South Park’s Rates Big With 11th Season
Comedy Central’s Signature Animated Show Marks Best Nielsen Performance Since 1998
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 11/16/2007 5:27:00 AM MT
Just ending its eleventh season, Comedy Central’s South Parkturned in its best performance in almost a decade, network officials said Friday.
The animated evergreen hit recorded its most-watched, in terms of total viewers, and highest-rated for men 18 to 24, season since 1998, its second year, as well as its highest-rated campaign since 2000 for adults 18 to 49.
The latest season of South Park, which will run at least another three years following a new $75 million deal signed by creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker in August, was watched on average by 3.6 million total viewers, up 4% versus last year's 10th anniversary season and the most-watched season among total viewers since 1998. The series posted a 2.3 rating among persons18 to 49, up 6% from last season, while scoring its best performance since 2000 against this key demographic.
Year-to-date, South Park is the No. 1 original series in cable among men 18 to 24, men 18 to 34 and men 18 to 49, according to network officials.
The series' 6.0 rating among men 18 to 24 was its best since 1998 and a 34% increase versus season 10. In its timeslot Wednesdays at 10 p.m., the series has been the most-watched program in all of television among men 18 to 24, and it ranked first in cable among men 18 to 34, men 18 to 49 and adults 18 to 49.
As part of the aforementioned agreement, Parker and Stone will produce an additional three seasons, at 14 episodes per season, of the Emmy and Peabody award-winning show. That will take the series beyond its current deal, which was set to expire at the end of 2008, and keep new episodes of the show on Comedy Central through 2011. Parker and Stone will continue to write, direct and edit every episode of South Park, as they have since the series premiered in August 1997.
