Talk:List of most-watched television broadcasts/Archive 2

Oprah/Michael Jackson
I'm pretty sure the Michael Jackson interview mentioned in the table for American broadcasts was not presented under the "Oprah Winfrey Show" bannner and instead was advertised, promoted and broadcast as "Oprah Winfrey talks to Michael Jackson". It was produced by Harpo but was a different entity altogether no? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.23.53.81 (talk) 23:50, 6 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, see below on this page. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 01:12, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Presidential Politics
What's missing from the U.S. charts on this page is anything related to presidential politics - convention speeches or presidential debates. For example, the 2008 vice-presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden reportedly had 70 million viewers. The first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain reportedly had 53 million viewers; and each of the two presidential nominating speeches had roughly 40 million viewers. Why aren't these events included? Is it because they were multi-network events? Karichisholm (talk) 06:54, 5 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Also ... there is this headline ... Obama Inauguration Likely To Be Most Watched Event in Television History ... see . Thanks.   (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 19:22, 21 January 2009 (UTC))

Moon landing?
Why is the moon landing not even mentioned on this article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.240.69.86 (talk) 01:12, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Seinfeld finale
I think the Seinfeld finale needs to be added to the list of broadcasts. With 75 million it should be up there  Johnny California  08:54, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Elvis Presley - 1973 Aloha from Hawaii
I have added the global figure for this in the relevant section, I'm still trying to find definitive evidence for this for the America audience figures. Several sources give the viewing audience in America as 51% to 57% of the T.V audience, however I can't find figures for this percentage, anyone have any idea? It was aired by NBC on the 4th of April 1973 in the USA and the 14th of January 1973 for the rests of the world.

Existing Germany TOP US Series viewed
I live in Germany and the current list is obviously not right. Dallas and other series in the 80s have had more viewers.

Why is the moon landing not even mentioned on this article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.159.170.142 (talk) 07:30, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
 * moon landing was not shown in east german tv - reunited germany is bigger than old west germany - and the moon landing was something like 3 am in the night (and the list is sorted by total viewers not by %)

Harper's Island
On its wikipedia page it mentions it had 4.05 million viewers for its finale, which would put it on the list of US shows.87.232.53.149 (talk) 18:39, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

9/11 "viewership"?
At the risk of asking a taboo/tactless question, were there any ratings numbers for 9/11 (broadcasted and/or simulcasted, by country and/or worldwide)? &#x25aa; NeoAmsterdam TalkEdits 21:47, 25 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't know if viewership numbers have ever been calculated, due to the fact so many broadcasters simulcast, and the programming lasted without interruption for so long (meaning an individual viewership number would be meaningless for the entire broadcast since viewers would have come and gone). Plus, channel switching would have been a huge issue as people shuttled between networks (I know I spent a full 4 hours at one point channel surfing without staying on one station for longer than a few minutes). A case can be made for speculating that, all told, it was the most viewed broadcast in history, but I can't imagine there being accurate numbers for such a thing. 68.146.81.123 (talk) 18:49, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

No sense
Am I alone in thinking the lists under "United States" make no sense whatsoever? Why is I Love Lucy listed as the third most watched telecast "of all time" when other shows in succeeding lists easily beat it? Why are shows such as Seinfeld's finale omitted from the '64-'08 list, and why don't some of the other listed top series finales of all time also appear? SchutteGod (talk) 20:43, 10 January 2010 (UTC)


 * You are not alone. I also don't understand why two lists are by number of viewers and the other one is by number of households; that makes it difficult to compare data from different lists. ElTchanggo (talk) 23:19, 16 August 2010 (UTC)


 * It appears that the 1964-2008 list is actually ranked by "Percent of Households", which is what the TV industry cares about, not by total number of viewers or households. That explains why Seinfeld isn't included. – Smyth\talk 13:37, 4 September 2010 (UTC)

