HD Series Prompts Big Numbers for Weather Channel

The Weather Channel reports that its new series that began last month, “When Weather Changed History,” is drawing the most viewers of any series show ever aired on the all-weather network.

TWC said the cumulative number of viewers for the series during the launch week was more than 21 million, and that cumes increased at least 27 percent, on average, per day across all demographics and households. The average rating increased 21 percent in households and 30 percent in the 25-54 age demo (compared to averages for the same time periods in fourth quarter of 2007).

The Sunday 9 p.m. premiere program outperformed the same time period on TWC by 26 percent in households and 38 percent in A25-54 in comparison to the average in fourth quarter of 2007.

Launch week in early January featured weather issues and the space shuttle Challenger. The HD programs were aired in primetime on Sunday evenings (9 p.m. ET).