VH1 Viewers Still Favor Flavor Through Spinoffs

Favor Flav may not be on the air, but his legacy continues to drive ratings for VH1.

The April 15 premiere of Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School, a spinoff of Flav’s popular Flavor of Love, set a network viewership record for a premiere, averaging 5.1 million viewers, according to VH1.

The eight-episode series -- which schools 13 former female contestants of Flavor of Love on proper etiquette and social skills -- beat out another Flavor spinoff, I Love New York, which drew 4.4 million viewers in its Jan. 8 debut.

Not to be outdone, an I Love New York Reunion special, which aired before CharmSchool, drew 5 million viewers.

The two shows also hit paydirt on the Web: The network drew a cumulative 1.4 million video streams featuring extras from both shows that ran on VH1.com April 15 and 16.

Finally, VH1’s 11:30 p.m. premiere of The Springer Hustle -- which gives viewers an insider’s look at the controversial Jerry Springer Show--delivered 2.3 million viewers and averaged a solid 1.5 rating in the network’s target 18-49 rating, almost three times the time period’s prior four-week average, according to the network.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.