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)
