This was posted on February 7, 2017 by Rodney Ho on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
AMC's "The Walking Dead" last year was the most popular show shot in metro Atlanta for the seventh year in a row.
It pulled in 17.83 million viewers, down 8.5 percent from 19.49 million a year earlier, according to Nielsen Media Research.
It's the third most popular show overall behind only CBS's top comedy "The Big Bang Theory" (19.986 million) and CBS's top drama "NCIS" (19.647 million). "The Walking Dead" was first among 18 to 49 year olds.
The top metro Atlanta-based reality show was NBC's "Spartan Team Challenge," a summer series, which averaged 4.2 million, ahead of both Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" (3.769 million) and VH1's "Love and Hip Hop Atlanta." (3.577 million). The two latter shows had very modest drops from 2015.
Broadcast TV dominated the top 20 again with only "The Walking Dead" representing cable, same as 2015. And CBS carried 9 of the top 20 shows, down from 11 in 2015. The top new show was NBC's "This is Us," which came in sixth with 14.627 million viewers. And like the previous year, the top pay cable show was "Game of Thrones" (10.614 million, ranked 30th).
FX in 2015 compiled a similar list of primetime shows from 1 to 1,415, ranked in popularity. At the time, I posted the top 46 shot in metro Atlanta. For 2016, I received a list of 1,372 shows and found 52 shot locally. The viewership numbers count seven days of DVR usage but on-demand streaming is not included.
Daytime shows shot here such as "Family Feud" and "Lauren Lake's Family Court" are not included. Streaming shows such as "Stranger Things" are excluded as well since they don't release ratings numbers anyway. And oddly, Atlanta-based Bounce TV was not part of the compilation so I didn't include "Saints & Sinners," which averaged about 1.4 million overnight viewers. BET's "Being Mary Jane" didn't air any original episodes in 2016.
1- "The Walking Dead" AMC 17.83 million (ranked overall 3) No. 1 among 18-49 (ranking last year among Atlanta shows: 1)
2- "MacGyver" CBS 10.241 million (ranked 33 overall) No. 93 among 18-49 (new)
3- "Sleepy Hollow" Fox 4.467 million (ranked 133) No. 154 among 18-49
4- "Spartan Team Challenge" NBC 4.181 million (ranked 141) No. 156 among 18-49
5- "The Have and the Have Nots" OWN 3.792 million (ranked 155) No. 171 among 18-49 (ranking last year: 6)
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
6- "Real Housewives of Atlanta" Bravo 3.769 million (ranked 156) No. 91 among 18-49 (ranking last year: 5)
7- "Love and Hip Hop Atlanta" VH1 3.577 million (ranked 163). No. 77 among 18-49 (ranking last year: 8)
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
8- "Greenleaf" 3.256 million OWN (ranked 177); No. 201 among 18-49
9- "Chrisley Knows Best" USA 2.806 million (ranked 207) No. 176 among 18-49 (ranking last year: 11)
10. "If Loving You is Wrong" OWN 2.784 million (ranked 209) No. 255 among 18-49 (ranking last year: 9)
11- "My Diet is Better Than Yours" 2.502 ABC (ranked 235) No. 272 among 18-49 (cancelled)
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
12- "Home Free" Fox 2.47 million (ranked 238) No. 314 among 18-34 (unclear if it's coming back, ranked 7 last year)
13- "K-Michelle My Life" VH1 1.959 million (ranked 298) No. 201 among 18-49
14- "Little Women Atlanta" Lifetime 1.939 million (ranked 303) No. 242 among 18-49
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
15- "Atlanta" FX 1.855 million (ranked 320) No. 206 among 18-49
16- "Devious Maids" Lifetime 1.845 (ranked 323) No. 312 among 18-49 (cancelled, ranked 12 last year)
