Returning "America Unearthed" Draws Just 440,000 Viewers, Beat by Reruns of Itself in Key Adult Demo

5/31/2019

My new book on the history of the mound builder myth now has an official title: The Mound Builder Myth: Fake History and America's Hunt for a "Lost White Race." The official title is close to one of the titles I asked about in my survey last week, and that option scored a whopping 95% of votes cast! My thanks to everyone who participated in my survey over the weekend, and for all of you who offered thoughtful suggestions for alternative titles. Some elements from those suggestions have made their way into the final title.

The ratings are in for the relaunch of America Unearthed, and it did not exactly deliver boffo ratings. Prior to air, I predicted that the show would not crack 500,000 viewers, and I was … right. The 10 PM broadcast of the series scored 440,000 viewers with a 0.08 rating among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. (All times reported here are Eastern.) Embarrassingly, the 10 PM broadcast scored a lower rating among adults 18-49 than the 8 PM America Unearthed rerun that led into the show. The rerun’s 360,000 viewers had a 0.09 rating in the key demographic. Over the weekend, America Unearthed reruns topped out at 370,000 viewers.

By comparison, last week in the same timeslot, Travel’s Bermuda Triangle: New Secrets drew 391,000 viewers and a 0.10 rating among adults 18-49. In its original run on the H2 network, America Unearthed bagged between 1.0 and 1.5 million viewers on any given week.

America Unearthed delivered just about exactly the same ratings for a new episode that it did for the first round of reruns that aired on the Travel Channel this spring. The show’s ratings were also just about on target for any old Travel Channel show any night of the week. A Haunting scored 397,000 viewers the day before, and on Friday Portals to Hell brought in 422,000 viewers and a 0.11 rating among adults 18-49. Both were dwarfed by Paranormal Caught on Camera, which drew 625,000 viewers the previous Wednesday at 10 PM with a 0.19 rating among adults 18-49 and In Search of Monsters, which bagged 479,000 and 0.13 among key adult viewers at 9 PM. Even The Dead Files outdrew America Unearthed among adults 18-49, bagging a 0.09 rating and 410,000 total viewers last Thursday at 10.

Since America Unearthed has been on something like a perpetual loop on Travel for the past week, it must be a disappointment that the lower-profile Portals to Hell and Paranormal Caught on Camera outdrew it. On the other hand, the show benefits from the fact that it draws basically the same number of viewers any time it airs, whether it is new or a rerun, so it is a stable performer and could be a utility player as Travel seeks to complete its transition from a travel-based network to an upscale home for ghosts and conspiracy theories to complement sister station Destination America, which provides similar programming for a downscale, rural audience.

25 Comments

tom mellett

5/31/2019 08:52:48 am

Ah, Jason, what perfect timing you have! Or maybe it’s — karma? Surely it cannot be mere coincidence that on the very day you announce your book title, I discover that the featured guest on Coast to Coast AM last night was none other than your old mound builder nemesis himself, LA Marzulli, who can now proudly proclaim to you:

“Jason Colavito (you weasel!), I, LA Marzulli, have been interviewed on Coast to Coast AM about the mound builders and you have not. Nanny Nanny Boo-Boo!”

Read the summary below and weep, Jason. LA Marzulli is now officially more famous than you.

https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2019/05/30

"In the first half, filmmaker, author and researcher L.A. Marzulli discussed his ongoing work on the mysterious ancient mounds found all over North America-- some quite massive, and seemingly composed using advanced mathematics not known during that period.

There is nothing in the First Nation tradition, he noted, that indicates they had knowledge of trigonometry and astronomy that were employed in some of the structures' alignments. Is there a hidden history hiding in plain sight? he pondered.

First Nation peoples do speak of ancient warring with cannibalistic giants or Nephilim. There are some 10,000 mounds in Ohio alone, but there weren't that many people to build them, Marzulli suggested, especially the large ones (the Octagon Mound was constructed with over 500,000 tons of earth).

According to his research, when white settlers first came to Ohio and asked the Native Americans who built the huge earthworks like the Octagon, they replied: "we don't know, they were here when we got here." This, he added, is similar to a pattern he heard about constructions in Peru.

Marzulli has concluded that some of the mounds were gateways or portals, where human sacrifice was practiced as a ritualized method to bring in other-dimensional entities. He believes what came through were nefarious supernatural beings, spoken of in the Bible as fallen angels or the Nephilim. Further, giant skeletons were discovered, 8 to 12 ft. in length, at various excavated sites, he reported."

