This can be found at The NY Post

'CSI" is officially the most popular TV show on the planet.

According to a new study, nearly 84 million viewers around the globe watched the CBS crime drama in 2007.

It beat out its sequel, "CSI: Miami," and "House," according to the ratings firm Eurodata, which ranks shows by their worldwide ratings.

With 61.5 million viewers, "Desperate Housewives" snagged the title of top comedy, while "The Bold and the Beautiful" was dubbed the most-watched soap in the world (26.2 million viewers).

The biggest show in the US, "American Idol," did not place because different versions of it are seen in different countries.

This does not factor in Telenovelas and according to the BBC

Forensic drama CSI: Miami has been named the world's most popular TV show in a study of ratings in 20 countries.

The programme - starring David Caruso - made the top 10 viewing charts in more of those nations than any other show.

Lost and Desperate Housewives were at numbers two and three, followed by Colombian soap Te Voy a Ensenar a Querer, or I Will Teach You to Love.

That's awesome for B&B! Good for them.

This may sound good but OUCH.

B&B lost nearly 5 million viewers - at least according to Teledata - in the last 2 years. This is in synch with primetime though. I think the CSIs used to be just below 100 million viewer and look where they are now...

IIRC, B&B had 35 mil 2 years ago, then 30 mil last year.

I have always wondered why certain American soaps do so much better than others overseas. There are, of course, examples where American soaps were actually far more popular overseas than at home. For example, look at SaBa: that soap was extraordinarily popular in Europe despite the fact that it always mainted lower domestic ratings than AW (which itself had relatively poor ratings from 1984-93).

This may sound good but OUCH.

B&B lost nearly 5 million viewers - at least according to Teledata - in the last 2 years. This is in synch with primetime though. I think the CSIs used to be just below 100 million viewer and look where they are now...

Can that be right? That would have been well over 1/3 of the us population when CSI Las Vegas started. That would mean they lost around 80 million viewers.

Edited to say: Nevermind, I see this is about world wide viewers. It still amazes me that CSI ever got that many people though.

Edited June 22, 200817 yr by Juliajms

Well, old news. It's always been popular in Europe, Australia, SA... But it's nice to see a number anyway.