The premiere episode of TBS' new Outback Jack reality show debuted to an audience of over two million viewers last week.
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The Tuesday, June 22 premiere drew 2.1 overall viewers to its 9PM ET/PT broadcast, a figure that was 33% above TBS' prior year comparison for the time period, but a performance that both Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter deemed only "respectable" and "so-so" given the network's heavy marketing and promotion of the series.
Outback Jack scored a 1.1/3 rating/share in each both of TBS' target demographics of Adults 18-34 and Adults 18-49.
While the Hollywood trade papers might deem Jack's performance less than spectacular, we feel it's worth noting that by our own analysis, the show's performance compares well with those of other basic cable reality shows. After all, the premiere of Spike TV's reality hit of last fall -- The Joe Schmo Show -- only drew less than a million viewers. In a more recent comparison, Jack also drew more viewers than a recent first-run second season episode of Bravo's breakout Queer Eye For The Straight Eye (which drew 1.8 million viewers). And even TBS' much more lauded syndication premiere of a sanitized version of HBO's Sex In The City only drew just over four million viewers, therefore we're unclear as to exactly what type of performance the papers were expecting.