‘Secret Life’ Gets Better Ratings than ‘Gossip Girl’
Any day that ends in a ‘y’ is a good day to bash the CW and Gossip Girl. This time it’s not me doing the bashing, but our friend James Hibberd at the Hollywood Reporter on his THR blog, ‘the live feed’. Last night’s ABC Family channel airing of Secret Life of an American Teenager drew 3.6 million total viewers, 1.6 million of them in the 18-49 demographic (and we imagine it did quite nicely in the 12-17 demo as well), prompting Mr. Hibberd to write:
That means the fifth episode of “Secret Life” outperformed any given episode of the CW’s “Gossip Girl” in total viewers and bested the “Gossip” season average by 11% — despite being on a cable network in the summer instead of a broadcast network during the regular season. (Is this a fair comparison? Not for “ABC Family,” but they certainly don’t mind.)
So a show without the New York Magazine covers, tons of press coverage and hardly any buzz at all, on cable, during the summer draws more viewers. In fairness to Gossip Girl, I never have received e-mails from teenagers from Soho to Singapore telling me they download the torrents for Secret Life as soon as they become available, at least not yet. I have seen a few of those e-mails from Gossip Girl fans.
Are the CW shows being fairly measured?
Gossip Girl, along with the CW, is all Buzz and no ratings.
They claim and clammer about their shows, but no one watches them. And as long as they have niche viewer demographics, they will continue to charge small fees for commercial spots.
Time for the CW to end, have CBS take complete control and call it CBS.2
Is that the reason why a CW show has never reached The Top 20 in ratings?
oh sure, pick on GG…but lets keep in mind, the CW is a new network with plenty of crappy shows, and Gossip Girl is one of its few diamonds in the rough. ABC Family is an established, known network…just saying…
CC,
Fair point — you might want to read this:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/07/31/is-mad-men...
For “Secret Life” Fans – Starting tonight, ABC Family and Lycos will begin running new episodes of the hit show ‘The Secret Life of the American Teenager’ on Lycos Cinema. What’s new that Lycos Cinema brings to the online viewing experience is the ability to socialize and chat with friends and fellow fans while watching episodes through Lycos’ online video player. So fans can discuss every scene, character and detail in real-time while watching. To check it out or schedule viewing parties for tonight’s episode, go to: http://secretlife.lycos.com/