‘Amish in the City’ bolsters ratings for UPN
The Amish, as a rule, reject television. However, television — or at least UPN — is loving the Amish right now.
Last Wednesday’s premiere of the reality series “Amish in the City” scored some of UPN’s best ratings for a Wednesday night in recent history. About 5.4 million people bore witness to the two-hour debut, the network’s best Wednesday performance since November 2001 — and more than double what UPN has averaged on that night this summer.
The show also did well among UPN’s target demographic of adults 18-34, trailing only Fox for the night.
“Amish in the City” follows five young Amish men and women who are on rumspringa, a time when they leave the church and their families to experience the trappings of 21st-century life. The show puts them up in a house with six “city kids” who are as unfamiliar with the Amish way of life as the Amish are with theirs.
The show sparked protests when UPN announced it early this year, but reviews of the finished product have been largely favorable. If anything, a number of reviewers have noted, the non-Amish participants are the ones who end up looking narrow-minded.