Sarah Palin’s Alaska Avalanche

Another week, another new low for Sarah Palin’s Alaska on The Learning Channel.


Last Sunday’s airing of “Alaska” pulled in just 2.56 million viewers. Over its run Palin’s show has steadily declined to the point where it is now struggling to reach half of what it did on its debut.

Nevertheless, much of the right-wing press is heralding the show as a success. Fox News, Politico, and others are speculating that TLC is trying to sign Palin up for another season. Perhaps so. The show is a top performer for the little-watched network. However, to put it into perspective, the History Channel’s “American Pickers” has twice as many viewers as Palin’s Alaska.

Politico’s article on Palin’s ratings was notable for its cluelessness. They cited as their source PopEater,com and and reprinted what can only be described as PR from TLC. Without bothering to check, Politico published a quote that asserted that Alaska’s numbers were “better than the numbers for Bravo’s ‘Housewives’ series or most other cable shows.” However, the Real Housewives of Atlanta did 3.22 million compared to Palin’s 2.56 million. And Palin fell more than a million viewers short of making the top 25 for cable programs last week.

The PopEater/Politico article also quoted a “friend of Palin” who said that Palin considers herself in the Jennifer Aniston league because she “knows that celebrities get millions of dollar for each episode of their shows and thinks she’s worth it too.” Right. Palin’s 2.5 million geriatric viewers on TLC are worth just as much as 20-50 million young adult viewers of Friends on NBC.

So who is more delusional, Politico or Palin?

[Update:] Another week, another decline. Sarah Palin’s Alaska drew 2.49 million viewers on December 26.

Advertisement:

11 thoughts on “Sarah Palin’s Alaska Avalanche

  1. Indeed, Palin’s show may *still* be a money-maker for TLC: they haven’t done much business ever since the whole “Flip This House” genre tanked — along with U.S. real estate!

    • It won’t be a money maker if she milks them for a million dollars per episode. How much do you think Bravo pays their housewives? And they get twice as many viewers.

  2. How will she get into heaven if she becomes a rich person? I thought she was a true Christian….Oh wait, she’s a true ‘American’ Christian. Now I get it. Greed isn’t a sin to her I guess.

    • Jealous? I know in your book being “rich” is evil and all tha money should go to the government to do government directed good. There’s a difference between greed and earning your money – If some network wants to pay her that much per episode – good for her. I don’t know if she’s worth it, but they must. Since it’s not your money or the government’s money, whatever channel she’s on can do what they want and there is nothing you or anyone else can do except not watch. Don’t worry, the Fed is printing more money every day and you can get some if you do something for it.

    • oops, I forgot – Merry Christmas. Put the hate away and try to feel good for a few days…it’ll do you good.

  3. If I read the viewership numbers correctly, Palin’s TLC show still drew somewhere between half again and twice as many viewers as the Faux Noise Big Guns. Seems that people would rather watch Sarah Palin gut a moose than Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity open their mouths. Which does suggest an interesting crossover show, in which Palin shoots and eats her two leading FNC competitors. Bet that would draw great ratings!

    • HA! A ratings bonanza for sure. And no doubt Beck would welcome being gutted by Sister Sarah.

  4. Meanwhile, the cast of clowns over at MSLSD are still only pulling in numbers well below a million viewers for each show. Make no mistake – 2.56 million is still impressive

    “…just 2.56 million…” – You’re funny, dude.

    • Comparing a reality show to news programs. Good one, “dude”. I don’t think that even warrants as an apples and oranges comparison. More like dumb and dumber.

Comments are closed.