14 DAY TRIAL // Sarah Palin debuted her first reality show, “Alaska,” on TLC to record ratings, marking the biggest opening in the history of the network. The show saw a drastic drop in numbers for its second week, by about half.
Despite initial estimates that the show would continue drawing in huge numbers, it turned out that most of those who tuned in for the first episode only did so out of sheer curiosity, The Hollywood Reporter notes.
That, combined to the fact that competition for the same timeslot was somewhat tight, contributed to “Alaska” plummeting 40% in the ratings.
“After setting a TLC ratings record last week, Sarah Palin’s reality show plummeted for its second episode. Sarah Palin’s Alaska fell 40% on Sunday night to 3 million viewers,” THR notes.
“Not many were in the key adult demo either. Only 885,000 viewers were ages 18-49, dropping 44% from last week. In fact, the median age of the show is 57 – that’s 15 years older than TLC’s average,” the same report notes.
This comes to contradict earlier estimations, according to which “Alaska” would be a long-time winner both in numbers and the key adult demographic.
However, TLC execs were not that surprised by the drop – if they were upset about how severe it was, they’re not speaking about it.
“We are very happy with the ongoing strength of Sarah Palin’s Alaska, and it continues to drive big ratings gains for TLC,” a network spokesperson says in a statement. The rep adds the same happened to Conan O’Brien’s show.
Just yesterday, amidst intense speculation that the success of Sarah Palin’s new show would cost Kate Gosselin her “Twist of Kate” on TLC, the latter’s publicist issued a statement to say Kate wasn’t going anywhere for the time being.
Judging by how audiences seem to be losing interest in Palin’s first foray in television, one might as well note that Gosselin’s spot at TLC is safe for the time being.