Cable Ratings: Joan Rivers Roast Heats Up Comedy Central

Ratings strong, but lag behind previous roasts

By Alex Weprin -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/11/2009 1:54:36 PM

The Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers easily won its timeslot in Comedy’s young male demographics, and performed well in both 18-49s and total viewers. While the roast did well, it couldn’t top the previous Comedy Central Roast of Larry The Cable Guy, which the network aired in March.
 
The Rivers roast drew 2.8 million total viewers and a 1.6 18-49 rating, compared to 4.1 million viewers and a 2.3 rating for Larry the Cable Guy.

The numbers were also down slightly from last summer’s roast of Bob Saget, which drew just over 3 million viewers and a 2 demo rating.
 
Of course, both Larry The Cable Guy and Bob Saget are popular and well known among Comedy’s younger male audience, an audience that may not necessarily be familiar with Rivers outside of her red carpet specials and self deprecating cameos in show’s such as Nip/Tuck and The Celebrity Apprentice.