Riley V

5/31/2019 09:18:35 am

I hope you listened to the second half with Dr. Greg Miller. He also writes on Indian mounds. He is even crazier than Marzulli.

5/31/2019 01:58:50 pm

Hi Riley,

Truth be told, I never listened to Marzulli, but only came across his C2C show while looking up the usual Knappster, deLonge, Elizondo crew for their appearances on the great Art Bell Memorial radio show of the universe.

But thank you for the heads up on Greg Little, whom you mis-named as Greg Miller, perhaps influenced subliminally by Jason calling Uncle Ralph Blumenthal Richard.

Thus it may behoove you to look up Jason's prior dealings with Greg Little, like this one from 5 years ago.
http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/greg-little-is-still-mad-about-my-2013-post-on-giant-bones

Jim

5/31/2019 10:28:48 am

"There are some 10,000 mounds in Ohio alone, but there weren't that many people to build them, Marzulli suggested, especially the large ones (the Octagon Mound was constructed with over 500,000 tons of earth)."

But there were enough Nephilim to build them ? Even though they left absolutely no traces or artifacts behind, where the "weren't that many people to build them" natives left literally billions of artifacts, evidences and mortal remains behind ?
Musta been really fastidious Templar Nephilim,,,huh ?

How does that work ? the Natives didn't know who built them, and then all of a sudden remembered warring with massive numbers of Nephilim needed to build the mounds, yet still couldn't figure out who might have built them?
Wow, those natives were just so dumb huh ? It's no wonder they didn't have the "knowledge of trigonometry and astronomy" to pile up dirt. (That last bit was sarcasm by the way, for those with obviously limited reasoning skills)

How does that work

5/31/2019 10:48:57 am

Reminds me of Biblical scholars (the historians, not the theologians, who are much worse).

Doc Rock

5/31/2019 03:04:58 pm

Not all mounds are the size of Monks mound. Many more are quite small and could have been built by a small group in a rather short time. We know that people have been building mounds in North America for at least 2500 years. The Ohio River valley has historically been a great area for agriculture, hunting, and trade with significant numbers of people living there.

I don't know where the 10,000 mounds estimate came from or if it is accurate or not? But a lot (relatively speaking) of people living in an area the size of Ohio who liked to build mounds are gonna put up a hell of a lot of mounds over the course of a couple thousand years.

E.P. Grondine

5/31/2019 03:40:37 pm

Hi Doc -

The 10,000 mounds estimate came from Mills, if I remember correctly. The number includes small graves.

As to population, about 6,000,000 people lived in Ohio for about 8,000 years.

Someday, OHS will catch up with the Vogelin's work from 100 years ago. In the meantime, expect more stupid shit for sale from many ignorant people.

5/31/2019 04:22:21 pm

Mills was working over a century ago and I would be interested in how he arrived at that number. In other areas of the country it was common in the past for natural features such as ridge and swell, mima mounds, pimple mounds, and hillocks to be confused with mounds. Could be a gross overestimate, or not. Either way, a lot of mounds in Ohio isn't something to be automatically attributed to Nephilim. Not that Nephilim are a rational option to begin with.

Marzulli has concluded

5/31/2019 09:06:34 am

What ?! No sacrament involved

Impossible

5/31/2019 09:15:42 am

Impossible to enter other gateways and portals without sacrament

5/31/2019 09:22:23 am

You called it! I don’t think the show will last long.

I like the book title.

Machala

5/31/2019 09:50:18 am

Congratulations, I like your book title. Much success with it.

Perhaps, given the inability of the Travel Channel to draw viewers in the "sweet age" demographic with drek like America Unearthed, the dim bulbs who are in charge of programming might find some original and exciting programing, that actually is relevent, and pertains to TRAVEL in the earthly realm.

Irrational

5/31/2019 10:51:27 am

You have negated yourself as a sober critic

5/31/2019 10:43:05 am

I guess those numbers are why Wolter is so testy on his blog.

5/31/2019 01:30:09 pm

Wolter wasn’t all that happy on Coast to Coast this week either. I think he has several episodes “in the can” as they say in the biz. He made a point several times that the show needs ratings to stay alive.
Jason hit the nail on the head with his prediction of the number of viewers.

5/31/2019 04:51:07 pm

I noticed that in the months leading up to the first episode Wolter seemed a little more relaxed than usual in what he permitted on his blog and how he responded. That seems to continue with his new posting. He is still in batshit crazy mode in terms of attacks on the Catholic Church and Smithsonian. But on the other hand it looks like he is permitting some critical comments by others to appear there and hasn't really started in on the name-calling and personal attacks on individuals, yet.

