Dexter, Jersey Shore Sees Ratings Spike

Dexter and Jersey Shore experienced high ratings and provided a strong boost for their respective networks.

ShowTime’s original series hit, Dexter, set a ratings record for the network and earned 2.58 million viewers that tuned into the 9pm ET show. An additional 508,000 watched the repeat later on that night. This was the first time any original ShowTime show drew more than 3 million viewers on a single night. The episode of Dexter also landed the largest audience of any ShowTime telecast since the 1999 Mike Tyson/Orlin Norris fight in Las Vegas, which lasted for only a few seconds.

The total audience for Dexter on Sunday represented a 71-percent increase over last season’s finale. This season’s finale also helped increase viewer-ship for ShowTime’s other original series, Californication, which followed directly after Dexter. It drew 1.1 million.