Gossip Girl Report

Ratings, shmatings

by Kelly on October 22nd, 2007

Gossip Girl’s ratings continue to disappoint number-watchers. According to the Nielsen ratings, the series is only averaging a 1.3 adults 18-49 rating, a 1.8 adults 18-34 rating and 2.4 million viewers, 2 million fewer viewers than the Gilmore Girls was drawing at the same point last season (though note to Nielsens: there’s a huge difference between a new show, three months in, and a wildly popular established show).

So the CW is giving up, right? No way. Gossip Girl is the CW’s highest rated new show and it’s a hit among the demographic that advertisers are happiest about (18-34 year old women).

But even more interesting is that Gossip Girl is a “hit” in ways not measured by the traditional Nielsen ratings: it is the most downloaded TV program on Apple’s iTunes and the most watched show in streaming on Yahoo.  I checked this morning - “Dare Devil” (last week’s episode) is number 1 and “Bad News Blair” is number 7.   Rounding out the top ten are two episodes each of Grey’s Anatomy and South Park, and an episode each of Family Guy, America’s Next Top Model, Hannah Montana and Avatar.  It does make you question whether the Nielsen ratings are, in fact, accurate.  They have recently been “adjusted” for DVR viewings - I wonder if iTunes numbers will be next?

Do you watch Gossip Girl on traditional media (i.e. CW) or online?

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