Found out The Wire only had 13k viewers when it first aired

Was reading an old TV guide article online last night and saw that The Wire averaged like 13,000 viewers in Baltimore when it first dropped in 2002. Now everyone calls it the GOAT. Makes me wonder what other shows we missed out on because nobody was watching at the time.

2 comments

2 Comments

oscar39026d ago

Man that 13k number is wild when you think about it. It really shows how timing and network support can make or break a show. HBO didn't push it at all in the beginning which is such a shame. I feel like there's definitely some modern shows that will get rediscovered years later when people finally give them a chance. The Wire finally got its flowers but how many other great shows just faded away because nobody was watching? Makes me want to dig through old TV ratings from the early 2000s to see what else I missed.

mitchell.wade26d ago

Yeah I was just reading about this the other day actually. There was this show from like 2002 called "The Education of Max Bickford" that barely anyone watched but apparently had some of the best writing of that era. It only got like 5 million viewers at its peak and got canned after one season. Stuff like that makes me wonder how many genuinely good shows got buried because they came out right when everyone was still recording stuff on VHS and nobody had DVR yet.