Teen Mom ratings drop 26 percent after Viacom DIRECTV blackout

Jul, 18, 2012 | AUTHOR: Asa Hawks; | Related : News, Teen Mom, Teen Wolf

It’s been a full week since Viacom’s contract with DIRECTV ran out without the two sides being able to negotiate a new one, resulting in DIRECTV blacking out all Viacom programming for their subscribers. One of MTV’s tent pole series, Teen Mom, made it just under the gun last week as the show’s fourth episode of its fourth and final season ended just an hour before the midnight deadline. Many were curious just what the impact would be on the ratings this week, and the results are pretty brutal.

After finishing with 2.079 million viewers last week, the ratings plummeted to just 1.531 million last night – a difference of more than 26 percent! That number is even higher than some of the more pessimistic projections which were mostly based on DIRECTV accounting for around 20% of MTV’s viewership. (I confess, I have DIRECTV and was forced to make arrangements last night so I could watch it.)

One major fan that also missed out on the telecast, making Twitter a substantially less enjoyable place from 10-11 EST, was Jenelle Evans’ mom Barbara Evans! @BabsEvansMTV (a parody account) shared this angry tweet last night:

Jenelle Evans mom Barbara Evans' parody Twitter account on DIRECTV blackout

The results were a little better, but still not good, for one of MTV’s premiere scripted programs, Teen Wolf, which fell from 1.719 million viewers to 1.327 million Monday night – a drop of 23 percent. Surprisingly, MTV’s other successful scripted series, Awkward, weathered the storm amazingly well! Last Thursday’s episode had 1.715 million viewers, which was only 45,000 less than the week before!

Snooki & JWoww dropped from 2.037 million viewers to 1.700 million, a 16.5 percent drop – which is relatively healthy considering.

VH1 programming seemed to fluctuate right around negative 20 percent as well with Single Ladies falling 23 percent from 2.498 million the previous Monday to 1.933 million this week, and their hugely popular reality series Love & Hip Hop Atlanta going from 3.398 million to 2.690 overall viewers (-20.8 percent).

Talks are reportedly ongoing between Viacom and DIRECTV, but there appears to be no imminent resolution to the blackout in sight.

So, Sophia, what do you think about this whole mess?

Teen Mom Farrah Abraham's daughter Sophia's monster face

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justine

Sophia is so cute…. but in this pic kinda looks like Chucky… not that she’s possessed or anything, just the look on her face lol she’s my favorite baby on the show …. I never miss an episode…Glad I don’t have Directv as I’d be missing the rest of the season I’d switch to cable if I had them…. I’m sure they have a lot of unhappy customers…hopefully they reconsider, or they may be the next company to go out of business.
jaime

this could be for the best. i do watch teen mom, but i dont see why the rest of the world does, honestly.
tab

LOL at farrah’s ugly cry face with the direct tv logo. awesome.
i wish more networks would drop mtv. stupid network full of white trash people on reality tv making a s h i t load of money for being idiots.
Babyvamp

Good, Viacom gets what they deserve.
- Dianna
  
  i hate this blackout!! i dont know for sure is this has anything to do with it but i find it annoying that ever since this happened mtv.com hasnt had more than 2 or 3 working videos. majority of the episodes have the “sorry but this video is unavailable” and its really ticking me off.
  
  i dont have direct tv and dish doesnt have those channels so the website is all i can go on to watch the shows. im just an innocent bystander and its getting on my nerves
Ashley

That is a crazy picture of Sophia!!!
ofcourse

Viacom isn’t going to lose this one. People want their MTV and other programming too much to stick with DirectTV over this. Either they pay up, up their rates and go out of business that way, or they bleed out this way. Viacom is out for blood.
ofcourse

OH HOLY CRAP!!! I just finished saying they were out for blood!
I just went to mtv.com and went to the Teen Mom page and at the bottom, there was a picture of Snooki and the caption was “DirectTV really dropped MTV? WAAAAAHHHH!” and then it said “Switch providers now to get it back.”
Yeah. They’re going for the kill.
Meh

It really isn’t a huge deal to most people. I have Direct TV and won’t be switching providers because they dropped MTV. Most people are locked into a contract with them and will cost a ton to get out of it.. and with a contract, we’re locked into our rates for a year so they can’t raise them if we get the channel back. Everything we’re watching now was filmed over a year ago and the reunion show was filmed in March.. I think. They actually did me a favor.. i watched the show out of boredom and now I can set something else to dvr. -_-
Brittany

I’ve changed my stance. Viacom is a bunch of jerks and they can piss off.
madia

Who really cares that MTV was dropped? Most of the shows that they’re complaining about not showing can be viewed at any time from your computer. I don’ have cable or directtv, and I am able to watch most of the shows currently airing on MTV.
Natalie

I was extremely upset when this happened considering teen mom and 16 and preg are 2 of my favorite shows (i know, dont ask me why lol) but actually i have been watching other shows now and can get the recaps here on the web~ direct tv has been a AWESOME company and I think Viacom is just being stingy… I mean for real I am having trouble buying food for my family and they want me to pay even more for tv channels??? no thanks, im ok!
Elle

It’s a lot more than just MTV. A lot of kids channels were cut also as well as AMC.
- ash
  
  amc was not dropped, id panic if it was, im in love w breaking bad! its channel 254 i believe. however, dish did drop amc. i am pissed about mtv, vh1, comedy central all being dropped. as well as the nickoloden channels. Would they still charge you if you cancelled? they are breaching their contract in a way by not providing the channels you signed up for. i hope this doesnt continue for much long, i like my reality shows. thank goodness jersey shore isnt on right lol. (please hold all negative comments)
Brittney

If you dont like teen mom just dont comment. No one cares why you dont like it.