Bill already posted about Bravo's Real Housewives performance on Tuesday (as well as Top Chef's performance on Wednesday), but Oxygen sent me a press release about Bad Girls Club on Tuesday. Up against all the inaugural coverage on Tuesday night, Bad Girls Club still was the third highest rated show on cable among women 18-34.
Interestingly it was third behind two other NBC properties, USA and Bravo. We rag on NBC all the time when it comes to the broadcast net, but in the spirit of giving credit where credit is due (not to mention the return of Burn Notice) NBCU's prowess when it comes to the cable world is worth talking about, and although Oxygen is a network that targets women, its numbers bear watching.
Despite the inauguration coverage, the Tuesday airing of Bad Girls Club was Oxygen's sixth most watched telecast ever among women 18-34, and the network's ninth most watched episode ever among 18-49 year olds and total viewers.
Further, viewing of season three of Bad Girls Club is up impressively over season two. Season three is averaging 641,000 18-49 year olds through six episodes versus the season two average of 267,000.
Here's the full press release via Oxygen:
OVER ONE MILLION VIEWERS “VOTED” FOR “BAD GIRLS CLUB” ON NIGHT OF PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION
Participation on WAP Site and Mobile Polls At All Time High
NEW YORK – January 22, 2009 – Over one million viewers tuned in to Oxygen's "Bad Girls Club" on Tuesday night at 10PM, despite atypical competition on the evening of the Presidential Inauguration. Oxygen’s “Bad Girls Club” continued its momentum - and was the #3 cable network for W18-34, behind sister networks Bravo and USA. The sixth episode of “Bad Girls Club” (“Popping In") was
Oxygen’s sixth most watched telecast ever among W18-34 (442,000), ninth most watched telecast ever among both P18-49 (747,000) and total viewers (1,071,000) and tenth most watched telecast overall among W18-49 (548,000) according to Nielsen Media Research data.
Season three continues to dominate last season with triple digit increases in every key demo. Compared to the average of the first six episodes of “Bad Girls Club“ Season 2, this season is up 140% for P18-49 (641,000 vs. 267,000), 149% for W18-49 (476,000 vs. 191,000), 228% for W18-34 (377,000 vs. 115,000), and 118% for total viewers (894,000 vs. 411,000).
Oxygen's digital results are strong as well. Tuesday night’s mobile poll enjoyed its highest participation rate ever, with a 97% increase in voters over last week. The big question of the night -- “In a Tanisha vs. Tiffany smack-down, who would win?” Results were split evenly. Hits to the show’s WAP site has more than tripled (238%) since the launch of season three. In addition, page views on the “Bad Girls Club” show site totaled 3.4 million in the week leading up to Tuesday night’s episode.
Tuesday's episode saw the return of Season 2 "fan favorite" Tanisha who was best known for her use of pots and pans, but outside the kitchen.
About Oxygen Media:
Oxygen is a program service of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment and is currently available in over 74 million homes. The network was launched 2000 to fill a void in the television landscape – creating a network targeted to younger women. Oxygen is rewriting the rulebook for women's television, with a vast array of unconventional and original programming including "Bad Girls Club," "The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency" and "Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood."
Maybe NBCU ought to not worry about their regular broadcast network and focus on being a cable giant. That seems to be where their talent lies. Just fill NBC with dancing shows, dieting shows, dating shows, and Leno. Fill the cable channels with the racier reality shows and good dramas.
yeah, you can’t deny NBCU does very well in cable. What I don’t get is why hit shows like Monk, Psych and Burn Notice aren’t on NBC proper, instead of USA. I’ll bet they would all get boosts from moving to broadcast, but what do I know.
It also makes it very complicated to schedule things so that NBCU isn’t always competing with itself.
I’ve often thought the same thing, at least in the case of Burn Notice. there are a host of issues, but they may not matter. NBC ran Monk, Psych and Law & Order: CI on NBC during the WGA strike last year and the results weren’t very good. If it comes down to a show having mediocre to bad performance on broadcast versus being dominant on cable…
i want to know how to become a bad girl on the reality show