'Sarah Palin's Alaska' Ratings Plummet

[RockaFowler]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/sarah-palins-alaska-ratings-plummet-48403

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.

TLC expected a ratings drop coming off the high-flying premiere; executives realized some of their numbers were driven by sheer curiosity rather than eagerness to see an Alaska-based travelogue reality show. Competition from Sunday Night Football and the American Music Awards may have impacted the numbers as well.



Yeah, it was the competition that caused the show to go down in ratings. The same competition was on last week and a much stronger Desperate Housewives was on ABC. I think the show stunk from the first episode and people were fleeing it!!!

[wtmusic]

1. Sweet.

K&R.

[Bluzmann57]

2. A true Alaska travelogue show would be nice

But anything with palin likely is not any sort of travelogue type of show. It's just a way for her to get her face out there and make money.

[GodlessBiker]

3. It's like watching a train wreck. You want to catch a peak, but after that it's just too hideous.

[Myrina]

10. Exactly!

Most people tuned in to see if she's really as much of a vacuous idiot as us "Lamestream Lefties" claim she is.
They saw that we aren't lying, and that was enough.

[Mz Pip]

4. the "Key demographic"

that actually watched the show were probably the freepers who live in their parents basement and came upstairs to watch.

too bad they can't vote it up like they do on DWTS. :eyes:

[mainer]

5. Expected drop would be 20%. This is huge fall-off.

Being an inveterate ratings watcher, this is pretty disastrous. Worst of all for TLC is the demographic. No one wants to advertise for that dreaded older age group.

[eleny]

6. You wouldn't know this from watching Jansing & Co on MSNBC today

She had a panel of four to discuss Palin and she said that the show was TLC's highest rated program. It may very well be. But this news of the ratings falling off sharply was lost on Jansing. Odd for someone in the news business to be out of touch with a piece of news she's covering.

Sort of reminds me of Chris Matthews on his show yesterday where he showed his ignorance regarding Chertoff's connection to the airport scanning machines.

[Bluenorthwest]

11. TLC's highest ratings ever was over 10 million for that

John and Kate show. She had less than half that, but it was the highest premier rating they've had, apparently, and maybe. Plus, all the 'wrong people' were watching.
And of course, anyone on a cable outlet will play down the fact, meaningful to most average people looking at ratings, that cable ratings do not compare to the TV ratings we are used to for network shows in terms of numbers watching. On network, Palin's numbers are instant death. On network, the top shows get 10,12 million and more. Cable is the playpen. Second string.

[eleny]

24. She's the big fish in a small pond - Thanks for the details!

:hi:

[Ian David]

7. K&R

[NuclearDem]

8. Alaska really is a beautiful state and is 1000% worthy of a documentary

But Sarah Palin is skullfucking all of that and turning one of the most beautiful states in the Union into the stage for her political candidacy.

[mainer]

9. Ranked 68th.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2010/11/23/cable-top-25-nfl-nascaricarly-spongebob-raw-the-walking-dead-top-week’s-cable-viewing/73170

[BurtWorm]

12. My opinion of older Americans just slid deeper into the gutter.

I know not every older American is the type who finds watching a phony like Palin cavorting around in the woods entertaining. In fact I know quite a few who have only become more radical with age (my mother and in-laws included). But this same demographic is the one that voted for Republicans to save their Social Security. As a group, what a bunch of Einsteins!

[JitterbugPerfume]

17. I agree BurtWorm

and I just turned 70! People in my age group are pitiful, or at least most of them are


It is embarassing

[BurtWorm]

19. I feel the same way about white males over 50.

My own demographic. They're aliens to me, mostly.

[DeschutesRiver]

25. Well, I did the math to make 52 year old me feel better

If she launched with 5 million and has plummeted 40%, then there are only 3 million viewers left. Of the 3 million, 885,000 are no older than 49, so there are only about 2.2 million peeps of our age group watching this vapid show, and I'm betting a large number of them just want to see some Alaska scenes, and will continue to drop this show like a hot rock due to all the boring Palin footage that they have to suffer through.

Even at a little over 2 million old folk viewers, that isn't anywhere near a majority of the old folk in existence - most appear to be not watching at all. Which relieves me, because I thought my fellow old folks had just gone over the cliff on this one. I did tune in for 10 minutes the first show, and saw ads for the second and all I saw was Palin complaining about anything that went wrong in their lives being someone else's fault. Must be part of the Palin genetic code, because there was just yet another darned blip from the cage dancing daughter about how it will be the fault of the "haters" if she loses. You know, those who are trying to persecute her for her performances on DWTS strictly because they are mean loser - her loss would have nothing to do with her inability to dance, of course.

It is fun to watch Palin as she turns into a mere foonote.

[BurtWorm]

31. Your math is very reassuring!

It should make one skeptical of the crackpots in the older population who voted overwhelmingly for the crackpots among the candidates as being representative of America's 50s and older group. I mean there are a lot of FDR and JFK Dems in that crowd (not to mention Stevenson and McCarthy Dems). Not fair to lump those good people in with their screw-loose peers on the right.

[DeschutesRiver]

47. Good point about FDR/JFK dems, hadn't thought about that! nt

[onenote]

36. most people age 70 are "pitiful"?

Actually, that statement is what is pitiful. And embarrassing.

[XemaSab]

44. I think people in general have a really tough time

judging the character of people from a different generation.

Things like morality and integrity show differently among different age groups, as well as flakiness, intelligence, and lack of social mannerisms.

