TV's Winners and Losers

Three of the season’s notable winners come from the cable side. AMC took a risk in launching zombie drama The Walking Dead in October, but by leveraging its horror film content during the month, it paid off: the series attracted an average of 5.2 million viewers across six episodes (and became the most watched cable program among Adults 18-49 in the process), sparking intense online discussion as well as a swift second season order. MTV’s ratings giant Jersey Shore shows no signs of slowing down; in its third season, it launched with a record 8.5 million viewers, MTV's most viewed series broadcast ever. By the fourth episode that total went up to 8.9 million viewers. Meanwhile, Hot In Cleveland —a female-centric multi-camera comedy—established TV Land as a home for original programming. Now in its second season, it attracts an average of nearly 3 million viewers and has led to the network rapidly expanding its slate of originals.