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Kath & Kim pulls good US audience

The first episode grabbed a strong audience. The only show in its timeslot to increase the all-important network share.

Despite the disappointing press reviews, the US premiere of Kath and Kim took good numbers in the US.

It managed 7.5m viewers, which, while landing third in its timeslot behind Survivor and Ugly Betty enjoyed strong growth for the NBC timeslot.

In the US total numbers are not the same litmus test of ‘hit or miss’ as in Australia. NBC will look to compare how Kath and Kim fared in overall share and demographics. Kath & Kim came second in its slot with a 3.2 rating in 18-49. Survivor was first with a 4.6. Ugly Betty was third with a 2.7, the baseball 4th with a 2.0 and Smallville last with a 1.6.

Kath & Kim was up 3% on a new My Name is Earl in the same timeslot last week and up 7% on new 30 Rock in the same timeslot last year. That’s enough to keep NBC smiling so far.

By contrast Survivor was down 2% on its new episode year on year, while Betty down a massive 27% on a new episode a year ago, baseball was down 23% on a new 5th Grader last year for Fox. Smallville was down 20% on a new episode last year on CW.

That leaves Kath and Kim as the only show to grow the timeslot for any network, up 7% for NBC when most other networks were down 20% or so year on year.

By comparison, Grey’s Anatomy was down a massive 30% on its ep last year.

The overall viewers for the 8.30 timeslot were: Survivor (14.1million) Betty (8.6m) Kath & Kim (7.5m) baseball (6.5m) and Smallville (4.2m). All figures are “Live plus same day” which means live viewing and delayed DVR viewing up to midnight last night (same day of telecast).

An NBC insider told TV Tonight: “Kath and Kim overperformed (our expectations)! Which is always really nice! I think the estimate was a 2.2 or something so it was a great surprise!”

28 Responses

  1. For product reviews I’d recommend Smarthouse etc as that has never been the focus of this blog. Similarly there are other blogs that cover politics and music. These get referenced as genres here where relevant. The site has frequently covered some of the issues you’ve mentioned including diversity and late night preachers… ie.

    http://tvtonight.com.au/2008/06/its-called-the-off-button.html
    http://tvtonight.com.au/2008/07/televangelist-peter-pops-off-nine.html
    http://tvtonight.com.au/2008/09/bondi-rescue-bali.html
    http://tvtonight.com.au/2008/05/visibility-in-the-media-at-btq7.html
    http://tvtonight.com.au/2007/07/first-review-the-circuit.html
    http://tvtonight.com.au/2007/04/first-review-big-brother-7.html

    That said I don’t particularly feel the need to have to defend a personal blog. They are what they are. If I don’t like the tone of one site I keep surfing til I find one I do….

  2. I wouldn’t say “rattled” their cages as such, more cleaned them out, dressed them up nice, wined and dined 🙂 Have you ever asked why major world events are often left out of the news altogether? Why people of different race and colors are non-existent as hosts on the three major networks and why on Australian Sitcoms there is barely ever any other race or color represented unless they are in a short token role. The problems with the rating systems and the social bias issues being written about. The Governments influence on the filtering of News stories and the choice of programing on the ABC. Especially the hints of prejudice during the 07 election and what network supports what party, financial contributions as such. The real story with late night preachers and the moneys made from the advertising. I’m at work and that’s just the ones of the top of my head. I must have missed those kinds of things when I was surfing through Kerri-Anne puff pieces lol

    And Variety? as in “We got both kinds Country and Western!” Variety would mean some Music reviews, Political Satire or broadening, some quirky sports segments, some product reviews etc etc Not as in “we got both kinds Aussie and American TV!!” Been reading here for ages, used to get some great info, now it just seems like one big advertisement for the TV shows with some Tv week gossip thrown in. Thats what happens when one becomes friends with the people they are reporting on. And this is the major difference between AU media and American, I make that comparison because it seems that’s all the Aussie Media strive for, to emulate an inferior product.

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