Gervais Breaks Simpsons Ratings Record

[Matt B.]

Homer Simpson,This is your Wife broke Sky One was the highest rated Simpsons episode ever. A record 2.18 million watched the episode
source: entertainment.news.com.au/story/0,10221,18923856-10229,00.html

[E-I-E-I-Moe]

Your country considers 2 million viewers good?

[HUGHJASS72]

Your country considers 2 million viewers good?
You have to consider fact that the population over there is 20 percent of what it is in the U.S.

[Matt B.]

I think the population of the U.K. is about 60 million so 2 million isn't bad.

[Nebuchanezzar]

It's all about share, I assume that was the raw ratings record. When you consider that the UK has something like 50 million and 2 million watch, and that the US has something like 400 million and 5 million watch, a 2 million rating is pretty darn good.

Australia considers anything over 1.5 million to be through the roof.

[Billy]

The pretty major thing everyone's missing is that this is a satellite channel. Not a terrestrial one, one you have to buy a satellite dish or cable box to see.

The terrestrial record for The Simpsons is something like 5 million, while the all-time UK ratings record is the 32.30 million who watched the 1966 World Cup final in, erm, 1966. More here: http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/mostwatched/

[Gatorgod]

Thats Good record breaking! ..Now I want to see the U.K. break the Box Office record with the premier of the Simpson Movie next year :p

[Gay4Moleman]

Glad to hear it.

[Binky]

It's all about share, I assume that was the raw ratings record. When you consider that the UK has something like 50 million and 2 million watch, and that the US has something like 400 million and 5 million watch, a 2 million rating is pretty darn good.

Australia considers anything over 1.5 million to be through the roof.
First of all, the population of the US isn't anywhere near 400 million, and Nielsen estimates that there are about 278 million TV viewers in the United States. The Gervais episode got 2.18m viewers in the UK, out of 60m, which is about 3.6% of the population. The show gets an average of 10m viewers here in the US (averaging the entire run of the show, not just this season), which coincidentally is also exactly 3.6% of the population, so there isn't really anything special about the Gervais episode airing there. In fact, this same episode got over 10m viewers when it aired here (10.09 to be exact), so it actually did better here than it did in the UK, if you want to compare it that way. Realistically though, total viewers doesn't mean much to advertisers, and everybody looks at total viewers in the 18-49 demo instead to rate the performance of a show.

[billi vanilli]

you're just saying that because you are embarrassed about president bush.

[Simpsons Forever!]

Good news overall, but nothing to get ecstatic about, considering the level of media hype and advertising in the UK beforehand.

[Nameless]

The previous record for Sky was 'Skinner's Sense Of Snow', a little under 2 million I believe.

Yeah, good news, but there was indeed a lot of media stuff (two double-page articles in two UK TV magazines for example).

[Billy]

Skinner's Sense of Snow got 1.65 million in February 2001, so this is a big increase. Another episode to get high ratings was 'Barting Over' (the 300th episode) in 2003 - 1.59 million.

I'd give you a top 10, but there's some suspicious looking ones on the BARB website. I find it hard to believe a then 7 year old repeat of 'A Star is Burns' got 1.47 million in 2002, for example.

[JonHillier]

The Gervais episode got 2.18m viewers in the UK, out of 60m, which is about 3.6% of the population. The show gets an average of 10m viewers here in the US (averaging the entire run of the show, not just this season), which coincidentally is also exactly 3.6% of the population, so there isn't really anything special about the Gervais episode airing there.

You are missing out on something that has already been stated, in so far as over here it wasn't aired on terestrial tv.

According to Sky, 8.1 million people recieve SkyOne, so aprox 25% of people who could watch it did. That's a pretty considerable amount of people. I'm impressed.

[Veryjammy]

^ Yes, these are VERY impressive figures - it is the second highest rating show on Sky One ever, behind an episode of Friends from 2000. It shows just how much clout Gervais has in the UK right now.

[Nameless]

I'd give you a top 10, but there's some suspicious looking ones on the BARB website. I find it hard to believe a then 7 year old repeat of 'A Star is Burns' got 1.47 million in 2002, for example.

are there any actual reasons why it wouldn't? ;)

[Binky]

You are missing out on something that has already been stated, in so far as over here it wasn't aired on terestrial tv.

According to Sky, 8.1 million people recieve SkyOne, so aprox 25% of people who could watch it did. That's a pretty considerable amount of people. I'm impressed.
Oh, well I didn't know that. So there's only 8 million cable/satellite subscribers in the UK?

[Simpsons Forever!]

Yeah, something like that. The rest of the country is stuck with 4 channels, only one of which (Channel 4) airs The Simpsons.

[George Cauldron]

Well, I'm sure more than 8 million people here have cable or satellite, it's just that Sky itself has 8 million customers. Apparently 16.5million people here had digital TV at the end of last year.

[Billy]

Yeah, something like that. The rest of the country is stuck with 4 channels
Unless you live near a Channel 5 transmitter, of course.

[Greased Scotsman]

Unless you live near a Channel 5 transmitter, of course.ZING!

Or 'Five' as they like to be known now.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

No, it's "five".
Lowercase makes a huge difference, you know.

[alt.nerd.obsessive]

No, it's "five".
Lowercase makes a huge difference, you know.

Whichever way you spell it doesn't make the programmes shown any better. Wait, five actually shows some good stuff nowadays. I digress.

I knew that the Gervais episode would score big in the UK - newspapers, magazines and Sky One itself was saturated with attention for the episode, and of course, as was mentioned, these are Sky's own statistics.

This doesn't take into account the people who watched on ntl, Telewest, or any other subscription provider.

[Nightshade]

Was this episode any good? I missed it.