Television websites like WarmingGlow and others cater to a very specific, and relatively small, audience. Great television isn’t watched by a large segment of the population, at least according to traditional Nielsen measurements. Yet, it’s a show like “Mad Men,” which receives a sixth of the viewership of “American Idol” or “Breaking Bad,” which receives a tenth of the audience of “The Voice,” that soak up most of the online conversation (yesterday, for instance, escaping “Mad Men” discussion was practically impossible on the web). This should be a huge draw for advertisers: Smarter, more active television viewers with identifiable demographics (who also tend to be more affluent). That’s why a show like “Breaking Bad” can sustain itself on 1.9 million viewers a week: AMC can charge a premium for those ads, and then extend their profits in DVD sales and Netflix licensing.
Most of us, if we see ratings for basic cablers at all, tend to see them independent of one another. Measured against the top draws on cable — WWE, “Spongebob Squarepants,” “Jersey Shore,” “Big Bang Theory” reruns — many of these shows barely rate. But I was curious myself as to how the best cable shows stacked up against each other in terms of viewers. I took the liberty of finding the average number of viewers for 15 basic cable shows, just to see how they compare against each other. Keep in mind that an average network viewership for a decently rated show (like, say, “Castle”) is around 10 million viewers, “Jersey Shore” receives around 9 million viewers, and a low-rated network show like “Community” receives around 4 million.
Here’s the breakdown:
“The Walking Dead” — 9 million
“Sons of Anarchy” — 5.45 million
“Mad Men” — 3.5 million
“American Horror Story” — 3.2 million
“Justified” — 3.1 million
“Psych” — 3 million
“Wilfred” — 3.3 million
“South Park” — 2.6 million
“Futurama” — 2.5 million
“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” — 2.3 million
“The Killing” — 2.3 million
“Breaking Bad” — 1.9 million
“Southland” — 1.8 million
“Louie” — 1.6 million
“Archer” — 1.5 million
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How does “Wilfred” have double the viewers of “Archer?”
Frodo
What’s not to love about a manipulative, pot-smoking aussie in a dog costume.
/I like Wilfred, but Archer is the better comedy
No idea. I liked the first few episodes of Wilfred but got bored with it fairly quickly and have not gone back or missed it.
Archer on the hand is a fucking master work of television.
I like Wilfred, but it doesn’t make sense that it gets more viewers than IASIP. It’s on the same network, gets less publicity, and isn’t as critically acclaimed.
The next door neighbor chick on Wilfred has a fucking awesome ass and a fabulous set of tits……
The Aussie version chick friend was cute in an “edgy” way…
Probably first-season hype. I imagine there’ll be a pretty big dropoff next year and it’ll fall more inline with the other FX comedies.
I like Wilfred, but like most people here, enjoy Archer a lot more. One answer to the OP’s question may be that a lot of the writing on Wilfred (certainly not the premise) is more generic. People are much more likely to get pot jokes and the lovable loser pining after the hot neighbor. How many viewers out there would get the running Kenny Loggins jokes the first time though? Hell, I don’t even understand the Burt Reynolds references, but I enjoy them all the same.
The Glades still gets more viewers than Breaking Bad. Baffling.
Should have known that by far the worst show on the list would have almost double the viewers of the next closest show.People are assholes with terrible taste. How do Breaking Bad and Justified combined get only slightly more than half the viewers of The Walking pile of shite?
Zombies are so edgy!
Wow, I watch 14 of those 15 shows.
I’m guessing American Horror Story?
Psych, actually.
Well, this list just doesn’t make any sense. No sense at all!
I don’t watch Psych and Always Sunny I usually catch in syndication rather than new episodes. Otherwise I watch all of these.
As a footnote, it took me until recently to finally catch upon the many seasons of Breaking Bad, so now I’ll be a live viewer like the rest of you.
If 8.5 of those 9.1 million Walking Dead viewers have to be watching it ironically right?
Needs more graphs.
Where’s Pawn Stars?
You know what? I’d really like to see a breakdown on viewers for job-themed reality shows. There have got to be some crazy numbers in there, like Pawn Stars beating out The Deadliest Catch or something.
Are there any believable websites where a reader can find ratings data and audience breakout?
I know you’ve covered this data before but I am curious about the DVR effect and why an advertiser finds a large audience gathered together on one night to be more valuable than the SAME number of viewers distributed over several days (on DVR, Netflix, etc, etc, etc) to be less valuable (if this is, in fact, the case).
people fast forward through commercials on DVR… at least I do, and most of the people I know that record stuff.
Brianjodoin….
…very true….and people walk out to the bathroom and fridge during broadcast commercials…..
I actually will stop my DVR and watch an interesting commercial…..like on with a big-titted chick or for some product I have a vague interest in….
So Commercials could “scrawl” for we fast-forward-ers or some other alternative could be devised for “skippers”….which I also do…
Basically, people don’t watch good television.
This makes me sad, WTF Mad Men at only 3.5, Justified at 3.1, Breaking Bad 1.9?!?! I always thought Mad Men and Justified had a much larger viewership. But it is very impressive that even with those low numbers Mad Men gets an incredible amount of press.
Sooo, Wilfred more than doubles Archer? And Louie? Pleasantly surprised about Mad Men. Best show on TV
This is the benefit of making fairly inexpensive shows on cable networks. Fringe averages around 3 mil and it’s basically DOA.
I don’t understand why Fringe would be more expensive than something like AHS or Mad Men. Is it the longer seasons?
I think it’s the special effects and multiple locations.
Wow, I didn’t realize Walking Dead’s numbers were so strong. And Sons of Anarchy too? What the fuck. And Archer and Breaking Bad are that low… jeez. My mind is blown.
Dave’s Old Porn seems to be missing.
I had no idea Archer would be at the bottom of the list. Is it me, or does it seem like FX is firmly behind it?
They are, but buying the DVDs wouldn’t hurt.
I’m shocked that Archer is last on this list. Best comedy on television, and next in line would be Louie. I worry about America.
Justified should at least be pulling Walking Dead numbers, if not what-the-hell-ever something like NCIS gets. Maybe most people are too lazy to find FX, I dunno.
As with network television, the thing that real matters when selling commercials is the 18-49 age rating. So I looked them all up and reshuffled the list. The number at the end is the show’s 18-49 rating.
“The Walking Dead” — 9 million 4.7
“Sons of Anarchy” — 5.45 million 1.9
“American Horror Story” — 3.2 million 1.7
“South Park” — 2.6 million 1.3
“Mad Men” — 3.5 million 1.2
“Psych” — 3 million 1.1
“Breaking Bad” — 1.9 million 1.0
“Archer” — 1.5 million .8
“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” — 2.3 million .8
“Futurama” — 2.5 million .7 (2.5 million seemed off here as well)
“The Killing” — 2.3 million .7
“Wilfred” — 3.3 million .7 (I think you might have had a type with overall viewers. This website [goo.gl] claims 1.3 million)
“Louie” — 1.6 million .6
“Southland” — 1.8 million .5
Bonus: Workaholics .9 and The League .7
Fine, I’ll ask it. Who is the chick in the inset picture? I feel like I should know this.
I’m assuming it’s Megan but I haven’t watched my DVR yet.
Most Americans are idiots and love mindless crap. It’s a more than decent bet that if you like Mad Men, you will like other people who like Mad Men, and probably a more than decent losing bet that you will have little in common with people who watch The Voice.