Summer Reality TV Ratings

I am a big reality TV fan and Summer is the time for the major US TV networks to air original non-fiction reality and game shows in place of re-runs of their Fall-Winter fictional series.

Below is a list of where the major original Summer reality series placed in last week's US prime time TV ratings. The first number is the placement out of the 98 programs that aired on the 5 major US TV networks last week. The column after the show name shows total viewers (2 years and older) and the column after that is the rating.

For benchmarking purposes, the average program airing in US prime time last week drew 5.3 million viewers and the average rating was 1.8.

Analysis:

• ABC's Wipeout continues to be the breakout hit debuting this Summer.
• Greatest American Dog lost viewers in its 2nd outing.
• (ABC's new Junior talent contest) HSM: Get In The Picture failed to attracted a fraction of the audience of the Disney channel movies that inspired it.
• Big Brother didn't score well in its first full week airing episodes

List of most viewed reality series
FROM 07/14/08 THROUGH 07/20/08


2 AMERICA'S GOT TALENT 12790 4.5
5 SO YOU THINK CN DANCE-WED 9010 3.1
7 WIPEOUT 8650 3.0
9 SO YOU THINK CN DANCE-THU 8400 2.9
12 CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD 7820 2.7
15 SMARTER THAN 5TH GRADER 7690 2.7
19 GREATEST AMERICAN DOG 6970 2.4
26 BIG BROTHER 10-TUE 6100 2.1
29 NASHVILLE STAR 5940 2.1
30 BABY BORROWERS 5930 2.1
31 BIG BROTHER 10-WED 5760 2.0
33 BIG BROTHER 10-SUN 5720 2.0
34 I SURVED-JAPANESE GM SHOW 5700 2.0
46 AMERICAN GLADIATORS 5000 1.7
53 CELEBRITY CIRCUS 4550 1.6
54 LAST COMIC STANDING 6 4490 1.6
62 HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL-PICT 3970 1.4
67 MOLE, THE 3600 1.3
71 DUEL 3280 1.1

A rating is a percent of the all television households in the USA tuned to a particular show (not to be confused with a share, which is the percentage of the TV audience watching TV at a particular time that is tuned to a particular program).