—Making meaningful comparisons of episodic TV shows is difficult due to time period differences. On one hand, total number of viewers is distorted as the population grows. On the other hand, percentage of viewers or households is distorted by the fact that back in the day of shows like The Fugitive, there were basically just the three major networks to choose from. Today there are numerous networks and other stations on cable and satellite, not to mention home entertainment systems. Adjusting for population growth might be easy, but it is more difficult in adjusting for percentages due to both quantity and quality considerations regarding the vastly expanded competition shows face today. (The advent of, say, FOX, is a significant consideration to factor in; while the advent of numerous limited appeal networks, not so much.)HistoryBuff14 (talk) 22:41, 20 July 2011 (UTC)


 * I disagree. The current couple of lists are meaningless.  Somehow we have a list of Super Bowls, but certain various non-news broadcasts are not.  If we can't make a meaningful comparison of episodic TV shows, there's no reason for this article to even exist.  Such a list used to exist here, and I've seen a similar list printed annually in the World Almanac and Book of Facts (this list is an all-time list, not an annual list).  To me, as it stands, the US list, at least, is worthless.  Episode finales should be in an article of their own (perhaps with a link from here, but certainly not here), and a more complete list (top 10, top 20?) should be included along with certain TV episodes (example, the final episode of M*A*S*H).  I know a made-for-TV movie, The Day After is on the World Almanac list and probably would qualify for such a list here.  This was not and episode of a TV show. 207.155.73.240 (talk) 21:53, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

Mandela's Release?
I would imagine that Mandela's release would feature somewhere, but I can't find any figures ...

Anybody else? EmjayE2 (talk) 19:34, 30 January 2010 (UTC)


 * From recollection the precise timing of Mandela's release actually caught the BBC by surprise - they had to interrupt The Antiques Roadshow (and received complaints about this!). If other broadcasters similarly weren't aware in advance then there probably weren't many viewers sitting around their TV sets in anticipation when they'd otherwise have been out and about. Timrollpickering (talk) 00:16, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Canada
Canada's most viewed broadcast was the men's gold medal hockey game during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics with an average audience of 16.6 million. A total of 26.5 million Canadians (approx. 80% of the population) watched some part of the game.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/03/01/oh-canada-usa-vs-canada-gold-medal-hockey-is-most-watched-broadcast-ever-in-canadian-history/43430

Looks like it might belong on this page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.65.232.248 (talk) 22:15, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Diane Sawyer
Why is Diane Sawyer listed as interviewing Micheal Jackson on 60 Minutes in 2003 when she hasn't been with that program since 1989? The entire list for the US is a mess.

Tie-Breakers
Just a note - when 2 shows have the same number of viewers, the tie-breaker seems to be that the later-aired show wins, but in this case:

44	NYPD Blue	16.1	10.4%	17%	1 March 2005	ABC 45	Miami Vice	16.1	11.0%	21%	28 June 1989	NBC

I would argue that Miami Vice was a more-watched show since 11% of households watched it. I will concede (reluctantly) if the truncations have full data behind them and NYPD Blue actually had, say 16,199,999 viewers.

MathWiz 22:58, 25 May 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.139.220.2 (talk)

Vandalism: Michael Jackson interviews
I don't have the time to fix it, but I noticed that on April 12 user 68.43.212.160 added some bogus data about Michael Jackson interviews. I'm not sure either of these interviews ever happened, and they certainly didn't have the number of viewers that are claimed. Somebody should fix it and restore the two shows that got bumped off of the list. The user's contributions page shows a history of making up stuff about Michael Jackson. Smith.dan (talk) 13:31, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Something is amiss....according to the stats for the 60 minute interview there were 9 million FEWER household's on 2003 vs 1983.... obviously an error 209.121.225.249 (talk) 04:03, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Series Finale
I'm pretty sure that the first season finale of Glee was not a series finale:

173.57.117.239 (talk) 04:56, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that Game of Thrones hasn't had a series finale, since they've been picked up for a fourth season.

