Comedy Says ‘South Park’ Still Rules
Network Boasts of Better Ratings than TBS’s ‘House of Payne’
By Kent Gibbons -- Multichannel News, 12/14/2007 9:23:00 AM
Taking issue with a Turner Broadcasting claim to basic-cable comedy supremacy, Comedy Central said Friday a broader interpretation of basic-cable comedy would rank South Park ahead of top TBS comedy House of Payne.
A Turner graph in its annual year-end ratings briefing listed House of Payne as leading the basic-cable comedy “deliveries” category with an average of about 3.1 million total viewers. But that only covered situation comedies – not animated shows. South Park averaged 3.654 million total viewers, in its 11th season, according to Comedy Central.
Part of this gets to how shows are coded, or categorized, by Nielsen Media Research, the MTV Networks outlet Comedy Central said. House of Payne and another Turner Broadcasting-owned TBS hit, The Bill Engvall Show, are coded “CS” for situation comedy. South Park is labeled “EA” for evening animation, but is generally considered a comedy. The Turner slide cited “CS” shows.
Earlier, Disney Channel took issue with Turner’s granting NBC Universal-owned USA Network the overall ratings crown in primetime, saying if the definition also included basic cable channels that don’t accept ads, then Disney Channel would edge out USA.
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