News

The Mole Takes a Hit in the Ratings Thursday, June 12 2008

The Mole has resurfaced but some of its fans may still be in hiding. Some 4.73 million viewers tuned in to watch the show’s premiere on June 2 and the ratings are dropping, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The season premiere with new host, Jon Kelley, ran up against a rerun of CSI: Miami with 8.79 million fans watching and the NHL Stanley Cup play-off between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins captivating almost 6 million viewers, making it the most watched Stanley Cup Finals in a long time, Nielsen said.

The Mole’s June 9 episode saw a 20 percent drop in viewers and a decreased viewer rate of those in the 18 – 49 demographic bracket. With 3.79 million fans tuning in, the show ranked last up against CBS’s CSI: Miami rerun (8.61 viewers) and NBC’s Nashville Star (6.81 viewers).

Nielsen collects viewing information for both national and local programs – what is being viewed and by what kind of audience demographic. The research company randomly places about 25,000 in-home metering systems and automatically retrieves the meters information each night. They process the results and can report the results the very next day.

Although they can tell what channels and shows were watched and for how long, the one report they don’t have is whether the viewer enjoyed what they were watching. So, if a monitored television is turned on a three-year-old and never shut off, Barney might get more votes than he deserves.

As for The Mole, things are heating up between the contestants and it might give rise to an increasing fan base for ABC’s summer reality show. On-air threats and a noticeable lack of physical fortitude by some of the contestants has some fans reeling for more.