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More People Pirate 'Heroes' and 'Dexter' Than Watch on U.S. Television

by Caleb Johnson on January 4, 2010 at 05:51 PM

When it comes to network television, it's all about the ratings. If people aren't watching, the show's getting axed -- no matter the quality. (R.I.P. 'Freaks and Geeks' or 'Arrested Development'). According to numbers compiled by TorrentFreak, fans of 'Heroes' and 'Dexter' might need to brace themselves for the worst. The blog recently posted a list of the most pirated TV shows of 2009, and things aren't looking good for their prime time future. To get these stats, TorrentFreak polled public BitTorrent trackers and other sources, and used viewership data from Nielsen.

The bad news? 'Heroes,' which took the dubious first place, was downloaded more times (about 6.5 million) than its estimated number of U.S. viewers (about 5.9 million). The same was true of 'Dexter,' which ranked fourth with 2.7 million downloads (as compared with its 2.3 million viewers). However, most of the downloads occurred overseas, where people sometimes have to wait months to catch their favorite U.S. shows. For the other eight shows on the list, which included hits like 'Lost' and '24,' the U.S. viewership ranked higher than the download total.

So, while this may or may not hint at impending cancellation, it does mean networks aren't meeting the demands of a hungry overseas market. Just think of all those millions that NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX are letting slip through the cracks. Let the Network TV Overseas Gold Rush begin! [From: TorrentFreak, via: Download Squad]

Tags: bittorrent, dexter, downloads, heroes, nielsen, piracy, ratings, top, tv

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