24.36.189.116 (talk) 06:38, 15 July 2013 (UTC)

Also in this section, why is Breaking Bad there? The episode it refers to is the mid-season premiere and the show isn't scheduled to end until later this year. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.211.201.104 (talk) 22:08, 28 August 2013 (UTC)
 * I was wondering the exact same thing. --Rayukk (talk) 11:54, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

'til death
Should we add 'til death to the list since it had 4 seasons???? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.98.40.217 (talk) 19:07, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Numbers in the World section
Although all events mentioned in the World section got sources, most off them have completely unrealistic numbers since the sources are based on rough estimations and rumors. When you think about it for a second it´s obvious that a number like "3 Billion people watche M. Jackson´s funeral" sounds amazing, but I hardly doubt that every 2nd person on the world watched it.

I think this section should be removed or at least cleaned up until there are reliable sources availible. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.227.137.211 (talk) 00:11, 8 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Commented out those that remained unsourced for many months and added "citation needed" for fresh 2011 Cricket World Cup Final. Removed premier league and formula one as no numbers for single events. Knopffabrik (talk) 13:45, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

United Kingdom figures
I have tidied up the UK section with data from the only reliable sources on this matter, the BFI (http://www.bfi.org.uk/) and BARB (http://www.barb.co.uk/). Some of the existing entries were either spurious or backed up with sloppy journalism. Others (entries below 20 million) were not significant and should not have been included. If anyone wants to venture below 21 million to extend the list be my guest.--Stevouk (talk) 22:39, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

I haven't seen any official stats for 2013 yet and 2014 isn't over yet! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.199.176.235 (talk) 02:55, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

O.J. Simpson murder case (CNN)
What is the 39.21 million households for the OJ Simpson murder case on CNN supposed to represent, there is NO WAY that 39.21 million watched any broadcast on CNN, that would equal almost the total amount of households which had CNN at the time (1994), the highest audience ever for a CNN program was the Perot-Gore NAFTA Debate which averaged around 11.17 million households. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.98.40.217 (talk) 21:10, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Germany - Top 9 primetime telecasts of all time
The number 1 in the list "Germany - Top 9 primetime telecasts of all time", i.e.

2010 Superbowl 44 	New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts 	156.3 million1 	93.7% 	02010-02-06 6 February 2010 	CBS

clearly is nonsense: CBS doesn't broadcast in Germany, and Germany doesn't even have a population of 156.3 Million (the population is around 82-83 Million), and very few of them are interested in (American) Football. So, maybe, this line belongs somewhere in the United States section, but certainly not here.

Also, in the same section, there's a footnote number 4, which is not referenced above at all. 77.4.204.177 (talk) 17:07, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

6.2 & 6.4 Most-Watched Special Events
The same Table, title, data, etc.... That must be a mistake, right? Salvidrim (talk) 17:54, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

World list: misleading comparison of premier league, formula one, soccer world cup finals and other events
The number in the BBC source for premier league, "broadcast to over 600m homes in 202 countries" seems to be the number of homes that can receive premier league, maybe even just summaries of it. For the world cup however, the number is how many people actually watched the final live. Clearly there are more people watching a world cup final than any single premier league game. I don't see how the premier league should fit in this list after all. No single game of premier league history will reach anything close to other events in the list. Knopffabrik (talk) 11:57, 10 February 2011 (UTC)
 * The same holds for formula one: unless there's a single race that is watched by several hundreds of millions, it doesn't fit in this list. Knopffabrik (talk) 13:34, 23 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Should these be added to a special section, or to another article? Also, the Chinese New Year Special reaches huge audiences yearly in China.Itzcuauhtli (talk) 06:47, 5 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, a separate list seems a good idea to me. Knopffabrik (talk) 07:10, 24 May 2011 (UTC)

television series in Germany & Italy
Why is there a list of most watched US television series in Germany? As the list below shows, the German show Schwarzwaldklinik had about 5 times as many viewers as those US series do. Some episodes of Lindenstraße also had more viewers than some of the US shows in the list. Knopffabrik Tatort even gets nearly 10 million viewers sometimes:. (talk) 14:17, 12 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I also removed the numbers for US series in Italy as the same applies for both countries. Knopffabrik (talk) 13:53, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Fix needed
Most-watched series finales needs fixing, someone broke it when adding the series finale to Medium. 24.23.24.3 (talk) 04:50, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

