Ratings Drop for "Sarah Palin's Alaska"

Sarah Palin in her new show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska."

/ TLC

NEW YORK (CBS) Everyone's talking about (and watching) Bristol Palin's run on "Dancing with the Stars," but her mother's foray into reality TV hasn't been as lucky in the ratings.

Ratings for "Sarah Palin's Alaska" reportedly plummeted for the show's second episode.

The show fell 40 percent on Sunday night, to 3 million viewers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The premiere drew 5 million viewers, setting a ratings record for a TLC show debut.

Only 885,000 of those viewers were in the coveted 18-49 age bracket, dropping 44 percent from last week. The report states that the show's median age is 57 - 15 years older than TLC's average.

TLC reportedly anticipated the drop, with executives realizing that some of the numbers from the show's premiere were driven by curiosity about the program. Competition from "Sunday Night Football" and the American Music Awards may have also had an effect on the numbers.

"We are very happy with the ongoing strength of "Sarah Palin's Alaska," and it continues to drive big ratings gains for TLC," a network spokesperson told THR, also noting that "Conan" experienced a similar drop after its debut.

And not even Bristol Palin's much-talked-about appearance in the "DWTS" finals could help the show that debuted after it, "Skating with the Stars."

The reality show, which pairs celebrities with pro figure skaters, couldn't hold onto the "Dancing" audience. It only received 11.1 million viewers, while "DWTS" had 23.3 million.

[stuwerb]

This is yet another liberal lie. Actually, the number of people watching it has doubled every week since the show started. Even the Obama's are programming it onto their Tivo. [Just kidding.] Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and don't watch this miserable show!

[Tazianna]

Ratings for her 'reality show' have plummeted too. The more she talks the more 'half a brain syndrome' shows up. Hopefully America will lose its fascination with this bimbo soon and Barbara Bush will be right. Maybe she can be a fishing boat captain in the Bering Sea and cptdeuce can join her.

[voxpopulus]

It is possible to be an intelligent Republican. It is possible to be an intelligent Democrat. It is NOT possible to be an intelligent Palin supporter.

[PVperson2]

"Why do so many people hate this lady?", because she represents all that's wrong with America, shallow empty headed opinion without any substance to support that opinion, biased rhetoric that attacks all that disagree and celebrity without talent or ability. She's a fake, through and through.

[get_down]

While the daughter talked about raising her middle finger to those viewers that didn't support her during her quest for the mirror ball trophy from ABC's hit show "DWTS"; the mother thought North Korea is our allies in the conflict between the North and South Korea, I can't bear to see both of them appear as our First Family in 2012 - can you?

[watkinsjr2000]

I'd rather watch a test pattern than Sarah Palin's show on TLC. Just the sound of her voice is enough to make your ears bleed !!

[ElectricSurfrer1978]

Palin-Beck 2012, It's a no-brainer!

[watkinsjr2000]

No-brainer sums it up pretty well. I see very little evidence that either Palin or Beck possess any intellect worth mentioning. Both are simply windbags making a lot of money peddling propaganda to very poorly informed people.

[gipper4u]

As many have already pointed out, I'm amazed at the "few" that actually follow this woman and believe that she is somehow qualified to be POTUS? These people really scare me, especially since they walk amongst us! It is however somewhat comforting to see that the vast majority here see through her thin veil of hypocrisy and nonsense. I never watched her show and never plan to. Just seeing her face makes my stomach turn. Ack!

[kymberleehh]

Why do so many people hate this lady? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, I just am kind of surprised at the emotional response of a lot of comments. There are the people who love her and want her to be president...really? And then there are the people who HATE her...why? Is it fear that she might be listened to and become president? Isn't that doubtful, or does she have more influence than I'm aware? Is it anger because she has bad ideas? Has she said things that offend you personally?
I really don't have feelings about her one way or another- I'm just curious why she brings out such a vehement response in so many.

