Forbes magazine, ostensibly a business and finance magazine, nevertheless loves to calculate profits for tv shows, movie, and celebrities because they’re not dumb: They know it’s the only time the Internet actually pays attention to the publication. Their latest? Ranking the 10 Most Profitable TV Shows, based on the amount of ad revenue each show generates per half hour. None of it is particularly surprising, except for number nine: “Mad Love.” That show — which starred Jason Biggs, Judy Greer, Sarah Chalke, and Tyler Labine — was actually cancelled last May, but because of its time slot (between “How I Met Your Mother” and “Two and a Half Men”), it was able to generate a large amount of ad revenue (ironically, “How I Met Your Mother” is not actually among the top ten).
The list basically tells you exactly why television is chock full of reality television, and why certain shows remain on the schedule despite having run their course creatively years ago. I would guess, also, that the list only includes the 2010-2011 season, otherwise I would imagine “The Voice” would be included on the top ten. As it is, and unsurprisingly, NBC has zero shows on the list.
Here are TV’s 10 Most Profitable Shows.
10. “Modern Family” ($2.13 million per half hour)
9. “Mad Love” ($2.59 million per half hour)
8. “Big Bang Theory” ($2.75 million per half hour)
7. “Desperate Housewives” ($2.61 million per half hour)
6. “Dancing with the Stars” ($2.72 million per half hour)
5. “Grey’s Anatomy” ($2.75 million per half hour)
4. “Glee” ($2.8 million per half hour)
3. “Two and a Half Men” ($3.24 million per half hour)
2. “The X-Factor” ($5.5 million per half hour)
1. “American Idol” ($6.64 million per half hour)
(Source: Forbes)
