JERSEY SHORE Sets MTV Season Premiere Record

MTV'S JERSEY SHORE just continues to build an audience and now has set a new record at the cable TV network with a staggering 8.8 million viewers for last Thursday's season opener episode of the reality series. What's so impressive about the 8.8 million figure is that it's only a tad below the 8.9 million viewers that 60 MINUTES drew last week as being the #6 rated network TV show. This means that some cable TV shows are now approaching the same sort of big ratings figures as network TV posts, which is an awesome feat.

For years, cable TV networks have sought to build audiences for original programming comparable to the networks. Now, a smattering of cable TV shows are breaking through to the same sort of top ten numbers that Summer network TV posts. That's a great achievement by any standard of measurement.