Britney vs. Paris: Who Means More to the Nielsen Ratings?

April 3rd, 2008 by Robert Seidman  Email This

In what looks like sort of a twist of The Sopranos after Uncle Junior shoots Tony and Tony is in a dream-sequence coma, tonight’s return of My Name is Earl includes Earl laying feverish as real life things, places and people run through his allegedly unconscious mind, including Paris Hilton.

We’ve already seen Britney Spears on How I Met Your Mother about 10 days ago, and that did bolster Mother’s ratings especially in the 18-49 demographic where it was the #7 show last week with a 4.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

I want to believe that Paris will best Britney, and while I’d love nothing more than to see Paris rip out a 5.0  rating in the 18-49 demographic for Earl, I don’t see that 5.0 in the cards.

Both My Name is Earl  and How I met Your Mother peform similarly in the 18-49 demographic.  Season-to-date, Mother has a 2.9 rating in that demo even after the Britney appearance, Earl has a 2.8 rating in the demo before the Paris episode.

I’d like to predict Paris will beat the snot out of Britney ratings-wise just because Paris’ antics are more entertaining to me.  Or maybe I just think she’s a lot prettier and a lot less crazy than Britney.

If both had seperate guests shots on How I Met Your Mother, I’d give the edge to Paris.  But because that’s not the way it is and because CBS usually puts the beatdown on NBC in just about any competition, it’s difficult.  Plus, CBS seemingly created a ton of buzz about Britney’s appearance and had I not just seen today’s Pardon the Interruption on ESPN, I would’ve completely forgotten Paris is on My Name is Earl tonight (thank you, Mr. Tony). 

Though I think what is most likely to happen is Earl will pull in the range of 3.8-4.3 in the 18-49 demo, as I’m often prone to do, I’m going to foolishly bet with my heart and not my head, and say Ms. Hilton draws a 4.6 in the demo.

As my boys on PTI like to say: “Who ya Got?”