Pajiba

Hey now, Pawn Stars is actually very good. It's only 30 minutes and you see a bunch of weird, cool shit being sold by desperate, degenerate gamblers in Vegas.

And . . . uh . . . that other show . . . no . . . err . . . hmph.

That's it. The rest of these are C-R-A-P. That spells "shit."

When I see lists like this, I'm always compelled to remind that there are more than 300 million people in the U.S., more actually but I'm rounding down. So when even the top-rated cable show pulls 8 million viewers, there are 292 million people who couldn't possibly care less. And 8 million is a hella lot for a TV show. Think of the old platinum record standard of 1 million sales: 1 out of every 300 people likes you. In a town of 30,000 that's 100. You might get booked into a tiny club with a fanbase like that, but certainly no bigger.

What I'm saying is, these numbers look good ONLY in context with what other shows draw. Really, 97% of people don't give a crap about "Rizzoli and Isles." That's what a "hit" is: When ONLY 97% of people don't care about your show.

No "Warehouse 13" or any other SyFy doo-dah? I actually watch some of that.

"Pawn Stars" and "American Pickers" are actually a lot of fun...except the Pawn Stars transplanted-Jersey wanna-be mobsters will rip people off mercilessly, and the Pickers guys will at least give you a fairly decent price for your crap.

And "Psych" is hilarious. As a cop show, it's meh...but the interactions between the cast and little throw-away lines and situations are hilarious.

I still watch Burn Notice because it has Bruce Campbell, but I agree it has been a disappointing season. I also watch Covert Affairs, because I have teenage boys in the house, and if I have to pick one thing to watch with them, it's a tolerable choice. I guess that makes me among the 3% or so of people with no taste.

Also, I have no problem with procedurals, if they're interesting. Rizzoli & Isles did not rise to that level.

Question, does this list account for delayed viewing?

I mean I DVR every single show that I watch and rarely watch it when it actually airs. That includes shows like Mad Men, Rubicon, Colbert, Daily Show, WH13, Eureka, etc.

burn Notice is the only show i watch off that list, and i came across it via campbell too. it's been a fun glossy A-Team show, but has really dragged in this most recent season.

more recently I have been enjoying my A-Team kicks through Timothy Hutton's show, Leverage.

the notion of how many viewers a show needs to be successful, or even stay on the air makes me sad about the attempts to homogenize entertainment. I read about shows getting cancelled because viewership drops below 4 million. 4 Million, thats like all of Ireland. What kind of business model can't succeed with 4 million customers/clients/viewers?. When did 4 million become an insignificant number?

Jesus, American Choppers is still on?

None of this is a surprise to me. People talk like Mad Men or Battlestar Galactica or whatever are these huge cultural forces, when in reality (i.e., not the Internet) they attract very few actual viewers.

I like some of those shows. Just because they don't include crazy vampire fucking doesn't mean they all suck.

There are 65 million basic cable subscribers (I'm one of them). So there's the explanation for most of those numbers. For comparison, HBO has about 30 million subscribers. The "broadcast" networks get many more viewers than any cable channel, being available to everyone in America for a nominal fee and all. Of course, most people now get all their channels through cable, which makes the numbers kind of complicated.

The Emmy Awards got 13.5 million viewers (live plus same-day DVR viewing, I don't believe they count viewers after that or at least they don't count for much). That made that show #1 for the week. America's Got Talent were #2 and #3, with about 10 million each.

AMC is not on my basic cable list of channels. I have all the shopping channels, Spanish channels, some sports channels and religious nutjob channels, but no AMC. Time Warner can go fuck itself. And they just announced to us (in a sickeningly self-congratulatory fashion) that we won't miss any of that awesome ABC/ESPN programming that Disney was supposedly threatening to cut off if they didn't get their asking price. I'm bracing for the notice on a future cable bill (my $60 bill) that the cost is going up, since I'm sure TWC bent over for Disney like all the cable systems always do. For the most part, summer cable viewing sucks balls and anything that hasn't been on 25 times already and is reasonably entertaining will get viewers like me (not referring to America's Got Talent, referring to the cable channel shows).

Another note: I am seeing a surprising (to me) number of Spanish-language shows in the broadcast top 25 for adults 18-49. According to Nielsen, SOY TU DUENA and HASTA DINERO SEPARE (both from Univision) were 7 of the top 25 shows last week. I assume those are "telenovelas." This is still summer schedule, but still... I don't remember seeing Spanish-language shows in the primetime broadcast list for that demo before. Maybe it's been going on for awhile.

