Monday Night Football is by far the most successful series in cable television history. And prior to August 17, nine of the top ten most watched programs in cable history were Monday Night Football games on ESPN. The top spot on that list was held by a New York Giants/Dallas Cowboys game, which drew a 12.7 cable rating (10.5 national rating) with 16 million viewers on October 23 of last year.
Now, there is a new most-watched program in cable television history: The Disney Channel drew 17.2 million viewers to its premiere telecast of High School Musical 2 on Friday night. To put that in perspective, the 17.2 million viewers is more than the amount of viewers for four of the five games of the 2006 World Series and every game of the 2007 NBA Finals. The movie set several ratings records; it was the most watched movie in the history of basic cable, and “the most-watched single event among children aged 6 to 11“. Disney Channel has been “the most watched of all basic cable channels in prime time” during the past five weeks, on the strength of hype for the sequel.
Bold prediction: look for Disney to somehow shoehorn the cast of High School Musical into the Monday Night Football booth this season.
In other news teen music/NFL news, ESPN will add “young phenom” Drake Bell of Nickelodeon to its Hank Williams Jr. All My Rowdy Friends theme song this year, along with other musicians; those who are old enough may remember Bell from The Amanda Show, or, more likely, have no idea who he is.
Link to New York Times article found via The Fanhouse.
