Media Monster

Onion SportsDome’s Premiere Had Higher Ratings Than SportsCenter

Our early impressions of Onion SportsDome were mixed-to-moderately-positive, but we still worried a 30-minute show might stretch the show’s concept too far. Based on this early ratings nugget, though, everyone involved with the program has reason to be hopeful they’re on to something.

According to a tweet from John Ourand of the SportsBusiness Journal:

Fake news rules. The Onion’s “SportsDome” pulled better ratings than “SportsCenter” for its Tues night premier: 0.9/1.5M viewers v 0.7/900K.

We wouldn’t expect SportsDome to “rule” like this for long, of course – premieres always get higher ratings, and if you want to look at a real ratings juggernaut, one need look no further the show SportsDome leads into. But the strength of the Onion brand, plus the fact that show did have some strong material, might be enough to keep ratings respectable, if not as high as the premiere.

As we said after the premiere, we were skeptical of the Onion SportsDome idea dating back to the first we heard of it, and had doubts the project would be successful. But there was enough to like that the show is worth tuning into in subsequent weeks to see if they can keep it up (and maybe, improve). And if the ratings of the SportsDome keep rivaling the actual Sportscenter…well, we’re not sure that would say more about the parody or the real thing.

[h/t Richard Deitsch]

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