Ratings: ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ ‘The Bachelor’ not hurt at all by controversies
Did “How I Met Your Mother” feel a burn thanks to dressing up their white cast members in Asian garb, or did Juan Pablo Galavis’ comments about a gay Bachelor hurt the ABC franchise? Surprisingly, neither controversy proved to matter much beyond the scope of the internet, and those who all puffed out their chests and threatened to “not watch” apparently all did Monday night.
The ratings for both of the shows mentioned above were identical to what they were the week before, with “How I Met Your Mother” drawing a 3.0 in the 18-49 demographic, and “The Bachelor” getting a 2.3. The former ended up winning the night, as the “Sleepy Hollow” finale and “The Blacklist” each also drew a 2.3 rating.
So what do we make about these numbers in the end? The simple answer here is that it proves yet again that Twitter does not correlate directly to TV ratings. There may have been a few people who did check out because of the controversy, but they were replaced by some who were suddenly interested after hearing the news. There is also a distinction to be made here between people who are offended, and those who are actually so angry that they are going to take away their cure for boredom. Many just use Twitter as a means to have their voice heard; saying that they are not going to watch the show as a result of some sort of headline is a great way to at least get attention, even if you have no intention of actually following through on your threat.
If you’ve been following TV for some time, then you would have seen this lack of a ratings shift coming. When “Big Brother 15” had its racism controversy last year, it didn’t lose any audience really at all; instead, it just had CBS executives talking about how “disgusted” they were by Aaryn, GinaMarie, and the rest of the gang.
Obviously, we’ll have more soon as to whether or not these ratings stay the same the rest of the way. For now, click here if you want to get some more TV updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.
Photo: CBS