Sarah Palin’s Alaska Reality Show: Ratings Gold

Kate Gosselin would better watch out because there’s a new reality show gunning for her core audience: Sarah Palin’s “Alaska” debuted to record ratings, and they’re not expected to go down anytime soon.

Given the interest that the Gov. of Alaska generates no matter what she does, it’s not really that much of a wonder that her reality show debuted this big, as E! Online also notes.

There are many people out there who either don’t agree with her views on certain aspects or who simply can’t stand her as a person but, it turns out, most of them tuned in to see her show debut on television.

To speak in more concrete terms, “Alaska” brought in about 5 million viewers, which is no small feat, especially considering many wanted (and hoped) her to fail.

But there’s more: with Palin’s strong debut, Kate Gosselin, star of “Jon & Kate Plus 8” and the post-divorce spinoff “Kate Plus 8,” is left behind, struggling to face competition and not really succeeding.

“The premiere of Sarah Palin’s Alaska delivered a cable-big 5 million viewers. That’s said to be a new debut record for a TLC series, including ones fronted by Gosselin,” E! notes.

“Gosselin actually went looking for some of that Palin magic on the most recent installment of Kate Plus 8. Oddly enough, given Mama Palin’s and Dancing With the Star daughter Bristol Palin’s Nielsen touch, the reality mom and (former?) face of TLC didn’t find it,” the report further argues.

“The Alaska-set episode, which aired Nov. 7, and set the stage for Palin’s show, averaged a so-so 1.3 million, and seemed to do little to stem those pesky ‘kate plus 8 cancelled’ searches on Google,” E! adds.

Of course, reports that Mrs. Gosselin left the planned camping trip because she deemed it somewhat too primitive for how she was accustomed to living certainly didn’t help in winning her any popularity points.

“If Gosselin’s nervous about Palin power, imagine how Palin’s possible 2012 presidential competition feels. Nearly all of Palin’s audience last night was of voting age (18 and older), and most was of yes-we-really-truly-vote age (35 and older),” E! adds.