17- "Married to Medicine" Bravo 1.785 (ranked 332) No. 270 among 18-49 (ranked 23 last year)
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
18- "Containment" the CW 1.78 (ranked 334) No. 341 among 18-49 (cancelled)
19- "Vampire Diaries" the CW 1.752 million (ranked 340) No. 263 among 18-49 (ranked 13 last year)
20- "T.I. & Tiny" VH1 season 5 1.726 million (ranked 347) No. 247 among 18-49 (ranked 20 last year)
21- "Archer" FX 1.687 million (ranked 361) No. 214 among 18-49 (ranked 18 last year)
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
22- "Rap Game" Lifetime 1.684 million (ranked 364) No. 288 among 18-49
23. "Married at First Sight" A&E 1.618 million (ranked 380) No. 296 among 18-49
24- "Originals" the CW 1.547 (ranked 394) No. 301 among 18-49 (ranked 19 last year)
25. "Don't Be Tardy" Bravo 1.479 million (ranked 415) No. 301 among 18-49 (ranked 22 last year)
26. "The Detour" TBS 1.308 million (ranked 461) No. 316 among 18-49 (moved to New York in 2017)
27- "Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta" 1.211 million (ranked 496) No. 686 among 18-49 (ranked 24 last year, on hiatus now)
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
28- "Survivor's Remorse" Starz 1.187 million (ranked 515) No. 372 among 18-49 (ranked 38 last year, nearly doubling in ratings)
29- "Too Close to Home" TLC 1.15 million (ranked 551) No. 555 among 18-49
29 (tie)- "Dead Silent" ID 1.15 million (ranked 551) no. 655 among 18-49
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
31- "Your Worst Nightmare" ID 1.074 million (ranked 572) No. 645 among 18-49 (ranked 34 last year)
32- "Swamp Murders" ID 1.025 million (ranked 501) No. 608 among 18-49
33- "For Better or Worse" OWN 952,000 (ranked 636) No. 641 among 18-49 (ranked 25 last year)
34- "The Carbonaro Effect" truTV 901,000 (ranked 672) No. 563 among 18-49 (moved elsewhere in 2017, ranked 28 last year)
35- "Atlanta Plastic" Lifetime 796,000 (ranked 727) No. 637 among 18-49 (ranked 29 last year)
36- "Married at First Sight" FYI 787,000 (ranked 734) No. 571 among 18-49
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
37- "Zoe Ever After" BET 783,000 (ranked 738) No. 571 among 18-49 (cancelled)
38- "Love Thy Neighbor" OWN 754,000 (ranked 747) No. 755 among 18-49 (ranked 31 last year)
39- "Halt & Catch Fire" AMC 669,000 (ranked 799) No. 739 among 18-49 (ranked 32 last year)
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
40- "Separation Anxiety" TBS 639,000 (ranked 822) No. 671 among 18-49 (cancelled)
41- "Cutting It in the ATL" WE-TV 615,000 (ranked 836) No. 706 among 18-49
42- "Yours Mine or Ours" Bravo 604,000 (ranked 841) No. 807 among 18-49
43- "Ink, Paper, Scissors" BET 505,000 (ranked 907) No. 765 among 18-49
44- "Little Miss Atlanta" TLC 459,000 (ranked 936) No. 944 among 18-49
45- "Rickey Smiley for Real" TV One 398,000 (ranked 981) No. 855 among 18-49 (ranked 43 last year but ratings are up year over year)
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
36- "Stan Against Evil" IFC 369,000 (ranked 1,015) No. 917 among 18-49
46- "Preachers of Atlanta' Oxygen 362,000 (ranked 1,024) No. 911 among 18-49
47- "Rectify" Sundance 260,000 (ranked 1,146) No. 1,107 among 18-49 (ended, ranked 44 last year)
48- "Here We Go Again" TV One 230,000 (ranked 1,182) No. 1,092 among 18-49 (cancelled)
49- "Born Again Virgin" TV One 183,000 (ranked 1,248) No. 1,119 among 18-49 (ranked 46 last year)
50- "Like a Boss" Oxgyen 171,000 (ranked 1,262) No. 1,116 among 18-49 (cancelled)
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
51- "From the Bottom Up" season 1 Centric 147,000 (ranked 1,291) No. 1,171 among 18-49
52- "From the Bottom Up" season 2 Centric 87,000 (ranked 1,351) No. 1331 among 18-49
