The ratings woes continue for MTV’s Teen Mom franchise. Teen Mom OG finished out its most recent season averaging under 500,000 viewers, and Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant managed to break 400,000 just twice during its latest run. Teen Mom 2 is in a similarly sinking ship as the current season has seen multiple record lows for viewers.
Teen Mom 2 Season 11 was very weak right out of the gate out of the gate with just 495,000 viewers tuning in for the Premiere on March 8. However, after seven episodes, that “weak” start is actually the high mark so far this season.
Those seven episodes have averaged 407,000 viewers, but this week’s episode set an all-time record low of just 355,000. OUCH! Thanks to the demographic of the show’s audience, it still remained in the Top 20 original cable shows for the night with viewers aged 18-49, which is the most important demographic for advertisers.
For context, the Teen Mom 2 Season 2 premiere episode had 4.15 million viewers.
Here are the Teen Mom 2 ratings for all of the episodes from the current season and the previous season:
TEEN MOM 2 SEASON 10 RATINGS
May 4, 2021 – 663,000
May 11 – 507,000
May 18 – 553,000
May 25 – 520,000
June 1 – 497,000
June 8 – 491,000
June 15 – 551,000
June 22 – 466,000
June 29 – 398,000
July 6 – 513,000
July 13 – 475,000
July 20 – 416,000
TEEN MOM 2 SEASON 11 (10B?) RATINGS
March 8 – 459,000
March 15 – 392,000
March 22 – 398,000
March 29 – 401,000
April 5 – 406,000
April 12 – 436,000
April 19 – 355,000
It’s important to note that the traditional ratings numbers that I am using represent viewers who tuned in at the time of the show’s airing or the same day. It does not include those who watched the episodes later, or via streaming. The Teen Mom shows have always done extremely well with delayed viewing, but unfortunately I haven’t found a source for those numbers for the past few years.
The ratings for the current season of #TeenMomOG and #TeenMom #YoungAndPregnant are bad. Like, REALLY bad! Y&P isn't even getting as many viewers as #YoungMomsClub had! 😬 https://t.co/PWP9bmVkxP pic.twitter.com/gobeJcufla
— Starcasm (@starcasm) November 18, 2021
Regardless of the delayed viewership and streaming numbers, Teen Mom 2 being under 400,000 viewers is really bad. Thanks to the departure of Jenelle and Chelsea, the show doesn’t have as large of a salary budget for the cast as Teen Mom OG, but it still costs considerably more than Young and Pregnant.
Perhaps if there was some reason to believe that a ratings turnaround was likely, it would make sense for MTV to continue with new seasons. But, the ratings have been on a steady decline for years, and there doesn’t appear to be anything about the recent episodes that is bringing in a lot of new viewers.
In addition to Teen Mom 2′s declining ratings, there is also a waning interest in what is happening on the show on social media. The cast members are still getting talked about, but most of the talk seems to be about off-screen drama (like Kail’s failed lawsuit against Briana and Leah’s new boyfriend.)
Can Teen Mom Be Saved?
It’s clear that the Teen Mom franchise needs some sort of dramatic change. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the new Teen Mom: Family Reunion spin-off is the answer as the ratings for that show weren’t very good either. However, MTV seems to have something quite dramatic in the works.
The Ashley’s Reality Roundup reported last month that “the Teen Mom OG and Teen Mom 2 worlds are about to collide in a last ‘Hail Mary!’ attempt to save the sinking franchise!” The Ashley reports that producers are strongly considering combining the two shows into one!
At this point, The Ashley is not sure what format will be chosen, as the higher-ups have considered keeping at least most of the cast and just featuring a different combo of girls for each episode.
The Ashley says that there are currently no plans to include any of the cast from Teen Mom: Young and Pregnant, which is currently filming a new season.
Meanwhile, TLC’s teen pregnancy reality series Unexpected continues to do well in the ratings. Sunday night’s episode brought in 900,000 viewers — more than doubling Teen Mom 2.
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
