Ratings: “South Park” Helps Comedy Central Become #1 Cable Network In 2019
Comedy Central finished 2019 as the #1 full day entertainment cable network with M18-34 (.24 rating), driven by strong-performing originals, including South Park, cable’s #1 primetime comedy for the 7th year in a row. Among the key P18-49 demo, the #1 brand increased year-over-year ratings for the first time since 2013 (.18 rating in 2018 to a .19 rating in 2019).
Comedy Central capped 2019 with an outstanding quarter, averaging a .19 P18-49 rating, up +6% versus a year ago. This was Comedy Central’s largest year-over-year ratings growth among P18-49 since 2013 and the brand was one of only four top 20 networks to post year-over-year ratings growth in the quarter. With a share of 1.18, it was the highest share for Comedy Central in a calendar Q4 since 2014, and represented a +13% increase since the same quarter last year. The brand earned 11 straight quarters of year-over-year share growth, the longest streak in Comedy Central history. That matches the longest streak among top 30 networks on all of cable TV.
South Park is cable’s #1 primetime comedy for the 7th year in a row. South Park also ranked as cable’s top-rated series with M18-34 on Wednesday nights, delivering a strong 1.9 L+3 rating throughout season 23. The series averaged 1.4 million total viewers for the recently wrapped 10-episode season. South Park continues to serve as a top franchise across all of TV. Including new episode premieres and repeats, there were over 30 billion minutes of South Park consumed on linear in 2019, up +36% from 2018 (L+7 viewing).
South Park boasts over 48 million fans across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, making it the most-popular cable comedy series on each platform. On digital and social platforms, South Park drove 113 million views throughout season 23, up +53% from season 22.
Our Take
Together with the report last year about how many minutes South Park has been watched, this note about South Park’s importance to Comedy Central’s ratings will probably signify that this show isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Moreover, it should hopefully embolden the network to order new original animated series.
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