Disney On Top Of Cable World
Network Scores Biggest Ratings Hit in History of Cable
By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 8/20/2007 8:54:00 AM
Disney Channel Worldwide entertainment president Gary Marsh knew the Aug. 17 premiere of High School Musical 2 would be a big ratings hit. But the most viewed program in the history of cable?
“We all managed our expectations and we were just hoping for the best,” said Marsh.
The “best” turned out to be an incredible 17.2 million viewers, easily besting the cable industry’s previous high of 16.0 million viewers garnered for ESPN’s Oct. 23, 2006 New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys Monday Night Football game.
Marsh told Multichannel News that the viewership record wasn’t as important as the fact that the movie, a sequel to the phenomenal 2006 High School Musical hit which has drawn some 200 million viewers worldwide, reached well beyond the network’s target 9-14 tween viewership.
“Its terrific breaking viewing records, but as we all know viewing records come and go,” he said. “But what’s so remarkable is that we set a ratings record as a kids-targeted network that doesn’t have access to the tens of millions of adult viewers that other cable networks do. High School Musical 2 has changed that paradigm.”
But High School Musical 2 wasn’t the only Disney show to set a cable record Friday night. A new episode of Hannah Montana featuring an appearance from tween-targeted pop singing group the Jonas Brothers set the record for a primetime cable series with 10.7 million viewers, topping the 7.1 million viewers generated by the June 18 premiere of The Closer.
The Hannah Montana episode also set cable industry viewership records among kids 6-11 (4.2 million) and Tweens 9-14 (4.1 million).
Overall, Marsh said the network has the highest rated Friday night on television – broadcast or cable -- in five years.
HSM2’s phenomenal performance now sets the bar extremely high for future Disney Channel original movies. But Marsh said that HSM2 was a once in a lifetime event that will be difficult to match.
“We have to savor this moment and acknowledge that it was a force of nature; that is was a coming together of a lot of elements – the music element, the power of Disney Channel right now, the strong thematic components of the movie, the willingness of families to embrace this kind of storytelling in a world fraught with all sorts of heartache right now,” he said. “All of those elements combined make this moment in time a unique and special one.”
Disney’s Friday performance is almost certainly going to produce its sixth straight weekly prime-time ratings win. Marsh hopes that the mass exposure High School Musical 2 brought to the network’s other shows will bode well for the network’s ratings fortunes well into the fall after its tween audience has gone back to school.
“For us, HSM2 gave us tremendous sampling opportunity … I’m not concerned about us losing the momentum, because everything seems to be working,” he said. “We’re satisfying the audience in terms of music, storytelling, comedy and stars-power. These are the elements that our audience craves and we’re giving it to them every single day and every single program, so I’m not terribly concerned right now.”
