'House' is world's most popular TV show

Wednesday 17th June, 12:49 PM JST

PARIS —

U.S. drama “House,” starring Britain’s Hugh Laurie as unconventional medical genius Doctor Gregory House, outgunned rivals in 2008 to become the world’s most watched fiction show on television.

According to ratings agency Eurodata TV Worldwide, House and his team of canny diagnosticians last year gathered more than 81.8 million viewers.

That was far more than the 2007 and 2006 winners in the same TV drama category, “CSI: Las Vegas,” about a team of forensic experts, and its spin-off “CSI: Miami.”

The agency bases its figures on data collected in 66 countries from Austria to Georgia to Norway to the United States that represent a potential audience of 1.6 billion couch potatoes.

In the TV comedy category, the U.S. female-star cast of “Desperate Housewives” for the second year running beat “Monk” (U.S.) and “Ugly Betty” (U.S.), attracting 65.3 million viewers worldwide in 2008.

“The Bold and the Beautiful,” also a U.S. show, with 24.5 million viewers was the most popular soap for the second consecutive year, thrashing Mexican telenovela “Marina” and U.S. competitor “The Young And The Restless.”

Wire reports

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 46 Total Comments Show All

usaexpat at 11:59 PM JST - 18th June

House is the doctor I want if I ever have a medical mystery, forget bedside manner. Anyway, it's a good show and I really like Hugh Laurie. It always amazes me that he can sound so American on the show being a brit. He must be good at accents.
Informed at 12:05 AM JST - 19th June

In Japan the show is called "Daiwa House".
Molenir at 08:01 AM JST - 19th June

House the TV show is so hard for me to watch. Knowing something about medicine like I do, trying to sit through the things the people do on the show is just painful. Like fingernails on the chalkboard type painful. They're constantly diagnosing a patient with something and then immediately starting treatment. They don't know what it is, but they're already treating for it. And then how they go and just tell the patient, oh, you have cancer, no wait, its Lupus, no wait, its a weird tapeworm. Gimme a break.

Like someone else said. Only reason people tune in, is to watch the guy bully all his underlings and act like a jerk. Myself, after being forced to watch a couple dozen episodes, I've taken to referring to the show as Louse, rather then House.

Of course I feel the same way about CSI, NCIS, and a lot of other shows. But whatcha gonna do.
kanadamanada at 02:02 AM JST - 23rd June

SEKISUI HOUSE! Smartest show on TV, after Flight of the Conchords.
Nessie at 05:32 PM JST - 23rd June

Smartest show on TV, after Flight of the Conchords.

Flight of the Conchords is the smartest show no longer on TV.
TheGeneral at 09:23 AM JST - 25th June

Flight of the Conchords is the smartest show no longer on TV.

No, that would be Arrested Development.
jonnyboy at 09:25 AM JST - 25th June

can't say i was particularly impressed with the one episode i watched on a plane a while back. seemed thoroughly generic, reminding me of a medical Cracker (main character is a genius, but such an a-hole). hugh laurie has done such better work before...
TheGeneral at 09:29 AM JST - 25th June

And I'm guessing you meant "no longer on BBC".

Season 2 of Flight of the Conchords (HBO) started in January of this year.
Nessie at 05:08 PM JST - 25th June

No, that would be Arrested Development.

I stand corrected.
Nessie at 05:09 PM JST - 25th June

Season 2 of Flight of the Conchords (HBO) started in January of this year.

It's already finished in the real world.
TheGeneral at 08:05 AM JST - 26th June

It's already finished in the real world. Hold it right there . . .

It was a never a BBC TV show; it was on BBC radio. The American TV series is the only TV series!

And it hasn't been canceled.

What say you, sir?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flightofthe_Conchords
Nessie at 03:22 PM JST - 29th June

I say it may not have been officially cancelled, but there will be no season three

http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/08/31/flight-of-the-conchords-to-end-after-second-season/
UnagiDon at 08:10 PM JST - 29th June

No more Conchords? It's Murray I'll miss the most.
Nessie at 10:30 PM JST - 30th June

Never cottoned to Murray. I think he was one of the main writers. Season 1 was brilliant.
American_Girl at 06:09 AM JST - 8th July

"House" most popular? Really? I've tried watching it a few times, but it never did anything for me. I find it more annoying than entertaining (even though I've been a Hugh Laurie fan since "Blackadder" and "Jeeves and Wooster"). I'll take "Dexter," "30 Rock" and my "Seinfeld" DVDs over "House" any time!