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Last hurrah for TLC's
'Jon & Kate Plus 8'


Finale bumps up, averaging 4.3 million viewers

Nov 25, 2009

One of the surefire ways to get big ratings on TV is to air a series finale. Unfortunately, as the old joke goes, it’s a great trick, but you can only do it once.

The final episode of TLC’s “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” which aired on Monday night, drew an average audience of 4.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen, well up from recent episodes.

“Jon & Kate Plus 8” had been on a ratings roller coaster since the season five premiere on Memorial Day of this year, which drew a record 9.8 million viewers. It was the first episode in which Jon and Kate Gosselin addressed the rumors of marital infidelity that had turned them from medium-sized cable celebrities to tabloid cover stars.

That audience was more than twice as many viewers as had tuned in for the previous highest-rated episode, the season four finale, in November 2008.

The audience later rose to 10.6 million for the heavily promoted June episode in which the couple announced that they were separating, but viewership for subsequent airings gradually declined, falling below 2 million some weeks this fall.

Many critics and longtime fans said that since the new episodes had no interaction between the spouses, they were boring. It turns out many people actually enjoyed watching Kate berate Jon for his shortcomings as a father and husband while he rolled his eyes.

The recent uptick may have come because the couple re-entered the news with some typical ugly-divorce squabbling: Kate accused Jon of withdrawing money illegally from their joint bank account. Other news was sui generis: Jon had recently sought to forbid TLC from filming the couple’s eight children, which ended for now the channel’s plans to continue with a show titled “Kate Plus 8.”

That unexpected twist leaves TLC in something of a bind, as the channel was heavily dependent on the Gosselins. Airings of various episodes of “J&K” filled around 17 hours of TLC’s schedule last week.

It was also the network’s highest-rated show. The penultimate episode of the series, which drew a more modest 2.3 million viewers on Nov. 16, was still far ahead of TLC’s next most-viewed series, “Cake Boss,” which drew only 1.8 million and had the benefit of “J&K” as a lead-in.

If TLC has an image beyond “Jon & Kate,” it’s known for airing reality series that focus on big families, as in “18 and Counting,” or dwarfs, such as “Little People, Big World” and “Little Parents, First Baby.” These shows have done well in the younger adult-women demographics. Last week, according to Nielsen, TLC ranked eighth in prime time among women 18-49 but 17th among total viewers.

Losing its flagship show, TLC is in a situation similar to that of HBO after “The Sopranos” finished its run. Should the channel try to re-create a previous success or try to redefine itself?

Some signs point to the latter option. TLC recently announced it has ordered 12 episodes of “Mall Cops: Mall of America,” indicating that the network may be trying to attract the young males who helped make a hit of the recent guy-oriented comedy “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.”

And who knows? Maybe the tabloids will discover that one of the cops is committing adultery.

***

In cable ratings for the week ended Nov. 22:

Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): ESPN, USA, TBS, TNT, FX.

Top five networks in primetime (total viewers): USA, ESPN, Fox News Channel, TBS, TNT.

Top movie (18-49s): USA’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (Saturday, 7 p.m.) 1.5 million.

Top sporting event (total viewers): ESPN’s “Monday Night Football: Ravens/Browns” (Monday, 8:30 p.m.) 10.20 million.

Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: ESPN’s “Monday Night Football: Steelers/Broncos” (Monday, 8:30 p.m.); FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” (Tuesday, 10 p.m.); ESPN’s “SportsCenter” (Monday, 11:39 p.m.); USA’s “Monday Night Raw” (Monday, 9 and 10 p.m.); Lifetime’s “Project Runway” (Thursday, 10 p.m.).

Show on the rise: Lifetime’s “Project Runway,” Thursday 10 p.m. The season finale averaged 4.28 million total viewers, making it the most-watched episode of the season, its first on Lifetime.

Show on the decline: ESPN’s “Monday Night Football: Ravens/Browns,” Monday 8:30 p.m. The NFL is having a great season in terms of viewership, but a Ravens/Browns matchup this late in the season doesn’t cut it. The game averaged 10.2 million total viewers, off 36 percent from the previous week’s game between the Steelers and Broncos.


 

TOP 25 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE NETWORKS
Ranked on Household Rating
 Week Ending November 22

Rank

Primetime

Total Day

Net

(000)

Net

(000)

1

USA

2321

NICK

1601

2

ESPN

2193

NAN *

1263

3

FOXN

1888

USA

1218

4

TNT

1483

FOXN

1032

5

NAN

1458

TNT

1010

6

TBSC

1400

ADSM*

944

7

HIST

1315

ESPN

902

8

AEN

1121

TOON

779

9

FAM

1108

TBSC

759

10

TOON

980

HIST

691

11

HGTV

977

AEN

664

12

FOOD

937

FAM

598

13

SYFY

882

FOOD

589

14

FX  

851

TRU

588

15

TRU

850

HGTV

562

16

TLC

842

LIF

548

17

CMDY

833

HALL

526

18

LIF

804

FX  

492

19

HALL

788

SPK

487

20

DISC

766

DISC

477

21

SPK

756

TVLD

440

22

ESP2

748

CMDY

432

23

AMC

614

AMC

408

24

BRAV

601

SYFY

408

25

MTV

583

TLC

401

* Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24-hour day.
Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

