Love it or hate it, “Jersey Shore” is a genuine hit. A huge hit.
And no where is it more of a big deal than in New York.
The season 2 premiere of the show last Thursday was the No. 1 TV show in NYC last week, according Nielsen, which released local ratings earlier today.
It was, in fact, the biggest TV show of the last month.
Only the All Star game and LeBron James’ ESPN special announcing he was signing with the Miami Heat (another piece of silly TV — but that’s another story) were bigger than “JS.”
It beat “60 Minutes” (No. 2), a Yankee game (they won in late innings against the Indians) and “The Closer,” the top-rated drama on cable.
Let that sink in for a sec. With the exception on two sports show, “Jersey Shore” was the most-watched TV show in this city since June.
In the music business, record companies used to talk about songs as being “turntable hits” — meaning a record that the radio stations loved to play and that listeners requested a lot, but did not sell in the stores.
TV’s best-known turntable hit right now is “Mad Men,” a super-smart series that has never broken the 3-million-viewers mark despite all the attention it has gotten.
“Jersey Shore” is not a turntable hit — at least to this point.