‘Walking Dead’ Sets Yet Another Record With Season 3.5 Debut

Penn Collins — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:29:20 +0000

Making a strong argument for the philosophy of “give the world half a season, then wait months and months, then give them a little more,” the mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead outdid the season premiere setting another record for the show, cable, and presumably, the universe with 12.3 million viewers, up from 10.9 million at the onset of the season.

The show isn’t just performing well when benchmarked to cable, but its draw with viewers 18-49 is outperforming network fare like Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, and other shows that are far worse and don’t feature zombie epidemics as plot points.

This development leads us to the conclusion that a show on cable will not always underperform compared to those on networks, provided that the cable show has zombies. Always bet on the show with zombies, even if it’s a webisode on McSweeney’s or something.

A Shitty Torch Is Passed: ‘Big Bang Theory’ Outperforms ‘Idol’

Penn Collins — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:00:58 +0000

American Idol is down sharply on it’s second airing of the new season, leading many to believe that perhaps people are getting tired of no-name people singing other people’s songs. Don’t get too excited – Idol is still the most-watched show in America, but CBS‘ Big Bang Theory was slightly ahead of the juggernaut in terms of that coveted 18-49 demographic, making the CBS nerd comedy the arbitrary winner. Well, as much as there can be a “winner” when Big Bang Theory and American Idol are vying to be the most-watched television program in America.

This woud appear to mean a changing of the Thursday night guard, which maybe you haven’t cared about since Seinfeld, but I can assure that TV execs care about very, very much. And we want TV execs to be happy, don’t we? Sure we do. We want EVERYONE to be happy.

One year ago, Idol crushed BBT in the ratings 7.0 to 4.2. It seems that the tables have turned, with Idol down 28%, ensuring that BBT is the most popular show in the demographic, and through the transitive property, the best show on TV.

Breaking Bad? Homeland? Nope. Big Bang Theory is better, and Idol is now only second-best. Look at the ratings, pal.

Screen Junkies » big bang theory

‘Walking Dead’ Sets Yet Another Record With Season 3.5 Debut

A Shitty Torch Is Passed: ‘Big Bang Theory’ Outperforms ‘Idol’