She's a Hit: 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' Rakes In Record Ratings

Love her or hate her, no one can deny that Sarah Palin is a star. The former Alaska governor's book helped her conquer the nation's bestsellers lists and now, Palin and her family are turning Alaska's beautiful scenery and everyday American family drama into ratings gold.

In case you missed it, "Sarah Palin's Alaska" debuted Sunday evening on TLC amidst promising reviews. The show played as a nonpolitical look inside the Palin family's life with stunning Alaskan vistas. (Although, true to form, hints of Palin's conservative roots were visible at times and her preference for one particular cable news channel didn't go unnoticed.)

TLC was happy to announce the show's early success Monday:

TLC’s “SARAH PALIN’S ALASKA” DELIVERS 4.96M TOTAL VIEWERS

The premiere of TLC’s Sarah Palin’s Alaska (Sun, Nov 14, 9-10 p.m. ET/PT) garnered a 3.5 HH rating and delivered 4.96M P2+, 1.8M P25-54, 1.1M W25-54, 1.6M P18-49, 4.7M P18+ and 3.9M P35+, according to Nielsen fast nationals.

Sarah Palin’s Alaska is the #1 program launch in TLC history among HH and P2+ delivery, besting the What Not to Wear series launch in 2003, and posting triple digit rating and delivery gains vs. the prior six week prime average, and the 4Q10 to-date prime average.

Will Palin be able to pull another five million viewers next Sunday?  I guess we'll just have to tune in to find out.

Oh, and in case you thought this more intimate look at Palin's life would put to rest some of the absurd accusations that get hurled at her each day, think again.  The UK's Independent claims to have found its "Aha!" moment in proving Palin is a fraud -- and they didn't even watch the show! Check out this in-depth analysis of the show's trailer:

On 21 seconds, you will see Palin allegedly trying to catch salmon. Close examination of her equipment reveals that she is using a spinning rod and a reel (you can also see this in the screengrab above). This is significant: in the world of country pursuits, spinning is a dull and repetitive technique largely used by either children or complete beginners. Real afficianados prefer to fly fish, a more complex and absorbing style of fishing, which takes many years to master. ...

Finally, on 1 minute 20 seconds, the camera cuts to a picture of her loading what appears to be a pump-action shotgun (a vulgar weapon that has no place in a civilised sporting armoury, though that’s another story). A seasoned shot would re-load their weapon with the muzzle facing towards the ground, for reasons of safety: if it accidentally goes off it won’t endanger anyone. She appears, however, to be holding it on her hip and waving it ahead of her like it’s a harmless toy. This is not the behaviour of someone who knows what they’re doing with a firearm.

From this admittedly-short trailer, I would therefore agree with Mr [Levi "Ricky Hollywood"] Johnston: the former Governor of Alaska has embellished her outdoorsy credentials, perhaps in an effort to appeal to red-necked portions of the Republican movement.

Well shooooooot.  Dat der little lady sure done fool'd us 'publican rednecks!