Pokémon more than half as popular as American Idol! (see post for details)

[StarBP]

Over 4% of households in Japan watch any given episode of Pokémon (usually above 6%), and the number was over 18% for one of the first episodes. By comparison, around 28% of households in the U.S. watched the season finale of American Idol this year. Let it sink in: Pokémon is more than half as popular among its top audience (Japan) as American Idol is here. Also, Pokémon is in the 7:00 prime time slot in Japan (19:00 means 7:00 PM), versus being shown just on Saturday mornings in the U.S.

To get the stats, click on the following links (note: pages are translated from Japanese by Google Translate):

Analysis Chamber Home
Kanto and Johto Ratings
Hoenn Ratings
Sinnoh Ratings

Known Translation Errors:
"From the Ratings" should probably read "The lowest rate", since the highest, lowest, and average are the most important, and the highest and average are already accounted for. DO NOT THINK THAT "FROM THE RATINGS" IS THE AVERAGE! "AVERAGE VIEWERSHIP" IS THE AVERAGE RATINGS PERCENTAGE, NOT "FROM THE RATINGS"!!!

 

[Casual_Furi]

So, is this good or bad? If Pokemon was on primetime and a tad more complex then it would be even more popular than AI!

 

[The Outrage]

Trying to compare the demographic of people who watch pokemon in Japan to those who watch American Idol as a way to say Pokemon is more popular than we think is completely idiotic.

Next let's compare the amount of Japanese people in Japan to that of America, and conclude that Japan is a more Japanese-friendly place to live.

According to these statistics Green Tea ice cream is the fourth favorite flavour of Haagen Daz in japan. That must obviosuly mean their popularity has skyrocketted in america.

So, is this good or bad? If Pokemon was on primetime and a tad more complex then it would be even more popular than AI!

Neither. In short, it is merely stating the obvious, that the Pokemon Anime is more popular in japan than it is in America.

By Pokemon getting half the raitings of American Idol in Japan, is not relevant to Pokemon's popularity in America. If it had half the ratings of American Idol in America, then that's somethign to be said.

Its comparing two different nations, and trying to come up with the conclusiont hat Pokemon is popular because it has half the viewers of another show from another country.

 

[Silktree]

The only thing that these ratings prove is that the DP series is noticeably less popular than AG was around the same time. We have a 1.7% difference between the debut episodes, a 2.4% difference between average ratings for the first year and a 1.6% difference between those of the second year - all in favor of AG. Not only that, but DP's current lowest rating stands at 4.3%, which is just barely higher than AG's 4% low point, but the DP episode was DP42 while the AG one was AG186.

In conclusion, whereas the DP games have done very well in measuring up to the predecessor games (Ruby and Sapphire), the same cannot be said for the respective anime series.

 

[Water Pokémon Master]

Too bad, since the anime has gotten so much better.

 

[Sunain]

Over 4% of households in Japan watch any given episode of Pokémon (usually above 6%), and the number was over 18% for one of the first episodes. By comparison, around 28% of households in the U.S. watched the season finale of American Idol this year. Let it sink in: Pokémon is more than half as popular among its top audience (Japan) as American Idol is here. Also, Pokémon is in the 7:00 prime time slot in Japan (19:00 means 7:00 PM), versus being shown just on Saturday mornings in the U.S.

Pardon me for saying but comparing Pokemon to American Idol is a bunch of crap. The target audience for both shows is completely different. Pokemon is targeted at kids aged 8-11 and it airs on Saturday morning which would be considered 'prime time' for a cartoon of its nature airing in the US. The shows aren't even the same genre.

American Idol's target audience is about 50 times greater than Pokemon's so of course it's going have higher ratings. American Idol ratings not only covers teens, but all the way to adults.

Pokeani has been keeping track of the ratings for Pocket Monsters for quite some time now. The ratings show that DP is more popular on average than AG was by about 2 points, but as you pointed out, neither series has hit the ratings the original episodes had. This doesn't mean Pokemon isn't popular, Movie 9 was the highest selling Anime DVD in Japan last year and 19th overall in total sales.

Next time, try comparing something that's a bit more practical.

 

[Dogasu]

Yeah, this analysis kinda doesn't prove a thing. I don't see any point in keeping this thread open.