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Men behaving manly You needn't wonder why you're seeing so many Jul 2, 2008
Now there’s another genre breaking through, action/adventure reality, and it’s pulling some big audiences across multiple networks. Five of cable’s top 10 new shows among total viewers during second quarter fit the action-adventure reality mold, and all but two saw double-digit percent increases over the same timeslot last year, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Turner Networks.
The shows tend to feature men doing dangerous jobs in the vein of the crab fishermen on Discovery’s hit show “Deadliest Catch.” The latest batch includes Alaskan adventurers, “monster” hunters and oil drillers, among others.
History Channel’s “Ax Men” led the group as the No. 2 new show overall, behind top-ranked “In Plain Sight” on USA, with an average 2.09 million total viewers. The show, which follows Northwest logging crews, was up 60 percent over the same slot last year.
Discovery’s “The Alaska Experiment” also ranked in the top five at No. 4, averaging 1.84 million total viewers, though that was up just 1 percent over last year. Two-thirds of the audience for “Alaska,” about a group of volunteers who live off the land in Alaska for three months, was adults 18-49.
Other new action-adventure reality shows in the top 10 were truTV’s “Black Gold,” following a group of oil riggers, in seventh place with 1.61 million viewers; Discovery’s “When We Left Earth,” about space explorers, in eighth place with 1.59 million viewers; and History’s “Monster Quest,” about a group who track sightings of monsters like Bigfoot, in 10th place with 1.37 million viewers.
Another action-adventure reality show, Spike’s “DEA,” made the top 10 new shows in adults 18-49, in addition to “Ax,” “Alaska” and “Earth.”
The appeal of these programs, especially to the young men who tend to flock to cable, isn’t hard to figure out. They usually spotlight the sort of everyman heroes male viewers can relate to much better than, say, Dr. McDreamy on “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Their hard living, and sometimes harder partying, makes for lots of exciting, engaging drama, something the broadcast networks have picked up on. This fall NBC is rolling out its first action-adventure reality show, “America’s Toughest Jobs” from “Catch’s” Thom Beers.
*** Meanwhile, in other cable ratings for the week ended June 29: Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): USA, TBS, TNT, ESPN, BET. Top five networks in primetime (total viewers): USA, TNT, ESPN, TBS, Nick at Nite. Top movie (18-49s): TBS’s “Wedding Crashers” (Sunday, 8 p.m.) 1.45 million. Top sporting event (total viewers): TNT’s “Sprint Cup Racing/Loudon” (Sunday, 1:59 p.m.) 5.50 million. Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: USA’s “WWE Entertainment” (Monday, 9 and 10 p.m.); BET’s “BET Awards” (Tuesday, 8 p.m.). Show on the rise: USA’s “WWE Entertainment,” Monday 10 p.m. The final hour of USA’s WWE coverage averaged 1.56 million viewers 18-34, up 12 percent from 1.39 million the previous week. Show on the decline: BET’s “BET Awards,” Tuesday 8 p.m. Although it was the No. 2 program for the week among total viewers, the awards show slipped 8.5 percent year-to-year from 6.39 million viewers to 5.85 million.
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