Epic Ratings for ‘Hatfields & McCoys’ on History Channel

The New York Times ^ | May 29, 2012 | BILL CARTER

[Bratch]

The most spectacular success of the summer season on television may have come before summer has even started: the miniseries “Hatfields & McCoys” on the History Channel attracted a monster audience Monday night, 13.9 million viewers, the second largest for a cable program that did not involve sports.

By comparison, the finale this month of NBC’s singing competition hit, “The Voice,” attracted 10.5 million viewers. Most hit shows on cable are in the range of two million to four million viewers, though “The Walking Dead” on AMC reached what seemed then to be an impressive nine million for its finale in March.

But that did not come close to the total Monday night for the History Channel’s depiction of the legendary American family feud, which stars Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton. The viewership even dwarfed the biggest competition on the broadcast networks on Monday, NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” which brought in just over 10 million viewers.

[GVnana]

The term, “War of Northern Aggression” has been around, oh about 150 years. You should know that by now.

[catfish1957]

I am not a historian of this event, but the makers did an outstanding job creating late 19th century life. I can comment thought, that in my genealogy research I have transcribed a lot of 19th century text, and the dialogue in this movie is spot on.

[X-spurt]

Yep, Texas has some tasty chow, but our coonass neghbors have da best.

I am pretty convinced nobaba is in for a worldclass drummin, but if they somehow cheat enough, you can bet Texas and the South won’t be standing around much wondering what’s going to happen next. True conservative patriots will be welcomed. This time it’ll come out different.

[X-spurt]

Yep, Texas has some tasty chow, but our coonass neighbors have da best.

I am pretty convinced nobaba is in for a worldclass drummin, but if they somehow cheat enough, you can bet Texas and the South won’t be standing around much wondering what’s going to happen next. True conservative patriots will be welcomed. This time it’ll come out different.