Jersey Shore Premiere Sets MTV Record

The New York Times' TV writer Bill Carter was stunned ("unthinkable," is how he put it) at how much the season three premiere of Jersey Shore on MTV (the network's highest rated telecast ever) "crushed" the competition.

The season opener, which sends authoress Snooki and the gang back to New Jersey after last season's sojourn in Miami Beach, hit nearly 5.5 million viewers aged 18-49 — "the audience most desired by advertisers," as Carter notes, adding that "the evidence continues to suggest that the cast members of Jersey Shore are among the biggest stars on television at the moment."

What's more, he points out, the total audience for Jersey Shore was 8.446 million, "the biggest for any series episode in the history of MTV. That number is likely to grow substantially when additional time-shifted viewing from DVRs is included."