Friday 23 September 2011

TV Ratings: GLEE, season 3 (Sky1/Fox)

Friday 23 September 2011
Glee made its UK debut on Sky1 last night, having been poached by the satellite broadcaster from E4 earlier this year. The season 3 premiere "The Purple Piano Project" mustered 640,000 viewers at 9pm, which is about half its typical E4 audience.

In some ways this is to be expected, because E4's available on the Freeview platform, and Sky1's a subscription channel less people have access to, but I'm sure Sky would have been expecting closer to 1m for such a high-profile acquisition.

Maybe worldwide Glee fatigue is beginning to take hold, as the premiere's ratings were also down in the US. A few days earlier the show returned on Fox, but only managed 8.91m viewers, beaten by the new Zooey Deschanel-starring sitcom New Girl. Worse, Glee's demographics were down 32% on season 2's premiere to 3.8. Ouch.

When taken with the highly embarrassing flop of the Glee 3D concert movie over the summer, is this the year people finally tire of Glee and decide to turn off the music?