidential debate last Thursday drew 70 million viewers. But the second debate drew more than the first presidential debate by about 10 million viewers. ABC this past Tuesday had the biggest audience with 13 million viewers, followed by NBC at 10.8 million and CBS at 9.4 million. CNN drew 9.2 million followed by Fox News at 8.8 million. Fox TV brought in 5.3 million, then MSNBC at 3.8 million.
The comedic shows are benefiting, too. “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” had its best month ever in September, averaging 2.2 million viewers. “The Colbert Report” also hit record numbers of 1.7 million viewers a night. And “Saturday Night Live” is seeing 50 percent increases on Saturday nights with 10 million people checking it out this past Saturday. Three primetime specials are scheduled the next three weeks, starting tonight after “The Office.” (Speaking of “The Office,” check out tonight’s “ethics” episode. It’s definitely one of the funnier ones they’ve done in some time — and it’s only 30 minutes long, not one of the stretched-out hour-long jobs.)
In other ratings news with Atlanta ramifications, Cartoon Network’s “Star Wars: Clone Wars” opened big last Friday night, drawing 4 million viewers, doubling the network’s usual performance at that time.
TNT’s “Raising the Bar” keeps slipping below the ratings bar. After opening at 7.7 million with “The Closer” as an opener, the show has slipped to 2.17 million on Sept. 26 in its fifth outing. Of course, it no longer has “The Closer” to fuel numbers but that’s still an alarming 72 percent falloff in ratings. And that’s down 10 percent from its fourth outing, the first one without “The Closer” to as its lead in. Yet the drama was given a green light for a second season after three episodes.
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