None of them make the overall top 25 list, though. The highest-rated one only got a little over 3 million viewers. The lowest-rated broadcast show in the top 25 was an NFL preseason game, almost 6 million viewers.

As long as Tyler Perry's craptastic shows aren't on this list, I'm happy.

Rizzoli and Isles turns into an entirely different show if you ignore the cop aspect and focus on the insane sexual chemistry between Harmon and Alexander. Seriously, two "straight" women do not longingly stare at each other with that kind of intensity.

Perhaps I'm just projecting my own fantasies onto the show, but seriously just watch for all the touching, hugging and hand holding.

Rob, I missed White Collar on that list. I started watching it for the pretty, but I think the writing is decent and the show is entertaining. Also, Mozzie continues to grow on me - a tribute to the actor, as the quirkiness of the character is over-written.

Sinnh, sometimes we must accept that, well, we can't agree with the Pajiba majority. I, for example, just find nothing at all funny about Community. I never liked Joss Whedon or any show he did and...well there's a lot more. But I've come to accept it. Sometimes we just don't mesh, but the fact that we mesh on the big things, that's where love comes from. or something. I'm very tired.

I am so with you, Rob. I kind of love White Collar. It makes me laugh, gives me a good dose of heist-y fun, and is oh-so-pretty everywhere you look. Somewhere along the way, my casual viewing turned into serious a serious weekly thing.

Psych is easily the funniest show on television, nobody watches it for the cases, its a comedy. And White Collar is similar into Psych where the character interaction. But if the revelation at the end of the White Collar summer finale is true, White Collar will be canceled right away.

Perhaps its due to the fact people lie about what they watch. Why yes I watch breaking bad, its quite sublime in its artistic way of portraying the drug trade. I call bullshit, people watch crappy TV all the time they just don't admit it. With the exception of Deadliest Catch and some burn notice I don't watch any of these. I also don't watch mad men (boring), White collar (boring) Sons of Anarchy (not boring, just stupid) Breaking Bad (boring and idiotic).

I'm not surprised at all that Breaking Bad or Mad Men get low audiences. The reasons why people who come to movie and tv websites(enthusiasts) like them are the same reasons most television viewers don't. Few if any self contained episodes, season long or multi season storylines, focus on character development. These qualities require a bit more effort for a casual viewer and many people will not be able to see every episode in order or be willing to put in the time, making it hard to figure out what is happening. Same thing goes for the Wire.

I've seen probably half the shows on the list. I'm pretty surprised that Psych is this popular, as most of the jokes and banter are aimed at a rather narrow demographic. I've never even heard of Rizzoli and Isles. I had no idea that American Pickers, Pawn Stars, or Deadliest Catch were this popular.

More confirmation that America is the dumbest country to produce quality art. For example, we also aren't connoisseurs of jazz, even though most of the best musicians in that field come from America (and then have to move to Europe to make a living).

Also confirmation that if I like a show, it will probably be low-rated. So depressing. However, I have to say, asking what someone thinks about a show like Mad Men can tell you a lot about their personality (and all their family crap sometimes, too).

Wow. I am a little surprised about the list. I do think the overall numbers have a lot to do with which channels are provided with different cable packages in different parts of the country. As you point out, relatively few people actually have access to AMC (live, via their cable box). Therefore, even if 10% of all the people who have AMC watched Mad Men on a regular basis, that would be 10% of a small number = a much smaller number.

It would be really interesting (and insanely difficult) to try to factor in online viewing, rental and sales of DVD seasons, etc. to see how many people in total are actually exposed to any particular show.

Ultimately: I'm worried about The Walking Dead. If Breaking Bad, which wins Emmys, and Mad Men, which has infinite buzz, press and "style", only get 1-2 million viewers, a show ostensibly about zombies ("It's NOT really about zombies!") on a tiny cable channel is going to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 32 to 89 total viewers, of which about 60% are going to be Pajibans. Doesn't bode well.

Dudleys Mom or perhaps you just have bad taste in music. Jazz another piece of overwrought, self indulgent, bourgeois, tripe.

The funny thing is all the shows you listed at the bottom besides Deadliest Catch suck balls.

Curious, WWE Raw averages 4.5-5 Million viewers a week and not included. Do you not consider it a show and more "sporting event?"