[the redcoat]

22. You should see the age of Americans that watch Fox

Hell, I'll just show you right now!

O’Reilly’s average audience is 71

And the average age of right-wing radio listeners is 67.


How fun numbers can be!

[gratuitous]

13. "Numbers were driven by sheer curiosity"

How can that be? America just loves its sweetheart Sarah Palin! All the teevee shows keep trying to tell me how much I love her, and they wouldn't lie, would they?

[patrice]

14. One of the most conventional, most a-political people in my circle of friends on FB recently

"Like"d an anti-Palin piece I posted, with comments as to her limited mental abilities. This is a "Good Catholic Boy", Jeep driving, 2nd generation auto-worker, solid middle class beefcake, Sportsfan I'm telling you, who hasn't had ONE response in 2 years to all of the political crap that I post until NOW.

[krabigirl]

15. Ya think? I don't watch it, but i don't know too many people that would.

[patrice]

16. K & R

[Speck Tater]

18. Due to stiff competition from Gilligan's Island... nt

[BurtWorm]

21. It must remind older folks of the Beverly Hillbillies.

Let's hope that's the explanation anyway!

[Kalyke]

23. Hey now, Jed Clampett was MUCH smarter than Palin.

Hell, Jed was smarter than most white males over 50 these days. :)

[BurtWorm]

33. Wellll, doggie!

I reckon you may be right.

[liberal N proud]

20. The viewers tuned in to see Alaska and got the Palin campaign

Many probably figured out it was all staged and said enough, while others thought they would get to see some Alaska sights and were disappointed to see they were all trashed with images of Palin.

[cbdo2007]

26. Cool - and only 85% of those 3 Million viewers are DUers!

[XemaSab]

45. Pretty much

The reason rw shit like Rush gets good ratings is that liberals will listen to it just to be pissed off, while conservatives would NEVER listen to a liberal show.

[YOY]

27. At the same time the moron is EVERYWHERE.

FUCKING EVERYWHERE.

[no_hypocrisy]

28. How many more shows? The ratings could continue to drop.

[MattyGroves]

29. I think it was a six episode order

The ratings will probably stablilize at the current number as I imagine they reflect her true base vs. the merely curious.

IOW, roughly the same number of people that would tune in to see Palin and O'Donnell engage in some mama grizzly on mama grizzly action on top of a satanic altar. Needless to say the same viewers would still support Palin for 2012 immediately afterwards.

[bushisanidiot]

30. Palin's show on Bingo night isn't going to work well for her demographic.

stupid is as stupid does.

[louis-t]

32. She will blame the competition, the liberal Learning Channel,

and anyone else she can think of. I, for one, have deleted TLC from my favorites and sent them a note telling them why.

[Cheap_Trick]

34. AMC's "The Walking Dead" is soooo much better

and yet BOTH feature brain-dead zombies.

[lpbk2713]

35. The curiosity has worn off.

Once is usually enough when one is curious about a freak show.

[madinmaryland]

37. It's going to take a beating next week when the 49'ers play the Cardinals.

:rofl:

[RockaFowler]

39. It's on Sunday Night

So it will defintely lose viewers from that game on Sunday

[Stevenmarc]

38. I set the DVR to record it, then saw it on my show list and hit delete...

I just couldn't subject myself to the shrill harpy.

[K8-EEE]

40. Yah no kidding! The old farts swooning at Freeperville

are def not ANYBODY's "target audience!" Buncha freaks!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

41. during my hollow weenie party last month,

an older friend (he's 80, his wife is 52) decided that he had enough liquid argument swallowed, so he could argue politics with me.

"So, Chairman, what do you think of Obama now?"

I think that he has not been liberal enough, and that his base is angry, dismayed, unhappy, and worried about the GOP screwing things up even worse.

"And what about George Soros?"

I think that he is a saint. What he did to former soviet countries, how he helped create training to train and build infrastructure, to keep the local arts alive, to create banking, internet, computer training, modern business practices, I think he did more to help the former soviet union than any step taken by western europe or the USA.

"What? Soros is a crook. I heard it on Rush!"

He may be. I don't know. But I do know just how much good he has done for the world, especially, the former soviet world.

"And what about Sarah Palin?"

(You see, he changes the subject if I move even one milimeter from Rush/Sean/Billo talking points)

I think that she is the most entertaining train wreck I have ever seen in politics. There's this mouth dropping horror about her, as though no sane person could ever believe that a complete and utter fool like she could ever even get close to the vice presidency. In terms of respect, I think that she rates as high as pestilence, greed, corruption, and sticking powered screw-drivers up your own nose to see if it makes you smarter.

Anyway, his spousette, also a strong liberal, finally calmed him down and took him home. (I should be nicer to my guests) She called last week to report. He is now in love with TLC, He has recorded both shows, and watches them over and over again, as though it were Casablanca or really excellent porn.

I'm waiting for him to invite me to go fishing so he can show off his new baseball bat. After all, Illinois has such huge fish.

To sum up, he is a dedicated fan. his poor suffering wife? Not so much.

[Blue_In_AK]

42. I think many people who watched last week

were curiosity seekers who obviously didn't get sucked in. There are plenty of other shows on TV about Alaska -- we really didn't need this Sarah Palin 8-episode campaign promotion. Give me Ice Road Truckers, Deadliest Catch, Tougher in Alaska and all the great Nature and Nat Geo shows any day.

[NuclearDem]

43. I can't wait until this show is over

So I can stop boycotting Discovery and watch some good shows again.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

46. 3 million is STILL far too many!! n/t