Real Data?
Is there any real data on what actually are the most watched programs. And I am not talking about Neilson surveys, I mean real data. Everything is digital now, the cable companies should have very accurate data on exactly what is watched. Is it available to the public? 68.188.25.170 (talk) 04:38, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Royal Wedding, April 2011
Figures released today indicate 24m viewing figures, but then put 34m including watching on iplayer and BBC news channel. Which one should be used here? I personally think the second. 193.93.203.183 (talk) 16:24, 30 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Presumably you mean just in the UK? I would include both numbers personally.Rangoon11 (talk) 16:33, 30 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Officially these are overnight figures, a new more accurate figure will be released within a week. --  [[ axg  ◉  talk   ]] 22:51, 1 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Official figures now in. BARB gives total BBC/ITV figure at 17.61 (Sky News figure is negligible). This is well below any significant entry on this table. The data can be found here: http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammesOverview?_s=4 (select Apr 25-May 01)--Stevouk (talk) 18:06, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

People come here to see the most seen broadcasts, just because it was shown by multiple channels, that shouldn't remove it from the lists. After all, one TV can only watch one of the broadcasts at a time, so the figures don't seem to be skewed by this. Also it is mentioned that the special events were hosted on multiple channels, why is this even exempt from the lists therefore? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.186.171.14 (talk) 18:56, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Other Data/Ad Prices
Recent reports indicate that a national spot on Oprah during her final show will be $1 million dollars. Only three other finales received more: 1998 – Seinfeld: 76.3 million viewers ($1.42 million per spot) 2004 – Friends: 42 million viewers ($2 million per spot) 2005 – Everybody Loves Raymond: 32.9 million ($1.22 million per spot)

“What about MASH,” the most watched finale in TV history. In 1983 the spot cost $450,000 to air and was seen by 105.9 million viewers.

Daytime Serials: Ryan's Hope (2.9 million viewers); Another World (3.5); Generations (2.9); Capitol (at least 4.2); Search For Tomorrow (at least 3.1) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.26.21.217 (talk) 03:54, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Seinfeld Ratings (source: BILL CARTER -The New York Times-5/16/98)
The Seinfeld series finale (8:45-10pm)
 * Household Rating: 41.3
 * Viewership Share: 58
 * Audience: 76.3 million
 * Adults 18-49 Share: 76
 * Seinfeld (retrospective; 8-8:45pm): 33.5 rating and 58.5 million viewers
 * 63% of the televisions turned on from 8:45 p.m. to 10 p.m. were tuned to WNBC. In Los Angeles, 62% of switched-on TVs were tuned to "Seinfeld." (Richard Huff; New York Daily News)
 * averaged a 31 rating and 48 share in Kansas City area were watching KSHB. “ER” finished way off the national average, with a 35 share of the local audience compared with 46 percent in the 39-city overnights. The 10pm news got a 16 share.
 * In Central Florida, Seinfeld was seen by 437,840 of the market's 1.04 million households, with 54 percent of the televisions in use tuned to the program. ER got 258,000 households. (Jim Abbott; Orlando Sentinel)
 * “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” used a big star (Jerry Seinfeld) and an even bigger “mystery guest” (John F. Kennedy Jr.) to post one of its largest ratings ever, a colossal 12.4 rating and 32 share. That was more than twice its average and four times the audience that tuned into David Letterman, who bitterly commented at the end of his broadcast, “Thanks for not watching!” (Aaron Barnhart)
 * ER (10-11pm): 48 million viewers (25.1 million in A18-49)
 * NBC averaged 61 million from 8-11pm (Brian Lowry; Los Angeles Times)
 * The Seinfeld Chronicles (series debut): 15.6 million

Super Bowl 1998 had a 44.5 rating, 67 share and reached 90 million people. (Each rating point represented 980,000 homes)

