Editing DuMont Television Network (section)

====Ratings====
{| class="wikitable" style="float: right; margin: .46em 0 0 .2em;"
|-
! style="background: #D3CD8B; color: black;" colspan=5|Videodex 62 City Ratings
|-
| style="background: #C9CAC8; color: black; text-align: center;" colspan=5|'''First week of August 1950'''
|-
! Rank
! Series
! Network
! # of cities
! % TV homes
|-
| 1
| ''[[Toast of the Town]]''
| CBS
| 34
| 37.2
|-
| 2
| ''[[Stop the Music (American game show)|Stop the Music]]''
| ABC
| 50
| 28.4
|-
| 3
| ''[[Kraft Television Theater]]''
| NBC
| 34
| 27.5
|-
| 4
| ''[[Ford Star Revue]]''
| NBC
| 45
| 26.9
|-
| 5
| ''[[The Garry Moore Show]]''
| CBS
| 19
| 26.4
|-
| 6
| ''[[The Big Story (radio and TV series)|The Big Story]]''
| NBC
| 32
| 25.6
|-
| 7
| ''[[The Original Amateur Hour]]''
| NBC
| 54
| 25.3
|-
| 8
| ''[[Break the Bank (1948 game show)|Break the Bank]]''
| NBC
| 42
| 24.2
|-
| 9
| ''[[The Lone Ranger (TV series)|The Lone Ranger]]''
| ABC
| 39
| 23.9
|-
| 10
| ''[[Your Hit Parade]]''
| NBC
| 18
| 23.7
|-
|<span style="color:green;"> 11 </span>
|''[[Cavalcade of Stars|<span style="color:green">Cavalcade of Stars</span>]]''
|<span style="color:green;"> DuMont </span>
|<span style="color:green;"> 20 </span>
|<span style="color:green;"> 22.2 </span>
|-
| 12
| ''[[Mama (American TV series)|Mama]]''
| CBS
| 16
| 22.0
|-
|<span style="color:green;"> 13 </span>
|<span style="color:green;"> ''Wrestling'' </span>
|<span style="color:green;"> DuMont </span>
|<span style="color:green;"> 15 </span>
|<span style="color:green;"> 21.4 </span>
|-
| 14
| ''[[Beat the Clock]]''
| CBS
| 33
| 20.7
|-
| 15
| ''[[Masterpiece Playhouse]]''
| NBC
| 32
| 19.2
|}

The earliest measurements of TV audiences were performed by the [[C. E. Hooper]] company of New York. DuMont performed well in the Hooper ratings; in fact, DuMont's talent program, [[The Original Amateur Hour,|''The Original Amateur Hour'',]] was the most popular series of the 1947–48 season.<ref name="CTTDN" /> Two seasons later, ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' ranked DuMont's popular variety series ''Cavalcade of Stars'' as the 10th most popular series.<ref name="McNeil2">McNeil, Alex (1996). ''Total Television'' (4th ed.), 1143–1145. New York: Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0-14-024916-8}}</ref>

In February 1950, Hooper's competitor [[ACNielsen|A. C. Nielsen]] bought out the Hooper ratings system. DuMont did not fare well with the change: none of its shows appeared on Nielsen's annual top 20 lists of the most popular series.<ref name="McNeil2" /> The aforementioned ''Life is Worth Living'' did receive Nielsen ratings of up to 11.1, meaning that it attracted more than 10 million viewers. Bishop Sheen's one-man program – in which he discussed philosophy, psychology, and other fields of thought from a Christian perspective – was the most widely viewed religious series in the history of television. 169 local television stations aired ''Life'', and for three years the program competed successfully against NBC's popular ''[[The Milton Berle Show]]''. The ABC and CBS programs that aired in the same timeslot were canceled.<ref name="Weinstein2" />

''Life is Worth Living'' was not the only DuMont program to achieve double-digit ratings. In 1952, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine reported that popular DuMont game show ''Down You Go'' had attracted an audience estimated at 16 million viewers.<ref name="Time">{{cite magazine| title =The Adenoidal Moderator| magazine =Time| date =April 28, 1952| url =http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,816367,00.html?promoid=googlep| access-date =September 30, 2007| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090121002952/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,816367,00.html?promoid=googlep| archive-date =January 21, 2009| url-status =dead}}</ref> Similarly, DuMont's summer 1954 replacement series, ''[[The Goldbergs (broadcast series)|The Goldbergs]]'', achieved audiences estimated at 10 million.<ref name="Smith">{{cite book| last =Smith| first =Glenn D. Jr.| title =Something on My Own: Gertrude Berg and American Broadcasting, 1929–1956| year =2007| isbn =978-0-8156-0887-5| publisher =Syracuse University Press| location =Syracuse, N.Y.}}</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2020}} Still, these series were only moderately popular compared to NBC's and CBS's highest-rated programs.

Nielsen was not the only company to report TV ratings. Companies such as [[Trendex]], [[Videodex]], and [[Arbitron]] had also measured TV viewership. The chart in this section comes from Videodex's August 1950 ratings breakdown, as reported in ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' magazine.<ref name="billboard1950">{{cite magazine|date=September 30, 1950|title=Videodex 62-Market Survey|magazine=Billboard|volume=62|issue=39|pages=6}}</ref>