Alaska Bush pilot show was Discovery's most-watched premiere ever, channel says

“Flying Wild Alaska,” the new Bush pilot reality show about the Tweto family of Unalakleet, was the Discovery Channel’s most-watched series premiere of all time, the cable channel boasted today.

The series is the second Alaska-based reality show in a row from Discovery, following the well-watched premiere of “Gold Rush Alaska” last month.

"Flying Wild Alaska " debuted Friday to about 2.6 million viewers -- the channel's best ever debut for households and adults, Discovery says. The series centers on the Tweto family and Era Alaska pilots who fly people and packages to villages and cities across the state.

An episode of "Gold Rush Alaska " aired right after. The gold mining show – which one Variety critic described as a moderate hit for the channel - claimed more total viewers and was the No. 1 show in its time slot among men 18 to 49, Discovery says.

Christo Doyle, executive producer for both shows, told the Daily News in December that “Flying Wild Alaska” is a priority program for Discovery.

"The network is in love with this show,” he said at the time.

I also checked with NatGeo today to see how the three-episodes of “Alaska Wing Men,” yet another Bush pilot show, fared on their network last Monday.

Over the three primetime airings the shows reached 2.7 million households and 3.7 million people, said Dara Klatt, National Geographic Channel director of communications.

I don’t know if you can directly compare the numbers between the competing cable channels - you're talking about three episodes of one show and a single episode of the other – or what to take away from the ratings other than that the parade of Alaska television shows continues to win viewers.

“There’s a tremendous amount of spin in cable ratings,” Variety magazine columnist and TV critic Brian Lowry warned in a phone interview today.

When I talked to Lowry we hadn't heard the "Flying Wild Alaska" numbers yet. But he was familiar with "Gold Rush Alaska."

“For a show like that which I think has been drawing north of 3 million viewers for some of its episodes, by their standards, that’s a pretty damn good number," he said.

"Sarah Palin's Alaska" on TLC drew 5 million viewers in its debut to become the most-watched series premiere ever on a cable network, according to Deadline.com.

"Gold Rush Alaska" debuted Dec. 3 to an average of 2 million viewers, according to Discovery, which arguably launched the Alaska TV trend with "Deadliest Catch."
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