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Television

Broadcast TV - United States
Week of March 22, 2010

RANK PROGRAM NETWORK.........RATING........VIEWERS (000)
1 DANCING WITH THE STARS____ABC 15.0___24,185
2 AMERICAN IDOL-TUESDAY _____FOX13.5___24,211
3 AMERICAN IDOL-WEDNESDAY__FOX 12.2___21,437
4 UNDERCOVER BOSS_________CBS 9.6___16,717
5 60 MINUTES_______________CBS 9.0___14,487
6 TWO AND A HALF MEN_______CBS 8.6___14,459
7 NCIS ____________________CBS 8.3___13,044
8 BIG BANG THEORY, THE______CBS 8.0___13,415
9 CASTLE__________________ABC 7.9___12,207
10 GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM___ABC 7.6___11,567

Source: The Nielsen Company. Viewing estimates on this page include Live viewing and DVR playback on the Same Day, defined as 3am-3am. Ratings are the percentage of TV homes in the U.S. tuned into television.

Considering the trouble SCD has had in competing with X Factor over here, that is an interesting statistic.

That pleases me no end!

It's more fun than either of the other two.

Given that the last series was the lowest rated ever, and this has been the highest rating since the off, it seems to be entirely due to the casting. Super-big names (Pamela Anderson, Buzz Aldrin), obvious hunks (all the other men except Buzz) and tabloid hate fodder like Kate Gosselin and Shannen Doherty. If the UK version takes the cue this seems to indicate, we'll be seeing more people like Jordan on the show, and fewer like Chris Hollins. And hopefully some more genuine A list people to balance the Kerry Katonas out.

"Fewer like Chris Hollins"? That would be a mistake considering he was such a hit. Please no Jordans or Katonas. And there'll be no A listers.

I think they could get A Listers if they paid more money - everyone has a price. Or more likely, people who were A/B listers 10 years ago but currently have nothing to do (a la Pamela or Shannen Doherty).

I would imagine people like Chris Hollins are popular with the core audience and build a loyal fanbase that maybe keeps people around once they've already started watching, but don't really pull ratings up from the outset. Maybe the US audience is more easily impressed by big names, but the "oooh, X is on it, I'll watch just to see how they do" factor does seem to play a large role in the ratings, particularly early on. (The Bachelor guy would probably be another to put alongside Kate at the gutter end of the market that Strictly doesn't dip into).

Personally I don't think ratings should be that important for Strictly, so long as they remain around the 8-10 million mark but increasingly the justification for the show with the tabloid media lies more and more with the comparison in the ratings with X Factor, and on the evidence of this, really high ratings rely on big names, controversial figures and hunks. It might also have something to do with there being fewer couples, but, as the double eliminations have been cut out, the show isn't running for any shorter an amount of time.