A new report by Margaret Lyons at New York puts today’s successes in perspective by comparing their ratings to numbers for (relatively ho-hum) series that aired not too long ago.
Here are some sobering stats to put today’s TV in perspective.
Before: 35 million
Number of viewers who tuned in for the premiere of Veronica’s Closet, Kirstie Alley’s short-lived and widely dismissed sitcom, in 1997, according to New York — almost double the viewers of 2 Broke Girls
Today: 19.4 million
Number of viewers who tuned-in for the premiere of 2 Broke Girls, making it TV’s highest rated new show of 2011. That tally inspired Lauren A. E. Schuker at The Wall Street Journal to proclaim this the year of “She TV.”
Before: 27.3 million
Number of viewers who tuned in for an episode of the sitcom Grace Under Fire in 1995. The episode was a rerun.
Today: 27.7 million
Number of viewers who tuned in for the season premiere of Two and a Half Men starring Ashton Kutcher, making it fall’s highest-rated premiere
Before: 9.8 million
Number of viewers who tuned in for an October 1994 episode of the teen drama My So-Called Life, which was canceled after one season after languishing in the ratings’ bottom 10 for its entire run, according to Entertainment Weekly
Today: 9.2 million
Number of viewers who tuned in for the series premiere of Zooey Deschanel’s FOX comedy New Girl. Those numbers helped it become the first new show of the fall to be picked up for a full season, says Ann Oldenburg at USA Today.
Before: 7.6 million
Number of viewers who watched the 1999 premiere of Thanks, a Puritan sitcom that CBS canceled after six episodes. “Thanks had 1.6 million more viewers [than Up All Night],” notes Lyons.
Today: 6 million
Number of viewers who tuned in for the first episode of Up All Night, the new Christina Applegate parenting comedy that NBC considers a hit
Before: 52.4 million
Number of viewers who watched the post-Super Bowl episode of Friends in 2004
Today: 26.8 million
Number of viewers who watched the post-Super Bowl episode of Glee this year
Before: 40 million
Number of viewers who watched the premiere of Joe Millionaire, Fox’s highly-promoted big new reality show of 2003, according to The New York Times
Today: 12.5 million
Number of viewers who watched the premiere of The X Factor, Fox’s highly-promoted big new reality show of 2011.
I always love watching tv shows that are funny and tv shows that are full of action.