Summer Sizzles at MTV With Best Ratings in Three Years

Published on Wednesday, 01 September 2010 17:00 Written by TradersHuddle Staff

NEW YORK, Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- With the #1 series across all of television and four of the 10 top-rated original cable series, MTV, a division of Viacom Inc (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B), closed out its biggest summer in three years as it rides its ratings momentum toward a breakout third quarter, currently up 23% year over year.  Ratings for June through August 2010 were up 16% over the same period in 2009, powered by broad-based ratings gains across the MTV lineup.    

Ratings juggernaut "Jersey Shore" is this summer's #1 series across cable and broadcast, hitting a new series high with 5.8 million total viewers.  MTV's new franchise "Teen Mom" is the third most-watched (P12-34) original cable series of the summer, achieving a current season high rating of 3.4 (12-34). New docu-series "If You Really Knew Me" debuted to 1.8 million total viewers and scripted comedy series "The Hard Time of RJ Berger" grew its audience by 30% over the course of its run, culminating with a season high rating of 1.3 (P12-34).

Established favorites also delivered impressive growth for the network.  Ratings for "The Real World: New Orleans" are up 27 % compared to the prior season.  "The Hills" was a top-10 original cable series of this summer with the season finale up 75% over last season's.   The "2010 MTV Movie Awards" kicked off the summer with more TV viewers and more online streams than ever before.

"Our audience expects us to constantly reinvent, so we took a deep dive into what content would resonate most with Millennials," said Tony DiSanto, MTV President of Programming and Development.  "This generation wants their reality more 'real' which led us to hits like 'Sixteen and Pregnant,' 'Jersey Shore,' and 'Teen Mom.'  But they also expect creative diversity from us. MTV's baseline of new reality hits, along with reinvigorated returning franchises like 'The Real World' have given us the foundation to grow a diverse slate that includes animation, comedy, daily live programming and our big priority - scripted."  

"We are seeing positive ratings results from the process we began almost two years ago to reinvent MTV for a new generation of viewers," said MTV General Manager Stephen Friedman.  "We continue to evolve our organization and rally our resources around a new brand filter that is clearly gaining traction with the millennial audience as we see broad-based ratings gains across our lineup."  

Top Original Cable Series of the Summer (P12-34) – 5/31/10-8/29/10

• #1 "Jersey Shore"
• #3 "Teen Mom"
• #9 "The Hills"
• #10 "Real World: New Orleans"

"Jersey Shore"

• "Jersey Shore" was the summer's #1 series with P12-34 – across all TV.   #1 each week it aired.
• "Jersey Shore" delivered a series high 5.5 P12-34 rating and a series high 5.8 million viewers on August 26. 
• "Jersey Shore" has the top five cable telecasts of the year among P12-34.

"Teen Mom"

• #3 original cable series of the summer with P12-34
• "Teen Mom" was consistently the summer's #1 telecast on Tuesday with P12-34 across cable and broadcast.
• "Teen Mom" delivered a season high 3.4 rating on 8/17/10 among P12-34 and 3.5 million total viewers.
• Streams for "Teen Mom" Season 2 on MTV.com jumped up 46% over the prior season.

"The Hills"

• #9 original cable series of  the summer with P12-34
• Final season ranked #1 in its time period versus all cable competition among P12-34 and all television among F12-34.
• Up 11% season to season (2.1 vs 1.9). The series finale was up 75% versus the season 5 finale (2.8 vs 1.6).

"The Real World: New Orleans"

• #10 original cable series of  the summer with P12-34
• Season to date, RW: New Orleans (1.9) is up 27% versus the prior season.
• Recently delivered season high rating (2.3) on 8/25, and the strongest for the franchise in almost a year (since the Real World: Cancun finale, 9/9/09).
• Streams for "The Real World: New Orleans" on MTV.com increased by 24% over the prior season.

"2010 MTV Movie Awards"

• Averaged a 4.1 P12-34 rating, making it the second highest rated Movie Awards since 2004 and the highest rated among Female Teens (5.7) in five years, +5% versus the prior year.
• #1 cable telecast of the week (5/31/10-6/6/10) among P12-34.
• For the day, MTV averaged a 1.01, making it MTV's best Movie Award Sunday since 2007, 3% better than 2009 (0.98) and 31% better than 2008 (0.77).

"The Hard Times of RJ Berger"

• MTV's Original Comedy Series "The Hard Times of RJ Berger" culminated with season-high ratings of 1.3 (P12-34) and 1.3 million total viewers, up 30% from the season average.
• Network's #2 Series with M12-17 Behind "Jersey Shore"

Source: Nielsen. 5/31/10-8/29/10. L+SD Cvg Rating/000s. Original cable series = trackage, premiere time periods only, 000s.

About MTV:

MTV is the dynamic, vibrant experiment at the intersection of music, creativity and youth culture. For over 28 years, MTV has evolved, challenged the norm, and detonated boundaries -- giving each new generation a creative outlet and voice that entertains, informs and unites on every platform and screen. On-air, MTV is the number one full day-ad supported network for P12-24.  Online, MTV.com averaged 24.5 million monthly unique visitors during the second quarter of 2010 -- up +13% year-over-year.  Average video streams for the second quarter of 2010 increased +8% from Q1/2010.   And MTV's successful sibling networks MTV2 and mtvU each deliver unprecedented customized content, super-serving young males, music fans, and college students like no one else. MTV is part of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Wanna know more? Come on in... www.mtvpress.com

SOURCE MTV