‘Glee,’ reality shows a popular choice for students with convenient online episodes
Singing teenagers, dry-humored offices and modern families complete with male partners with an Asian baby all have one thing in common — they are all part of wildly popular television shows.
Farmington Hills sophomore Allison Liberty said she tunes into them all, watching eight to 10 hours of television each week.
“You name it, I probably watch it,” Liberty said. “I like watching shows about things I don’t do in everyday life — it’s a kind of escape.”
According to primetime broadcast ratings for the week ending on Oct. 31, “Modern Family,” “Glee,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “The Office,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives” all made the Top 25 Most Viewed Shows for viewers between ages 18 and 49.
“Family Guy,” “Seinfeld,” “Oprah” and “Two and a Half Men” all made the Top 25 most viewed Syndicated Shows for the week ending Oct. 24.
While reality shows like “Teen Mom,” “Keeping up with the Kardashians,” “The Buried Life,” “Kendra” and “The Real World” aren’t making national rankings, Liberty said they are still very popular among college students.
“‘Jersey Shore' was fantastically huge because it was all about people roughly our age doing a lot of the things college students do,” Liberty said. “MTV stuff is usually a pretty big hit.”
However not all college students are watching this year’s most popular shows. In fact, while Amber Miller said her roommate has a variety of shows she watches each week, including “Teen Mom” and “Glee,” the Whitehall freshman said she rarely turns on the television at all.
“I find that there’s nothing really worth watching,” Miller said. “I want to watch something mentally stimulating. I have enough problems in my own life, I don’t want to watch more on television.”
Sporting events, especially college and NFL football games, also rank high in television ratings among 18- to 49-year-old viewers.
Liberty said being able to watch her favorite shows online whenever she has free time is a huge help when it comes to keeping up with new episodes. Watching television online is now hugely popular with almost all of her peers, Liberty said.
“Having new episodes available on Hulu and Netflix makes it so much easier,” Liberty said. “You’re not confined to one certain spot at one time.”
