This isn’t actually news. Not exactly. It is interesting, however. From 7:30-8PM ET on Sunday, January 31st exactly 846,000 viewers watched an episode of M*A*S*H on digital specialty network MeTV.
Which episode? I have no clue. But does it matter? The fact that so many viewers were watching a decades-old episode of M*A*S*H–one that was edited for syndication and included way too many commercials–is impressive. Or at least I think so.
Here are the full ratings for the broadcast in question, courtesy of Programming Insider:
M*A*S*H (R) (MeTV, 7:30 PM, 30 min.)
0.846 million viewers
0.59 HH
Range: 0.084-0.097 million adults 18-49
0.07 A18-49 (0.04 F18-49, 0.10 M18-49)
0.03 A18-34 (0.04 F18-34, 0.02 M18-34)
0.12 A25-54 (0.09 F25-54, 0.14 M25-54)
By comparison, from 7-8PM ET that same night 9.356 million viewers watched 60 Minutes on CBS, 5.074 million watched a repeat of America’s Funniest Home Videos on ABC from 7-8PM ET, 2.231 million watched a repeat of The Weakest Link on NBC, 1.730 million watched an episode of Hawaii Five-0 in off-network syndication on ION, and 0.996 million watched a repeat of Name That Tune on FOX.
(Technically, some of these viewers may have recorded M*A*S*H from 7:30-8PM ET and watched it later that night. That’s because Nielsen “live-plus-same-day” ratings include delayed viewing until 3AM.)
It’s incredibly rare to see ratings for M*A*S*H in syndication, so I thought I’d share this. M*A*S*H airs weekdays and on Sunday nights from 7-8PM ET on MeTV.
I wonder if anyone reading this was one of the 846,000 watching M*A*S*H that night.
“The fact that so many viewers were watching a decades-old episode of M*A*S*H–one that was edited for syndication and included way too many commercials–is impressive. ”
And was sped up.
And had the top and the bottom of the screen cropped off so the image looks halfway toward being current-day “widescreen” in a failed attempt to fool viewers that it’s a widescreen show.
Yes, those are my two biggest criticisms of MeTV. Love the shows they have on there, but hate the treatment being done to them, especially the the fake quasi-widescreen cropping that just makes every shot look improperly composed and with cramped headspace around characters. (Also looking at you on this, Antenna TV!)