TV Ratings

The premiere of the new 90210 was watched by about 5 million viewers. This is considered a success for the CW network. By comparison, the final season of the original 90210 “averaged nearly 8.4 million viewers per week”.

Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech was watched by 38.4 million viewers. He was beaten by John McCain, with 38.9 million. Sarah Palin drew 37.2 million and Joe Biden about 24 million.

A typical episode of “Deal Or No Deal” gets around 11 million viewers, an American Idol finale around 28 million and LOST around 13 million.

About 13 million NFL fans watched the season opener, the lowest number since 2002 (although this still supposedly helped McCain since the game finished just before he spoke). The Beijing Olympics averaged around 25 - 30 million. Amazingly, in China the Olympic opening ceremony was watched by about 840 million making it probably the biggest television event ever.

[Other than the last figure, these are all US numbers. I’m too scared to see what things are popular in Australia.]

7 September 2008 - 02:11 | Tags: , , ,