Years ago, families were the province of sitcoms, from the Cleavers on “Leave it to Beaver” to the Seavers on “Growing Pains.”
These days, with network comedies increasingly focused on the workplace, family-driven programming has migrated to cable, and it's morphed as well.
What was the broadcast sitcom about an imaginary family is now the cable reality series about a real family--typically an unusual family but one with issues and problems all families face. It's warm and cozy television, once again.
No show quite captures this reality-as-sitcom trend as TLC’s “Jon and Kate Plus 8,” about the Gosselins, a family with two parents, one pair of twins and a set of sextuplets, for eight total kids.
Ratings have been on the rise.
Last week’s 9 p.m. Monday edition had its best-ever numbers among households, with 2.1 million, and viewers 25-54, with 1.6 million. And that came one week after the show set series highs in total viewers and 18-49s.
“Kate” originated on Discovery Health, but the show moved to sister network TLC for its third season earlier this year, coming as Discovery Health is made over as the Oprah Winfrey Network next year.
The Gosselins are one of just 14 families nationwide with sextuplets, with their set born in 2004, and their show originally started as a documentary. Now the Pennsylvania family appears regularly on “Oprah” and other talk shows.
It's not hard to understand their appeal. Though with a slew of kids, they face the same struggles as families with one or two, only on a grander scale, and it's something parents can relate to immediately. After all, potty training one child would seem like a breeze after watching the Gosselins struggle to train six at one time.
“Kate’s” 8 p.m. lead-in, “Big People, Little World,” is a similarly themed show about a family with special circumstances. The parents are dwarfs with several regular-sized children.
But these family-oriented reality shows are hardly limited to TLC. The Gosselins’ show came after the success of several Discovery Health programs about the Duggars, the Arkansas family who now have 17 children.
In some cases, the families are those of celebrities, but whether the shows work or not depends on the family's dynamics. The celebrity angle only gets viewers to tune in the first time. As one would expect the people are often quite different from how they are portrayed in public.
MTV has “Run’s House,” which follows the clan of Rev. Run, of Run DMC. Disney has an upcoming Jonas Brothers reality show, VH1 has “Hogan Knows Best,” A&E has “Gene Simmons: Family Jewels,” and E! has “Keeping up with the Kardishians.”
Even a show like Discovery Channel’s “American Chopper,” which is nominally about motorcycles, is really about the relationship between a man and his sons.
***
Meanwhile, in other cable ratings for the week ended March 23:
Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): TBS, USA, TNT, Nick at Nite, MTV.
Top five networks in primetime (total viewers): USA, Nick at Nite, TBS, TNT, Fox News Channel.
Top movie (18-49s): TBS’s “Sahara” (Sunday, 8 p.m.) 2.0 million
Top sporting event (total viewers): TNT’s “NBA Basketball: Celtics/Rockets” (Tuesday, 9:40 p.m.) 2.39 million
Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: USA’s “WWE Entertainment” (Monday, 9 and 10 p.m.).
Show on the rise: USA’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” Thursday 10 p.m. The Thursday night edition of “L&O: SVU” drew 1.62 million viewers 25-54, up 37 percent from 1.18 million the previous week.
Show on the decline: Comedy Central’s “Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil,” Wednesday 10:30 p.m. “Root” fell 28 percent week-to-week among total viewers, from 2.31 million to 1.66 million.
|
TOP 25 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE NETWORKS
Ranked on Household Rating
Week Ending March 23 |
|
Rank |
Primetime |
Total Day |
|
Net |
(000) |
Net |
(000) |
|
1
|
USA
|
2092
|
NICK
|
1723
|
|
2
|
NAN
|
1677
|
NAN
*
|
1606
|
|
3
|
TBSC
|
1537
|
USA
|
1037
|
|
4
|
TNT
|
1504
|
TNT
|
948
|
|
5
|
FOXN
|
1379
|
ADSM*
|
839
|
|
6
|
SPK
|
1071
|
TBSC
|
825
|
|
7
|
LIF
|
1069
|
TOON
|
819
|
|
8
|
AEN
|
1033
|
FOXN
|
788
|
|
9
|
HIST
|
984
|
LIF
|
713
|
|
10
|
FX
|
929
|
AEN
|
665
|
|
11
|
TOON
|
906
|
TRU
|
635
|
|
12
|
TRU
|
898
|
HIST
|
621
|
|
13
|
FAM
|
871
|
ESPN
|
598
|
|
14
|
ESPN
|
869
|
SPK
|
540
|
|
15
|
AMC
|
864
|
FX
|
533
|
|
16
|
CMDY
|
862
|
DISC
|
526
|
|
17
|
MTV
|
861
|
HGTV
|
510
|
|
18
|
DISC
|
840
|
HALL
|
508
|
|
19
|
HGTV
|
814
|
MTV
|
500
|
|
20
|
SCIF
|
807
|
CNN
|
499
|
|
21
|
HALL
|
755
|
FAM
|
497
|
|
22
|
CNN
|
743
|
AMC
|
467
|
|
23
|
TLC
|
704
|
TVLD
|
458
|
|
24
|
VH1
|
618
|
CMDY
|
452
|
|
25
|
BET
|
557
|
FOOD
|
446
|
|
* Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24-hour day.
Source: Turner Entertainment Research based on data from Nielsen Media Research.
|
|
TOP 25 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE PROGRAMS
Ranked on Households
Week Ending March 23 |
|
Rank
|
Program |
Net
|
(000) |
|
1
|
WWE Entertainment
|
USA
|
3683
|
|
2
|
WWE Entertainment
|
USA
|
3135
|
|
3
|
Law & Order: SVU
|
USA
|
3103
|
|
4
|
Law & Order: SVU
|
USA
|
3008
|
|
5
|
Spongebob
|
NICK
|
2816
|
|
6
|
Spongebob
|
NICK
|
2739
|
|
7
|
Spongebob
|
NICK
|
2733
|
|
8
|
iCarly
|
NICK
|
2663
|
|
9
|
Spongebob
|
NICK
|
2626
|
|
10
|
Sahara
(2005)
|
TBSC
|
2586
|
|
11
|
Law & Order: SVU
|
USA
|
2573
|
|
12
|
Spongebob
|
NICK
|
2570
|
|
13
|
Spongebob
|
NICK
|
2565
|
|
14
|
Spongebob
|
NICK
|
2540
|
|
15
|
Spongebob
|
NICK
|
2533
|
|
16
|
Back At The Barnyard
|
NICK
|
2515
|
|
17
|
Spongebob
|
NICK
|
2473
|
|
18
|
Spongebob
|
NICK
|
2443
|
|
19
|
