Friday Cable Ratings: 'Gold Rush' Wins Again, + 'Bering Sea Gold', NBA Basketball, 'Friday Night Smackdown' & More

Categories: '

(28) Comments - Add Yours!

1. tommy

   Posted January 14, 2013 at 4:44 PM

   Banshee rocks!!! totally enjoyable

2. Jon23812

   Posted January 14, 2013 at 4:47 PM

   @I luv Nickelodoen, I hated the recent Victorious episode. It was the worst one. Worse than Blooptorious. Hopefully this weeks episode is much better.

3. Dan

   Posted January 14, 2013 at 8:43 PM

   Banshee was so much fun! Loved it!!!

4. DisneyLoves

   Posted January 14, 2013 at 10:11 PM

   @ I luv nickelodeon
   @Jon23812
   @Nathan
   I think i know what they are doing, fish hooks is going to get cancelled and i think that disney channel needs something to replace it when it does get cancelled and disney channel needs to make enough episodes of gravity falls to fill in the schedual gaps, so they can show episodes of gravity falls nearly every week.

5. The Old Woman

   Posted January 14, 2013 at 10:49 PM

   Wow, Merlin is doing as good as Haven in that spot. Syfy must be pleased. I am sure most American fans of the show have already seen it so I think a 0.5 in the demo is pretty good.

6. Chris

   Posted January 15, 2013 at 7:06 AM

   Banshee actually did worse with critics than Hunted (which was no critic’s fave), but clearly did MUCH better with viewers, and I’d say a second season renewal will be coming along lickety-split–while Cinemax still drags its feet about whether to reboot Hunted, now that BBC has canceled the original version. I’d say with a potential new hit like this (that they developed themselves), the chances of Hunted returning in a new form just got a lot slimmer.

7. Stefan

   Posted January 15, 2013 at 7:10 AM

   The Rock strikes again!

8. Chris

   Posted January 15, 2013 at 7:59 AM

   @El–it’s a bit misleading to say ratings for a series on pay cable don’t matter, because subscribers have already paid–it’s actually just flat-out wrong.

   Subscribers don’t pay for individual programs–I can’t call my cable provider and tell them I’ll only pay for Game of Thrones, Treme, and True Blood (the only HBO series I care about right now). I have to pay for everything HBO shows, most of which I never watch. Somebody else might be paying for movies, somebody else for boxing, somebody else for documentaries, etc.

   Pay cable outfits care about ratings because ratings give them an idea whether the money they’re pouring into original programming is getting them new subscribers and helping them hang onto new ones. They don’t only pay attention to first-run ratings–they also look at repeats, PPV, DVD sales, etc. They will usually give a show more time to find its legs than a network. But yes, bad enough ratings will kill a show on cable, just like a network show. And great ratings will, sadly, keep a once-great show on pay cable long after it has ceased to be great.