TV Ratings: ‘Moonshiners’ Finishes Record Discovery Month With Series Highs

Moonshiners

Moonshiners, Discovery's unscripted ode to bathtub booze, closed its sophomore season Wednesday night with a series record of 3.87 million viewers.

That made it the top broadcast in all of cable for the night, besting the series premiere of FX's The Americans (3.2 million). The show fared even better among adults 18-49. Moonshiners pulled a 1.7 rating in the targeted demo, winning cable for the night and placing second among all of TV's 10 p.m. broadcasts to NBC's Chicago Fire (2.1 adults).

Personal bests among total viewers, adults 25-54, 18-49 and 18-34 cap off a pretty great month for the cable network. Preliminary ratings give Discovery's January its best monthly showing in total viewership and adults 25-54 ever.

Compared to January 2011, the network was up 14 percent in viewers and 21 percent in adults 25-54.

Discovery's reigning ratings champ Gold Rush, hitting 4.23 million viewers, paved the way in primetime, with Moonshiners, Amish Mafia (3.27 million) and Bering Sea Gold (2.73 million) among the network's other notable offerings.

Michael O'Connell