Update August 13, 2009: I've added a little more perspective on cable ratings and rankings here.
I've seen and heard some commentary about how awful Terrell Owen's The T.O. Show on VH1 is doing. I've received a few e-mails about it as well, one mentioning that Jim Rome had trashed the show's ratings on his radio show.
At least based on viewer numbers, considering it's summer, and considering it's on VH1, the numbers aren't that bad. Last week, the initial airing (they run about 24 repeats of it a week) of The T.O. Show averaged 1.836 million viewers and trailed only the season two premiere of Real Chance of Love (2.518M) and an encore broadcast of the Real Chance of Love season premiere (1.854 million). So it was VH1's third-most watched show for the week.
So it didn't do as well as Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva on Sunday night (2.44 million), but it did better than every show on Comedy Central last week other than the Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers on Sunday night (2.8 million) and Tuesday night's The Daily Show (1.848). And it was very close to the best airing of the The Daily Show.
I don't hear a lot of noise about how bad the numbers suck for The Daily Show. Sure, T.O. didn't light it up like an iCarly special, but neither did any other show last week.
VH1 repeats T.O. Show an additional 24 times (at least last week), so they wind up getting over 12 hours of programming out of it. I doubt the folks at VH1 are jumping up and down over the show's performance, but nobody at VH1 is slicing their wrists over it either.
I'm not a huge T.O. fan, and I like Jim Rome a lot, but let's face it, Rome is not going to provide me with any tearful "He's my quarterback" moments. I admit that like most of the world, I haven't watched T.O. Show either, but I might get around to checking it out. As it happens, Jim Rome also has a TV show on cable on ESPN at 4:30pm ET every Monday through Friday, Jim Rome is Burning. I probably watch it at least a few times a month. It comes on before Around the Horn and Pardon The Interruption, both of which I watch about 100% of the time.
T.O had much better results than any of those show's, Rome Is Burning included.
Below is a table of last week's performance of T.O. Show, I've also included the Monday through Friday initial broadcasts of Jim Rome is Burning, Around the Horn and PTI.
Disclaimer #1: for all I know Rome was on vacation last week and didn't host himself, but the numbers are consistent with numbers I've seen when he was definitely hosting.
Disclaimer #2: viewer numbers generally don't really mean much beyond press releases, it's the demographic info that's important. But I don't have any of the demographic data...
Disclaimer #3 At 4:30PM, the percentage of people who were watching any TV at all was 19.8 percent on average last Monday-Friday. At 5:00pm it was 21.3 percent and at 5:30pm it was 22.2 percent. Not surprisingly more people are watching TV at 5:30pm than 4:30pm, but not a whole lot more. Also not surprising. A lot more people are watching TV at 10pm. At 10pm on Monday night (8/3), 37.3 percent of people in the USA were watching TV.
For the week ending August 9, 2009 (NOT the premiere, but the third episode of the show):
| Shows | NET | DAY | Time | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Mon | 10:00P-10:30P | 1836 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Mon | 11:30P-12:00A | 961 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Thu | 12:00A-12:30A | 615 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Wed | 11:00P-11:30P | 549 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Mon | 02:30A-03:00A | 539 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sat | 07:30P-08:00P | 517 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Tue | 01:00A-01:30A | 507 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sun | 12:30P-01:00P | 497 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sat | 06:00P-07:00P | 494 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sat | 07:00P-07:30P | 491 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Tue | 09:00P-09:30P | 484 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Thu | 11:30P-12:00A | 481 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Thu | 10:30P-11:30P | 468 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sun | 01:00A-01:30A | 443 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Wed | 05:00P-05:30P | 442 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sun | 06:30P-07:00P | 411 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Tue | 01:30P-02:00P | 408 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Fri | 02:00P-02:30P | 387 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Thu | 11:30A-12:00P | 381 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Mon | 12:00P-12:30P | 371 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Wed | 01:00P-01:30P | 352 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sat | 01:30P-02:00P | 343 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Fri | 02:00A-02:30A | 338 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sat | 01:30A-02:00A | 244 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Thu | 11:00A-11:30A | 235 |
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| Shows | NET | DAY | Time | Viewers Live+SD (000) |
| ROME IS BURNING L | ESPN | Mon | 04:30P-05:00P | 965 |
| ROME IS BURNING L | ESPN | Wed | 04:30P-05:00P | 600 |
| ROME IS BURNING L | ESPN | Tue | 04:30P-05:00P | 592 |
| ROME IS BURNING L | ESPN | Fri | 04:30P-05:00P | 487 |
| ROME IS BURNING L | ESPN | Thu | 04:30P-05:00P | 469 |
| AROUND THE HORN | ESPN | Mon | 05:00P-05:30P | 881 |
| AROUND THE HORN | ESPN | Wed | 05:00P-05:30P | 824 |
| AROUND THE HORN | ESPN | Thu | 05:00P-05:30P | 673 |
| AROUND THE HORN | ESPN | Tue | 05:00P-05:30P | 666 |
| AROUND THE HORN | ESPN | Fri | 05:00P-05:30P | 556 |
| PARDON THE INTERRUPTION | ESPN | Mon | 05:30P-06:00P | 1,095 |
| PARDON THE INTERRUPTION | ESPN | Wed | 05:30P-06:00P | 1,047 |
| PARDON THE INTERRUPTION | ESPN | Thu | 05:30P-06:00P | 942 |
| PARDON THE INTERRUPTION | ESPN | Tue | 05:30P-06:00P | 896 |
| PARDON THE INTERRUPTION | ESPN | Fri | 05:30P-06:00P | 799 |
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Mon | 10:00P-10:30P | 1836 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Mon | 11:30P-12:00A | 961 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Thu | 12:00A-12:30A | 615 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Wed | 11:00P-11:30P | 549 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Mon | 02:30A-03:00A | 539 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sat | 07:30P-08:00P | 517 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Tue | 01:00A-01:30A | 507 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sun | 12:30P-01:00P | 497 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sat | 06:00P-07:00P | 494 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sat | 07:00P-07:30P | 491 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Tue | 09:00P-09:30P | 484 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Thu | 11:30P-12:00A | 481 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Thu | 10:30P-11:30P | 468 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sun | 01:00A-01:30A | 443 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Wed | 05:00P-05:30P | 442 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sun | 06:30P-07:00P | 411 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Tue | 01:30P-02:00P | 408 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Fri | 02:00P-02:30P | 387 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Thu | 11:30A-12:00P | 381 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Mon | 12:00P-12:30P | 371 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Wed | 01:00P-01:30P | 352 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sat | 01:30P-02:00P | 343 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Fri | 02:00A-02:30A | 338 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Sat | 01:30A-02:00A | 244 |
| T.0. SHOW | VH1 | Thu | 11:00A-11:30A | 235 |
I prefer The Drinky Crow Show.
