The Muppet Show: Counting Countries
From Muppet Wiki
This page documents the varying estimates for the number of countries that aired The Muppet Show.
- 1977 (Oct), Ladies' Home Journal: "On television... their very own Muppets Show (sic) lightens 163 stations across America and they're a small-screen scream in 103 countries." [1]
- 1977 (Nov 7), People Weekly: "Now the Hensons are repeating their wacky success with The Muppet Show, an Emmy winner syndicated in 163 U.S. cities and an astonishing 103 foreign countries."
- 1978 (Aug 6), TV Guide: "The Muppets are seen in 103 countries."
- 1978 (Aug 28), Time: "With 156 outlets in the U.S. and 106 overseas, it is the most popular first-run TV show internationally." [2]
- 1978, Muppet Show Fan Club newsletter, Volume 1, Number 2: "The Muppet Show is now one of the most widely viewed shows in the world. In many of the 103 countries where it can be seen, the characters' voices are dubbed into the native language."
- 1978, Episode 317: Kermit announces that the show is now seen in 108 countries.
- 1978 (Dec 25), Time: "The Muppet series is seen by at least 235 million people in 106 countries."
- 1979, Muppet Show Fan Club newsletter, Volume 1, Number 6: "The Muppet Show is now shown in 108 countries, with 235 million viewers each week."
- 1979 (June 10), The New York Times Magazine: "[The show] has some 235 million television viewers in 102 countries. Significantly, more than half of that audience is estimated to be adult (75 percent in Britain)." [3]
- 1979 (Sept 3), People Weekly: "Miss Piggy burst into celebrity as the star of The Muppet Show, a huge TV hit that is aired in 106 countries and seen every week by 260 million viewers." [4]
- 1980 (Nov), Seventeen: "Each week, The Muppet Show is seen in 106 countries by more than a quarter of a billion viewers." [5]
- 1981 (Aug 1), TV Guide: "Almost a quarter of a billion people have watched you and your fellow stars of The Muppet Show each week." [6]
- 1981, Of Muppets and Men: "The Muppet Show is now seen in over a hundred countries."
- 1984, Henson's Place: David Lazer replied, when asked how successful The Muppet Show was in international terms, "Enormously successful. We were in 106 countries, and it was dubbed in 5 languages, and we had 235 million people a week watching it."
- 1988, Jim Henson: Muppet Master: "By 1978 the show had attracted an estimated 230 million viewers in 106 countries."
- 1991, The Value of Imagination: "Though The Muppet Show was born in England, Grade soon sold it to TV stations in more than 100 countries."
- 1993, Muppet Hits liner notes: "[The Muppet Show] ran for five years and was seen by as many as 235 million people each week in more than 100 countries."
- 1993 (August 16), The New Yorker: "At its peak in the late seventies, it was seen every week by 235 million viewers in over 100 countries."
- 2001 (December 9), MuppetFest: "We say that The Muppet Show was seen in 100 countries, and 230 million viewers around the world. That's presented a lot as fact... We also know it's virtually impossible to know how many people are watching around the world. But it's a pretty good estimate."
Sources
- ↑ "What's happening", Gene Shalit, Ladies' Home Journal. October 1977.
- ↑ "The Muppets Make the Big Move", Time. August 28, 1978.
- ↑ "Muppets in Movieland", John Culhane, The New York Times Magazine. June 10, 1979.
- ↑ "The Sex Goddess of the '80s? Miss Piggy Makes Her Mark on Showbiz in Indelible Oink", People Weekly, Brad Darrach. September 3, 1979.
- ↑ "There's more to Miss Piggy than meets the eye!", Edwin Miller, Seventeen. November 1980.
- ↑ "Life at Le Top", TV Guide. August 1, 1981.