 

TOP 25 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE PROGRAMS
Ranked on Households
 Week Ending November 22

Rank

Program

Net

(000)

1

Ravens/Browns

ESPN

7481

2

Monk

USA

3748

3

Sportscenter      

ESPN

3675

4

WWE Raw

USA

3532

5

White Collar

USA

3387

6

Project Runway

LIF

3361

7

WWE Raw

USA

3340

8

NCIS

USA

3328

9

Spongebob

NICK

3247

10

Hannity

FOXN

3151

11

Spongebob

NICK

3136

12

Spongebob

NICK

3130

13

The O'Reilly Factor

FOXN

3085

14

NCIS

USA

3052

15

The O'Reilly Factor

FOXN

3039

16

Spongebob

NICK

2993

17

The O'Reilly Factor

FOXN

2925

18

NCIS

USA

2791

19

Penguins Of Madagascar

NICK

2721

20

The O'Reilly Factor

FOXN

2717

21

The O'Reilly Factor

FOXN

2672

22

NCIS

USA

2621

23

NCIS

USA

2601

24

Sons Of Anarchy

FX  

2569

25

Penguins Of Madagascar

NICK

2567

1

Ravens/Browns

ESPN

7481

Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

 

TOP 10 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE NETWORKS
Adults 18-34
 Week Ending November 22

Rank

PRIME TIME

TOTAL DAY

Net

(000)

Net

(000)

1

ESPN

743

ADSM*

481

2

TBSC

638

NICK

343

3

USA

606

ESPN

341

4

FX  

384

NAN *

338

5

TNT

373

TBSC

318

6

CMDY

328

USA

294

7

SPK

322

TNT

231

8

MTV

318

FX  

209

9

NAN

301

MTV

208

10

TLC

291

TOON

197

* Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24-hour day.
Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

 

TOP 10 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE SHOWS
Adults 18-34
Week Ending November 22

Rank

PROGRAM

NET

(000)

1

Ravens/Browns

ESPN

2521

2

South Park

CMDY

1475

3

The Hills

MTV

1464

4

Sportscenter      

ESPN

1424

5

Sons Of Anarchy

FX  

1324

6

Family Guy

ADSM

1241

7

WWE Raw

USA

1241

8

Project Runway

LIF

1193

9

Family Guy

ADSM

1184

10

WWE Raw

USA

1175

Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

 

TOP 10 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE NETWORKS
Adults 18-49
 Week Ending November 22

  Rank

PRIME TIME

TOTAL DAY

Net

(000)

Net

(000)

1

ESPN

1447

ADSM*

676

2

USA

1294

USA

640

3

TBSC

1109

ESPN

617

4

TNT

871

NAN *

590

5

FX  

701

TBSC

571

6

AEN

635

TNT

564

7

CMDY

610

NICK

554

8

HIST

600

FX  

376

9

SPK

588

TRU

368

10

FAM

581

AEN

365

* Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24-hour day.
Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

 

TOP 10 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE SHOWS
Adults 18-49
 Week Ending November 22

Rank

PROGRAM

NET

(000)

1

Ravens/Browns

ESPN

5363

2

Sportscenter

ESPN

2735

3

WWE Raw

USA

2546

4

Project Runway

LIF

2496

5

Sons Of Anarchy

FX  

2474

6

WWE Raw

USA

2304

7

South Park

CMDY

2023

8

Top Chef

BRAV

1910

9

The Ultimate Fighter

SPK

1826

10

The Hills

MTV

1795

Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

 

TOP 10 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE NETWORKS
Adults 25-54
 Week Ending November 22

 

PRIME TIME

TOTAL DAY

Rank

Net

(000)

Net

(000)

1

ESPN

1450

USA

666

2

USA

1365

TNT

607

3

TNT

927

ESPN

574

4

TBSC

919

NAN *

503

5

HIST

690

TBSC

490

6

AEN

686

ADSM*

457

7

FOXN

655

NICK

442

8

FOOD

637

AEN

387

9

SYFY

632

TRU

372

10

FX  

611

HIST

370

* Network broadcasts less than 51% of minutes in a 24-hour day.
Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

 

TOP 10 AD-SUPPORTED CABLE SHOWS
Adults 25-54
 Week Ending November 22

Rank

PROGRAM

NET

(000)

1

Ravens/Browns

ESPN

5425

2

Sportscenter      

ESPN

2674

3

Project Runway

LIF

2590

4

WWE Raw

USA

2458

5

Sons Of Anarchy

FX  

2220

6

WWE Raw

USA

2189

7

Monk

USA

2035

8

Top Chef

BRAV

2002

9

White Collar

USA

1804

10

Next Iron Chef 2

FOOD

1787

Source: Turner Research from Nielsen Media Research data

 




Tom Conroy is a Connecticut writer.




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