TLC’s 90 Day Fiancé franchise just keeps getting bigger: Sunday night’s Before the 90 Days reunion special edged out NBC’s long-dominant America’s Got Talent to finish as the No. 1 show in America last week among adults under 50, the demographic most coveted by advertisers. Per Nielsen, the two-hour Before the 90 Days: Tell All gabfest averaged a 1.4 demo rating from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, putting it just ahead of the week’s No. 2 show, last Tuesday’s installment of AGT (1.3 rating). Sunday’s B90 also attracted 4.4 million viewers overall, the biggest same-day audience ever for the series. This appears to be the first time a 90 Days show has ranked as the week’s top show in the adults under 50 demo.
In an era of ever-declining ratings for linear TV, the stunning growth for the 90 Days universe of series is something of a unicorn. As recently as a year ago, episodes of the show were pulling in around 2 million same-day viewers. This spring, perhaps helped by the COVID-19 lockdowns and audiences looking for a diversion, B90 has been regularly averaging 3.5 million same-day viewers or more. In TLC’s demo target of women 25-54, ratings for season four of the series (a spinoff of the original 90 Day Fiancé) have surged 25 percent versus season three, the network says. And while the audience for the 90 Day shows is powered by female viewers, men are quickly getting invested in the series, too: Ratings are up around 40 percent this season with men 25-54. As a result, TLC — traditionally a female-skewing network — is close to becoming a top-ten network among men 25-54.
Not surprisingly, TLC is doing everything it can to meet demand for more 90 Day content. On Monday, the network announced plans for B90 Strikes Back, in which participants in the series react to the social-media commentary about the show. Episodes are being produced using self-shot footage supplied by the participants while at home. The new series premieres June 22 at 8 p.m., and will be paired with the just-premiered new season of 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way on Mondays. A new season of 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? premieres Sunday, June 14.