Fat Betty Backlash for Mad Men?!

"Fat Betty" Backlash for Mad Men?!

by Joal Ryan Tue., Apr. 3, 2012 12:03 PM PDT

Michael Yarish/AMC

So, Betty Draper Francis put on some weight in 1966. So, what?

So, as you might expect from a world where Jennifer Lawrence's Hunger Games' curves rate unkind words, the knives are out—and the TV ratings are down!?

SPOILER CHAT: Scoop on Mad Men, Glee, more

Yes, but not by much.

Sunday's latest episode was one of cable's top shows of the week, with 2.9 million viewers.

That's off a little from last week's fifth-season premiere, but overall meant there were plenty of eyeballs ogling, if you'll pardon the expression, "Fat Betty."

The character's storyline development was spurred by actress January Jones' real-life pregnancy.

"Looks like Betty maybe already ate a baby or two," went one typical comment on the A.V. Club's episode-recap discussion thread.

"All I could think about while watching Betty last night was 'haha betty got fat,'" went another.

And then there was the inevitable: "I'm a terrible person Betty Draper is so fat, Jabba the Hutt said 'DAYUM!'"

If the Internet is not always kind, then at least TV viewers are more accepting, Nielsen-wise, of varying body types than of a show that "screwed its audience over and over again" last year.

Translation: Mad Men's Sunday lead-in, The Killing (1.8 million viewers), was off a lot (33 percent) from that show's season-one premiere.

Other TV ratings winners—and losers, per the latest broadcast and cable rankings:

• Kids' Choice Awards (6.2 million viewers): The good news is it was cable's No. 1 show. The bad news is it registered its smallest audience in five years. The troubling question for Justin Bieber is: Is the attraction in seeing him slimed just about over?

• Academy of Country Music Awards (13.1 million viewers): The ratings were about even with last year; the Taylor Swift train rolls right along.

• Game of Thrones (3.9 million viewers): The HBO giant was the anti-Killing: Up 74 percent—74 percent!—over its season-one opener. No cable drama was bigger.

• Punk'd (3.2 million viewers): The Ashton Kutcher prank series took five years off, and went straight back into cable's Top 20.

• The Voice (12 million viewers): The war with American Idol is off for now, as this show has been off for the past month. Last night's episode fell to an estimated 10.7 million viewers.

• Whitney (4.1 million viewers) and Are You There, Chelsea? (3.1 million viewers): The comedies closed out their freshman seasons on the low side. So, does Two and a Half Men's co-creator and freelance TV critic get the last laugh? Uh, no.

Here's a complete look at the top 10 most-watched broadcast shows, per the latest Nielsen rankings: