It’s always nice to gain some perspective. Putting aside the questions about the accuracy of the Nielsen ratings, or whether Nielsen is the appropriate metric to measure a show’s real-world popularity, how does Breaking Bad stack up against the competition on Sunday nights, a crowded night of programing even for the summer? The good news? It rates better than Hoarders or even USA Network’s Political Animals. The bad? It gets beat by Kim Kardashian.
Here’s how the 38 Sunday night cable shows rank:
1. True Blood – HBO — 4.498 million viewers
2. Longmire – A&E — 3.995 million viewers
3. Falling Skies – TNT — 3.341 million viewers
4. The Glades – A&E — 3.088 million viewers
5. Keeping Up With the Kardashians – E! — 3.005 million viewers
6. Shake It Up (8:30) – Disney- 2.873 million viewers
7. Army Wives – Lifetime — 2.815 million viewers
8. Leverage – TNT — 2.612 million viewers
9. Breaking Bad – AMC — 2.287 million viewers
10. Drop Dead Diva – Lifetime — 2.262 million viewers
11. NFL Preseason: Saints/Cardinals – NFL — 1.971 million viewers
12. Ice Road Truckers – History — 1.968 million viewers
13. Political Animals (10:00) – USA — 1.795 million viewers
14. The Newsroom – HBO — 1.758 million viewers
15. Sunday Best (8:00) – BET — 1.635 million viewers
16. Storage Hunters (10:00) – truTV — 1.545 million viewers
17. Chopped: Grill Masters (9:00) – Food — 1.461 million viewers
18. Hoarding: Buried Alive – TLC — 1.209 million viewers
19. Bar Rescue (9:00) – Spike TV — 1.172 million viewers
20. Flip Men (10:30) – Spike TV — 1.017 million viewers
21. Sunday Night Baseball – ESPN — 1.012 million viewers
22. Cupcake Wars – Food — 1.010 million viewers
23. The Great Escape – TNT — 1.006 million viewers
24. Combat Pawn – truTV — 0.991 million viewers
25. Iron Chef America (10:00) – Food — 0.938 million viewer
26. Hillbilly Handfishin’ – Animal Planet — 0.912 million viewers
27. Flip Men (10:00) – Spike TV — 0.888 million viewers
28. Strange Sex (10:30) – TLC — 0.844 million viewers
29. Big Ang – VH1 — 0.715 million viewers
30. Weeds – Showtime — 0.637 million viewers
31. Strange Sex (10:00) – TLC — 0.599 million viewers
32. Snapped – Oxygen — 0.546 million viewers
33. Mob Wives Chicago (8:00) – VH1 — 0.505 million viewers
34. Off the Hook: Extreme Catches (9:00) – Animal Planet — 0.442 million viewers
35. Call of the Wildman (10:00) – Animal Planet
– 0.410 million viewers
36. Off the Hook: Extreme Catches (9:30) – Animal Planet — 0.400 million viewers
37. Episodes – Showtime — 0.332 million viewers
38. Oprah’s Lifeclass (10:00) – OWN — 0.317 million viewers
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Obviously, DVR viewership and rebroadcasts are not accounted for in these ratings, which already amounts to a great deal of cable viewership, and even more on a Sunday night. I would imagine that both Weeds and Episodes have a significant number of viewers on re-airs and DVRs because those ratings are dismal.
But also: Ugh. True Blood is the highest-rated show of the night, by a significant margin? Is badly scripted vampire porn really that compelling? Honestly, I think I’d rather watch the Kardashians.
(Ratings Info via Futon Critic)
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True Blood is so highly rated because it’s the show men can watch with their girlfriends or wives before the football season comes on and they completely ignore their girlfriends or wives until mid-April. I put up with bare wolf-man ass (hairless of course) so that I get to watch Romo throw interceptions. It’s a fair trade.
You make a good point. Plus, I welcome any show that might excite my wife in anyway, to the point of getting me laid.
For the same reason 50 Shades of Grey is the best piece of literature in the modern era.
Oh so we’re bashing True Blood today?
*Punches wall, spits on floor and leaves.
Hey, hey, hey! It’s the best scripted Vampire porn on TV, damnit.
That’s true, it does blow Vampire Diaries and Teen Wolf (does that have vampires? I assume it has vampires) out of the water.
Or does it? I honestly have no idea.
Why are those numbers “obviously” not counting DVR? If you can find the live ratings why can’t you also look up the Live+SD and Live+7. Ratings aren’t a measure of quality, they’re a measure of quantity of viewers so they are reflecting exactly what they’re designed to. Can we stop this “uggh why is this show rated higher than this one?” melodrama?
(Sorry if this appears twice)
You have the wrong complaint. No one important cares about DVR numbers, because you can’t make money from it. They only care about the Adult 18-49 demos, which should have been listed here. Breaking bad was actually 6th overall on Sunday in the adult 18-49 Live+SD demo with 1.2, compared to True Blood’s 2.7. 5th place was Nascar so the America being dumb thing still works.
Source: [tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com]
BREAKING NEWS
People watch dumb shit.
“COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF PEOPLE WATCH DUMB SHIT”
- fixed it for you.
So long as you like it, the masses like it, and it has never been in danger of getting cancelled, what’s the big deal? The amount of teenage/20-something women (Hell, all women) in this country outnumber tenfold the demographic that Breaking Bad shoots for. Of course their ratings will be better.
Is hyper-violent vampire porn really more ridiculous than middle class white guy with cancer being a drug kingpin?
Yes. Yes it is.
Oh yes, by several degrees
Oh, True Blood isn’t completely without its charms. There’s got to be at least three or four characters out of seventy-five who I don’t completely hate.
Also, they showed full frontal two whole times this season and it’s not even over. TWO. One of those times was even a wiener. You do the math.
I had no idea there was another show besides True Blood that did better than Breaking Bad. We’ll see how DVD sales are in eight years, though. Breaking Bad will be talked about like we talk about The Wire today.
Point well made.
That Kardashian/Humphries gif cracks me up. Anyway, I didn’t know Falling Skies did that well, and I never would’ve guessed in a million years that A&E would have two shows in the top 4 on Sunday. Very surprising.
I can only assume that Dustin has no female friends. Otherwise, it should come as no surprise that Sundays are dominated by female-driven shows.
Hey now, I actually like Leverage. Come at me bro.
Ditto. I mean Beth Reisgraf alone.
Gina Bellman is also quite hot and I’m pretty sure I have a man crush on Christian Kane.
I can’t believe “Weeds” is so low…
But on a different note – The Kim K GIF + French Montana’s “Pop That” (Terrible but fitting song)
I do watch the badly scripted vampire porn. Make no mistake, if it were on opposite Breaking Bad I’d be watching BB. I’m also recording Leverage and Longmire. But BB I have to watch live because I hate feeling left out the next day.
There are currently 3.005 million I hate right now.
Stop crying because your favorite show isn’t #1. Even though it’s my favorite on the list, I agree that it doesn’t have as wide of an appeal as some of the other shows.
I don’t think it’s a matter or Breaking Bad having limited appeal and that Dustin likes it better over True Blood. I think we should be looking at it as the most popular shit is the stupidest shit, and really try to fucking change that. Better shows should be more popular, rather than this drivel just self perpetuating and making idiots millions.
I watch both True Blood and Breaking Bad and there is no doubt in my mind that Breaking Bad is better.
That said, I watch True Blood live and Breaking Bad on Mondays, purely because I’m a pussy and I am at work by 6:20am so I go to bed while Breaking Bad is on. If they moved Breaking Bad to 9:00, I’d certainly be watching it live and telling True Blood to go fuck itself.
It’s not that True Blood is bad necessarily, you just have to look at it as a diversion as opposed to the type of show where you get particularly invested in the characters. It’s the tv equivalent of a popcorn film. With tons of titties. Though probably more man ass.
falling skies? i had no idea.
Does Longmire have Hines Ward in it?
Wow….so many shows I NEVER heard of…
Dustin, if it makes you feel any better, I’ve only heard of 3 of those shows and I’ve only watched two of them. I watched two episodes of Falling Skies and stopped. As for True Blood…PORN – duh, of course I watch it- and I don’t mean for the riveting dialogue.