Cheers
 * HH: 45.5
 * Share: 64
 * Audience: 80 million

data from Nielsen Media Research, Advertising Age and Kantar Media, the top 10 shows, the date of the finale and their network, their cost per 30 second ad and the number of viewers for the finale:

10. "Fraiser" (May 2004, NBC) $570,400 (25.2 million) 9. "Ally McBeal" (May 2002, Fox) $582,600 (11.5 million) 8. "24" (May 2010, Fox), $650,000 (7 million) 7. "Cheers" (May 1993, NBC) $650,000 (80.4 million) 6. "The X-Files" (May 2002, Fox) $679,700 (13.2 million) 5. "Lost" (May 2010, ABC) $900,000 (13.6 million) 4. "Oprah" (May 2011, Syndicated), $1,000,000 3. "Everybody Loves Raymond" (May 2005, CBS) $1,220,600 (32.9 million) 2. "Seinfeld" (May 1998, NBC) $1,424,400 (76.3 million) (Super Bowl 1998 got $1.3 million) 1. "Friends" (May 2004, NBC) $2,000,000 (52.5 million) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.26.21.217 (talk) 05:04, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Michael Jackson Talks ... to Oprah
The Oprah Winfrey interview of Michael Jackson in 1993 was not part of her regular syndicated The Oprah Winfrey Show. Rather, it was a special on ABC. See, , , and. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 01:14, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Eurovision Song Contest ?
Why no mentioning of ESC in World section ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.5.184.243 (talk) 19:14, 23 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I've added the Eurovision Song Contest.--Cattus talk 18:38, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

WWE The Main Event (1988)
According to historical documents, this live broadcast got a 15.2 rating with 33 million viewers.

http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/results/snme/880205.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by Merval2k6 (talk • contribs) 20:51, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Roseanne error
On the US chart for most watched final episodes, Roseanne is listed twice. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.227.170.42 (talk) 05:31, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

Gunsmoke Series Finale
Under United States the table Most watched series finales shows Gunsmoke in position 14 with 30,900,000 viewers on 31 March 1975 just ahead of The Fugitive with 30,000,000 viewers on 29 August 1967. However, in the table Top 46 network prime-time telecasts directly above, The Fugitive on 29 August 1967 is in position 21 and Gunsmoke doesn't appear in that table at all. This seems confusing and is probably worth either explaining or correcting. Dick Kimball (talk) 14:10, 18 September 2012 (UTC)

Tiny Tim Wedding
At the time of the wedding of Tiny Tim to "Miss Vickie" on the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in late 1969, the broadcast was widely promoted as the most watched TV show in U. S. history, a "record" that it supposedly held for several decades. While this appears not to be the case – the moon walk alone in the same year surely surpassed it by a large margin; the funeral procession of President Kennedy in November 1963 also comes to mind – its viewership of 21.4 million viewers surely places it among the most watched shows outside of "prime time"; and it appears to out-distance several events in the prime time listing. In fact, making a distinction in the listing of TV broadcasts in the U. S. of those occurring only in "prime time" is one that I am not certain is entirely appropriate. Shocking Blue (talk) 09:57, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

TOP GEAR
350 MILLION VIEWERS EVERY WEEK ... stop the stupid U.S. centric posting, the rest of the world does exist — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.171.81.27 (talk) 22:52, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever
MOTOWN 25th Special 1983

MOTOWN 25th Special is often mentioned as the "Most-watched TV special ever." Or, does it not count in that is was a TV Special? I don't know...Just thought I would mention it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.42.66.251 (talk) 02:43, 20 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I haven't seen it mentioned as the most-watched TV special ever, and as far as I can tell it wasn't. As shown at it was the #1 most-watched show of its week, but with a 22.8 rating representing 18.9 million homes. Just a few weeks later, though, a Bob Hope TV special got a 23.9 rating representing 19.9 million homes.  And that one wasn't even the most-watched Bob Hope special ever. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 03:52, 25 December 2013 (UTC)