Gold Rush is still the reigning king of Discovery Channel programming. The show aired its Season 3 premiere back at the end of October and has since been routinely bringing in higher numbers than last season's already-impressive ratings. Friday night’s episode brought in a season high showing in the 18-49 demographic, and a high overall viewer total, as well.
According to THR, Gold Rush’s strong performance in Season 3 helped the cable show to win the male demos on Friday nights in the November sweeps. If the show can continue its upward trend, it has a good chance of staying on top in December. Last night’s episode actually earned 4.59 million total viewers, and a 1.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic—besting even Fox’s Shark Tank in the latter demographic
Granted, the cable performer may have been boosted a bit this week by reruns running on network television. Even Shark Tank, a show that usually crushes all other competition in the 18-49 demographic on Friday nights, was down in the 18-49 demographic as well as total viewers, due to being in reruns. Overall, it’s still impressive that a cable program has found itself competing with the big sharks in the weekly ratings. Now, all the Discovery Channel needs is a second strong Friday night program to get a competitive programming block. We’ll keep you posted if Gold Rush continues its upward swing in the ratings.
Gold Rush airs on the Discovery Channel Fridays at 9 p.m. ET.