I’ve always wondered how ATH and PTI did, thanks!
I rarely watch Rome, but I caught him the day he was trashing T.O. He bragged about how T.O. wasn’t able to beat his telecasts….guess he didn’t check it too well.
Plus, we all know Rome just likes being a prick. Who can forget this?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HNgqQVHI_8
This article is much appreciated for many reasons.
I love PTI
WOW! no wonder ESPN keeps Rome, Horn, and PTI. I watch that lineup 3 times a week back to back. I heard PTI does better than SportsCenter. LOL!
The TO hater stuff is ridiculous. I always wanted to know how his show was truly doing and they try to make it seem like its doing super bad. Its actually doing pretty good and I think VH1 should pick it up for one more season.
Which is why they do the “Big Finish” in the middle of Sportscenter.
I’m glad that the show is doing well. I’m not a big fan of reality TV, but I do watch this show. The sports media treats this guy like he’s Satan’s son, so its good to see a different side of him.
Brooke Knows Best show…. do they do good numbers?
OWNED…like totally
You know how some people talk about how they cant stand the haters. Isnt it odd how they hate those people. I believe Rome yells it alot “REACT TO ME” it almost seems like he is trying to push those people into something to help improve HIS ratings. Like if he beefs with some high profile talent aka maybe the best reciever in the league aka media magnet **cough** T.O **Cough** he may just jack up his own numbers when the Supporters listen to what he has to say next about that Icon….just pointing it out to the person who told me about this site…say over Twitter…Much Love.
It’s a pleasure just droppin some wrds on here, Jim Rome is hatin a tad bit more than usual on this 1…..Yo Jim is it because he’s in Buffalo? pepo787@gmail
I like this article!! Jim Rome is a punk ass but he is truthfull and straight to the point, I watch ATH, and PTI, and Rome daily well I dvr it does that count for ratings
Ok. So you really like watching the other side of T.O. ? Really? the real side and only side is never shown on his reality show. Reality shows are always staged and exaggerated. You think T.O. acts like that on his show because thats really the way he acts….no! he does it to hopefully get people to like him. MTV sucks! its all crap. none of the shows are reality. its called staged reality. cmon now!
GREAT article. Great. Thank you!
Check out the ratings of the Chevis Jackson “Did you know” show on twitter @DirtyByrd22!! Now TO I suggest that you start interacting with your fans a little bit more the show is everynight at 10eastern time!! However, Rome is trying to help is rating by talking about you!!!
Oh that is total BS. I found out about this page from T.O on Twitter and made 1 little joke and so he blocked me. But i guess he never read the comments on this page about how I have his back in this feud. Seems someone cant take a little joke. Damn T.O. I though you were made of sterner stuff. “@terrellowens Not taking sides TO but U have to look at the time its on. Ur #s are higher cause of time slot. + jimrome never cried
J/K ” His reply So “@JustinHurd (JimRome) never got beat up on a show either!! i see u got jokes!” Yeah i got’em T.O. but that was all it was was a joke. Maybe it wasnt i guess. U are still the best WR in the league but i am not taking back the comment i made the other day about how watching your show was like watching a retard F**K a coconut…Funny but pointless.
I tape the show and I watch the show..I was not a big T.O fan but I must admit I like seeing the different side of him. I think the show is great and I am glad the rating are good. Rome needs to shut up he is annoying.
I actually have watched each episode and tend to like it.
But I do agree that primetime inevitably has higher ratings. That being said if Jim Rome was on later, I still don’t think people would watch.
I love T.O.! He is my dream guy!!!!!! His show is the hottest show! you better ask somebody!!!!!
You do know that this is the premiere of the highly talked about show starring a big star so it will have some higher numbers. This does not mean that anyone enjoyed the show it just means they watched it.