Well Juh-nelle, we see ya gettin’ ratings up!
Jenelle Evans made her first appearance on the new season of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter on Thursday, and it appears that fans of the very long-in-the-tooth ‘Teen Mom’ franchise were eager to see her (and her “dramastic” life) back on their screens.
The Ashley can confirm that Season 2 Episode 3— which is the first episode to feature Jenelle since a one-off appearance at Briana DeJesus‘ “lawsuit” party back in Season 1— had dramatically dramastically higher ratings and ranking than the previous two episodes of the season.
Episode 3 brought in 255,000 same-day viewers, which is a decently significant jump over the ratings for Episode 2 (197,000 same-day viewers) and Episode 1 (194,000 same-day viewers).
More importantly, the episode featuring Jenelle had a huge jump in ranking for the night. Episode 3 was the 17th-highest original cable show for that night, while the previous episodes were ranked at No. 43 and No. 49, respectively. Also important is the hike in percentage for the coveted group of viewers aged 18-49 (which is the most-coveted group for advertisers).
Jenelle’s episode had a .10, which essentially means that 10 percent of adults ages 18-49, who had their TVs on at that hour, watched it. Episode 2 had a .06 ranking, while the premiere episode had a .09.
(If you’re interested in learning how to decipher ratings data, this is a great resource to read.)
During the episode, Jenelle spoke to Briana about the demise of her marriage to David Eason, as well as her desire to move away from the swamps of North Carolina (not to mention David and her mom Barbara Evans). Jenelle also spoke about her manager-turned-potential-soulmate August Keen.
Viewers’ reactions were mixed about Jenelle— who was fired from Teen Mom 2 back in 2019— being brought back to the franchise.
“I’m happy asf they brought back Jenelle on ‘Teen Mom,'” one person wrote on X after the episode aired.
“Super happy Jenelle is back. No one can bring the drama and toxicity quite like her,” another person tweeted.
Others were angry that MTV skimmed over vital parts of Jenelle’s story over the past few years, including how she vehemently defended David after he was charged with assaulting her son, Jace.
“Hey @TeenMom,” one person tweeted. “You forgot to add to Jenelle’s recap how David killed her dog, beat her kids & she stood by his side then called her kid a liar over the allegations. Disgusting.”
“I’m not interested at all in Jenelle coming back. She was and is horrible. #TeenMom,” another person wrote.