A good sign he is desperate for any kind of buzz to draw attention to himself and the new show. If he wants to recapture those earlier decent numbers it would probably be best for him to get back into the really looney tunes Templar stuff. That seems the best way to bring out the crazies in terms of viewership and fawning blog participation. Might get him back into top form as well. Thus far, he is like an over-the-hill comedian who has lost his mojo and has been reduced to half-heartedly rehashing well-worn material. I'll bet if he looks hard enough he could find a notched X somewhere on the Great Wall of China. That would get the old juices flowing.

Joe Scales

6/1/2019 11:27:02 am

More comedy gold from Wolter on his blog. First he claims he doesn't lie. Then he goes on to lie, lie, lie:

"As far as the Kensington Rune Stone goes, put simply, I am a licensed professional geologist and I do not lie, period. I have published three professional peer reviewed scientific laboratory reports and four books about the Kensington Rune Stone."

6/1/2019 12:03:38 pm

You missed the best part:

" No has found anything to refute any of my findings despite whatever claims you read on the internet."

Hahaha,, Wolter is always right, and if you disagree you are a liar.
He is in rare form after his shows airing.

6/1/2019 04:02:51 pm

Calcite don't lie.

6/1/2019 09:06:37 pm

Wolter is taking advantage of a semantic gray area when referring to "peer reviewed scientific laboratory reports." It is common practice for laboratories and research centers to circulate written work internally, or with known colleagues outside the facility, for an informal review by their "peers". That is not an actual peer review process as it is widely accepted. In fact, on several occasions I had papers receive a thumbs up in an informal review process by my "peers" in a research center only to have the same paper shot down in flames in peer review after it was submitted to a journal. The standards for the latter are significantly higher and unknown peer reviewers are more inclined to be brutally honest and find fault than colleagues that know you and want to be supportive.

Technical reports produced by archaeologist (site or survey reports) often have to be reviewed by staff at a state archaeologists office in order to be formally accepted as a final product. But that doesn't mean that it passed peer review or would make it thru peer review when submitted to American Antiquity. I have authored three archaeology reports and a technical report in another field. I wouldn't dream of listing them as peer-reviewed publications on my vita.

What Wolter did was, at best, a first step, but he is trying to spin it as the product of a much longer and rigorous process. It looks like the books that he produced based on the lab reports were published thru vanity press style publishers. I think that one or more may have even been published as a book, but the press was just a made up name for some written work produced by his Lab. Others could probably clear that up, though.

Kent

6/1/2019 11:23:25 pm

I think what you say can be summed up as "A review by peers is not peer review." Similarly "A cup of coffee is not an Honorary Master's Degree."

6/1/2019 11:52:24 pm

Yes indeed, or for the sake of greater brevity just saying "Scott Wolter is a dumbass" works even better. But then you miss out on the shits and giggles from drilling down on this stuff.

Accumulated Wisdom

5/31/2019 04:13:55 pm

"The 10 PM broadcast of the series scored 440,000 viewers with a 0.08 rating among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic."

The 18-49 demographic will not likely sign up for the Travel Channel App until, the subject matter gets better. The ratings will likely rise once, older folks sell their digital soul by, signing up for the App.

Charging $1.99 to watch online must not have worked out too well. I remember some dude used the "Coast To Coast AM" broadcast to make millions from a Bigfoot Hoax. I believe he charged 27 cents, and got over 9 million hits.

6/1/2019 10:10:11 am

"Prior to air, I predicted that the show would not crack 500,000 viewers, and I was … right. "

Whoa there buddy... don't go straining your arm patting yourself on the back there. What you actually predicted was:

" I'm going to guess around 500K live plus same day viewers, and I'll be shocked if it comes close to a million."

I actually gave you an attaboy where you posted that prediction after the fact, but it was a far cry from you now believing you predicted for it to definitely be below 500K. You even gave wiggle room for it to reach a million. Nostradamus be damned...

6/1/2019 06:01:14 pm

Maybe this is what has gotten Wolters panties in a bunch, they are digging up Kensington Rune Stone Park and he isn't invited.
And to make it worse for him is that they are using actual archaeologists to do archaeology. We all know how Wolter feels about that !

https://www.echopress.com/news/4619903-digging-whats-beneath-surface-film-crew-archaeologists-back-kensington-rune-stone-park?fbclid=IwAR3JoQXdRBEKn5Rq6urVgptkbhCB0A26I8B28NC111YZHSF5pM9AVFs2uPs