[AmericanWhoThinks]

I don't hate her.
I just don't agree with her somewhat skewed world view and I refuse to give her money to support her skewed world view or support a channel that embraces her somewhat skewed world view.
She's as free as she can be to continue along her merry path of shrieking sound bites to rile up people, it's called free speech.
She has made up lies about death panels, she has accused people who don't agree with her of being 'anti-American'.
She quit her job as Governor when the heat was on.
She refuses to be interviewed by anyone other than conservative outlets.
I disagree with her positions on abortion (I am not pro-abortion, I am pro-choice, meaning that if you are raped or become pregnant by incest you shouldn't have to endure carrying that pregnancy to term), I don't think that our country should replace secular laws that apply to everyone equally to Christian law.
I also grow weary of her crying victim all the time.
I didn't watch her daughter on the dancing fake reality show & I won't watch her on her fake reality show on TLC; both are a waste of time for me.
I think with many people it's the lies she perpetuates about only people who think identically to her being "real Americans" and her act of being "just one of the folks" when she's clearly not.

[mickisuzanne]

Some of us are animal lovers who first found out about her when we were invited to sign a petition against aerial hunting of wolves and bears in Alaska. (A word of warning - these photos are awful. The lady likes to hunt. http://www.grizzlybay.org/SarahPalinInfoPage.htm) And then pre-election she stirred the racially motivated fear/hatred of a black president. We have issues with her obvious lack of education/knowledge and she just now topped it off with her recent snarks at Barbara Bush. I could go on and on, I'll let others fill in the blanks. Like not even finishing her term. She's ditzy.

[AmericanWhoThinks]

I've stopped watching TLC while her staged reality show is on. Any sponsor during her show I will boycott.

TLC used to be The Learning Channel and had a variety of wonderful educational programs about nature, animals, mythology, pyramids, past civilizations and my children sat by my side as we absorbed the programming they used to have.

I'd watched it often with my 8 grandchildren as well but now they've become nothing more than a political advertisement for a person who does not know that South Korea is our ally and that we aren't very fond of North Korea for their human rights violations and communist regime we are no longer watching.

No one in my family is currently watching any of the Discovery Channel networks until her show has run it's course.

I also watch no staged reality shows on any network so it's not like I've picked her out specifically to ignore. Although with Mrs. Palin, since I believe that people have the right to love who they love, have a right to control their own bodies, have the right to disagree with her, have the right to be educated, have the right to vote for the person I feel will best serve all Americans, have the right to not have any religion stuffed down my throat, have the right to free speech, have the right to pursue life, liberty & happiness - she and I just don't agree. She wants us to modify the Constitution from secular law to Christian law, she does not believe that women have the right to abortion, even in cases of rape or incest, she believes only she has the right to free speech and if you say anything she does not agree with, you are an evil person who hates her and attacks her, she thinks that only people who agree in lock step with everything she says are "true Americans", she thinks it's okay for her to border jump to Canada for free health care, not to mention the tax payer supported health care she most likely still receives (we, John & Jane Q. Public pay 75% of the cost of the federal health care insurance for politicians & their families) & the free health care her family receives due to her husband's minimal native Alaskan blood but thinks that good honest hard-working Americans don't deserve quality, affordable, accessible health care.

She is of course entitled to her own opinions, as all of us are, I just choose not to fill her coffers further while she's playing the perpetual victim, with her 2 ghost written books, her FOX show, her fake reality show (at $1,000,000.00 salary per episode) and her minimum speaking fee of $10,000.00. Her pretense of being "just one of the normal folks" is just her slant on her well paid existence.

She decries Barbara Bush & former President George H. W. Bush for being nothing but blue blood elitists, while she herself is related to the Bush family as well as Barack Obama. She did not grow up having to eat dirt to survive, she came from a family with money and they moved from Idaho to Alaska to get even more money (including that nice little bonus check they receive free & clear annually for the oil profits).

The majority of us didn't have nannies or housekeepers, we raised our children ourselves, did our own housework, cooking, helped our children with their homework, went to their school activities, belonged to the PTA and worked with the school boards to ensure our children received a good education and nutritious school lunches, etc while holding down an outside full time job.

Those of you who follow her every sound bite, you are free to do that as well, I just want nothing to do with a woman I feel is ill prepared for anything other than beauty pageants and self promotion.

[miami_don]

Your right; she is an interesting phenomena. I think some of it is because she is a dead ringer for Tina Faye and we do not seem to be able, subconsciously, to get past the physical similarity between the two women --- everyone is waiting for Sarah's next punch line and she never let's us down. Also, there seems to be some morbid fascination with her that is a lot like driving past a car wreck people (me) just cannot help but slow down and gawk.

[Tazianna]

Kudos great post.