Tuesday, November 23, 2010

BREAKING: 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' is a ratings flop!

After all the nonsense about Sarah Palin's "franchise" and "media blitz," which were going to magically propel her into the White House, James Hibberd of The Hollywood Reporter writes:

After setting a TLC ratings record last week, Sarah Palin's reality show plummeted for its second episode.

Sarah Palin's Alaska fell 40% on Sunday night to 3 million viewers.

Not many were in the key adult demo either. Only 885,000 viewers were ages 18-49, dropping 44% from last week.

In fact, the median age of the show is 57 -- that's 15 years older than TLC's average. ...

Those ratings and demographics don't indicate that there is a lot of enthusiasm out there for Sarah Palin.

Don't be surprised if Sarah Palin's book, America by Heart, is a flop in comparison with Going Rogue.

By the way, TLC's record of about 5 million viewers for the first episode of Sarah Palin's Alaska was nothing in comparison with, oh, say, Dancing With the Stars. It has beaten the first episode of Sarah's show by a 4-to-1 margin, with about 20 million viewers.

When will Bristol be old enough to run? 2024? 2028?

Note: Hibberd's article mentions that the collapse in ratings of Palin's show may be due to competition with Sunday Night Football; however, Palin's show had to compete with Sunday Night Football in its first episode and it had two million more viewers! That spin apparently came from TLC executives, who, of course, are desperately grasping at straws in order to explain the ratings collapse. There is another reason for the ratings collapse.

16 comments:

0>w/hole>1 said...

Ha-ha. Half her audience are rubberneckers and the press, hoping for, as I think TPM put it today, a NASCAR pileup.

It's a weird dynamic that, in order to ensure eyeballs, she's REQUIRED to be incompetent.

Anonymous said...

I would not say that 3 million viewers is a rating flop. This does suggest that she can't hold an audience. Which is my belief - the more we see of her, the less we like her.

Anonymous said...

I'm curious where they got the info that it was a "TLC ratings record" because Jon & Kate plus 8 is (was) on TLC and they had 9.8 million viewers for the May 25, 2009 episode, I believe.

I thought Palin's first show got 5 million?

Joie Vouet said...

10:07, You could be right about Jon & Kate's ratings. They are more interesting than the Palins.

The 1st episode did get about 5 million viewers. The new 3 million number is for the 2nd episode.

nswfm said...

I expect that dip shit NewsMax to buy up her book of garbage. Again. Some dopes never learn.

Also, too, don't you think 57 year old men is her real demographic anyway? 10% of the US population...

Joie Vouet said...

I've tried to clarify the numbers about the first episode of Sarah's show by removing the reference to Sunday night football (the one on the day of the 1st episode). If I remember correctly, the 20 million number for DWTS was for the DWTS episode before the 1st episode of Sarah's show.

Joie Vouet said...

nswfm, It is worse than that! 3 million viewers is only about 1% of the country's population.

Anonymous said...

I'm the 10:07 anon again.

I guess Jame Hibberd of the Hollywood Reporter doesn't do very good research. I was right that SPA's ratings didn't "set a TLC ratings record."

Here are 2 links to back me up:

J&K plus 8 divorce episode draws 10.6 million viewers: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/06/jon-kate-plus-8-divorce-episode-draws-record-ratings.html

Here is the episode I was talking about in my first post: 9.8 million viewers in the May 25 season premiere: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1785096/jon_and_kate_plus_8_season_premiere.html?cat=2

Joie Vouet said...

Thanks, anon 10:54. Here are clickable links for the divorce episode ratings and premiere ratings of Jon & Kate.

It looks as though at least two episodes of Jon & Kate did better than the 1st episode of Sarah's show.

I was under the impression that the 5 million on TLC for Sarah's first show was a TLC record because there were notices in the press that said so. Hibberd must have been reading the same things. Could it be that the 5 million number was the best for that time slot?

LoLz, I hope his numbers for the 2nd episode of Sarah's show are right. Of course, they may be lower :) In Hibberd's article, he quotes TLC execs trying to spin the drop by citing competition from Sunday Night Football, but the 1st episode had competition from Sunday Night Football and had 2 million more viewers!

You know, in a way it's awful sad that the Palin's couldn't draw as many viewers as Jon & Kate ... Here we have a presidential contender unable to compete with them ...

nswfm said...

Thanks, Joie--that was a typo. I cut my finger last night.

0>w/hole>1 said...

> in a way it's awful sad that the Palin's couldn't draw as many viewers as Jon & Kate

What's the difference between the two shows? More children and a messy divorce. Who thinks that either of those aren't fixable problems?

DiAnne said...

It is my hope that her dropping numbers reflect something that I see...She doesn't have anything original to say. She repeats the same things over and over and I think I could say her lines by now. Blah, blah, blah, blah....she is like an irritating character in an annoying cartoon show.

It's all about Sarah and how she can interject her (not so) subtle political barbs into the mix.

Alaska is the setting.

I think she might have gotten a few more miles on the popularity of this program if Alaska had been the star and Palin was the backdrop.

Joie Vouet said...

DiAnne, thanks for your comment. I agree that the show might have done better by featuring Alaska. There is a lot of beautiful scenery there. The previous post has a link to what Mudflats found about films made in Alaska ...

Joie Vouet said...

Alright, here is another post by James Hibbert. He wrote: "The first episode of the eight-part series [Sarah Palin's Alaska] was the most-watched program launch in TLC's history." Hibberd writes, later, in that post, "TLC has hit bigger numbers over the years for non-premiere episodes, with Jon & Kate Plus Eight pulling about 10 million for one episode during the peak of its tabloid headlines."

That link comes from Raw Story's story about the collapse in viewership of Palin's show.

Hannah said...

Hmm, the first show had to compete with "Desperate Housewives" so when the second installment got a bye (Desp. Housewives off for an awards show) they still didn't pull in more viewers.

Joie Vouet said...

Bumped up ... back to the campaign!