Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows on BitTorrent

Written by Ernesto on January 13, 2009 

TV shows are by far the most wanted files on BitTorrent, and according to some, it’s becoming the modern day TiVo. But what are all those people downloading?

Desperate Housewives is leading this week’s chart, followed by Gossip Girl and Scrubs. 24 aired on January 11th, and will appear in next weeks list.

The data for the most recent TV episodes are collected by TorrentFreak from a representative sample of BitTorrent sites and is for informational and educational reference only. A list of the most pirated TV-shows of 2008 was published two weeks ago.

Thanks to ShowInsider we now also include a list based on the total number of downloads (not only recent episodes) of all shows in the past week.

Top Downloads (Recent Episodes)

January 05 – January 11
Ranking (last week) TV-show
torrentfreak.com
1 (…) Desperate Housewives
2 (…) Gossip Girl
3 (…) Scrubs
4 (…) One Tree Hill
5 (…) Grey’s Anatomy
6 (2) Stargate Atlantis
7 (6) Knight Rider
8 (3) Star Wars: The Clone Wars
9 (…) 90210
10 (…) The Mentalist

Top Downloads (All Episodes)

January 05 – January 11
Ranking (last week) TV-show
showinsider.com
1 (1) Heroes
2 (2) Prison Break
3 (4) Dexter
4 (6) Californication
5 (9) Gossip Girl
6 (3) House M.D.
7 (7) Stargate Atlantis
8 (5) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
9 (11) Grey’s Anatomy
10 (10) Desperate Housewives

Previously: Arabian Anti-Piracy Alliance Pwned by Hackers

Next: Meet DtecNet – RIAA’s New Anti-Piracy Partners

26 Responses

1 Jan 13, 2009 at 01:59 by woah

is there like a new knight rider out or something? 0_o

2 Jan 13, 2009 at 02:23 by GetOut

Top Gear is usually high Andrew. Also stop spamming your website please.

http://www.GTFO.wut

3 Jan 13, 2009 at 02:29 by mahalias

I like them. many people are discussing them on "millionaire friends. com

4 Jan 13, 2009 at 02:43 by woah

just when i thought tv couldnt get any worst.. its so bad it needs to come with a disclaimer for brain cell loss

5 Jan 13, 2009 at 04:11 by NubCakes

Huh… when was the IT Crowd not stupid, that's what makes it funny :)

6 Jan 13, 2009 at 06:02 by iiZNZNZNZ!!

If all I had to watch were the (recent) shows mentioned above, I'd scratch my eyeballs out and serve it to my neighbour's kitty. This January and beginning of February, viewers will see the return of some of our beloved shows. My personal faves are:

Kitchen Nightmares returning on 2009-01-15

The Simpsons returning on 2009-01-18

American Dad returning on 2009-01-18

Family Guy returning on 2009-01-18

House returning on 2009-01-19

Fringe returning on 2009-01-20

Lost returning on 2009-01-21

Hells Kitchen returning on 2009-01-29

Heroes returning on 2009-02-02

Chuck returning on 2009-02-02

Life returning on 2009-02-04

Survivor returning on 2009-02-12

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles returning on 2009-02-13

7 Jan 13, 2009 at 06:37 by Izkata

Sounds like Britain followed the lead of the US. Back when the first Survivor aired, the shows over here reverted to "crappy competition shows", and is only barely recovering.

8 Jan 13, 2009 at 07:09 by danorse

If UK shows were of equal quality then they would have been watched just as much! The proof of this is that when there is a high quality UK movie, like James Bond for instance, it's tops lists instantly. But usually UK shows follow the standard set by shows like the Ashton Family back in the 70s. Boring! Everything is happening in a couple of rooms with a couple of actors, in a very controlled theatrical-sceene-like setting, no sound or visual effects, boring and predictable plots, all played out in a every-day-life manner, etc… It's just not exciting. We have the same here in Norway.
That said I will just mention that UK Documentaries are the world top class! :)

9 Jan 13, 2009 at 08:12 by Gozza

Might it be a good idea to also say which episode the statistic refers to?
As in: [S##E##] or even [S##E## EPISODE NAME]
And since we're talking statistics.. Maybe a 'percentage of the whole' per episode indication row would be a meaningful addition, where the whole is that top10.

Just lookin to make my browsin time more meaningful ;)

10 Jan 13, 2009 at 08:18 by jasperwillem

What about Spooks… its downloaded a lot after each release…!

Must be said that code 9… is without Harry, so its no spooks at all.

11 Jan 13, 2009 at 09:54 by Widget

Apparently you do, otherwise you wouldn't be taking the time to spam it

12 Jan 13, 2009 at 10:41 by #YLS#

I'be heard this been said alot of times, our (UK) documentaries are ah head of most countries but we have no real ground breaking drama's etc. I would say it's mainly due to are budgeting and the fact we waste alot of it on 'Reality TV'

13 Jan 13, 2009 at 10:43 by #YLS#

Plus, we do have alot of a original shows but they usually get remade, 'The Office', 'Life on Mars', 'Worst Week of my Life', 'Eleventh Hour' being some of them of the past couple years

14 Jan 13, 2009 at 12:23 by Andrew

Its interesting to see that all of these are US based shows. Its a shame hardly any of the UK shows get such popularity as they're of equal quality.

http://www.fetchmp3.com

15 Jan 13, 2009 at 12:26 by Sinbad

The I.T. Crowd could have been a winner if they hadn't gone stupid. Now all Britain produced is crappy competition shows, nothing like the likes of Red Dwarf or League of Gentlemen. Bring back the British comedies!

Prison Break is an excellent program though.

16 Jan 13, 2009 at 12:26 by Sinbad

The I.T. Crowd could have been a winner if they hadn't gone stupid. Now all Britain produces is crappy competition shows, nothing like the likes of Red Dwarf or League of Gentlemen. Bring back the British comedies!

Prison Break is an excellent program though.

17 Jan 13, 2009 at 22:17 by tf_SUUUCX

Torrents are for türds.

– - – - – _ _ – _ – _ – _ – _

18 Jan 13, 2009 at 22:20 by tf_SUUUCX

TORRENTS ARE FOR TURDSS

SD:FSDF;SDF;S;FD

NOBODY CARES ABOUT THIS SH!1T SITE

19 Jan 14, 2009 at 09:16 by Franko33

I'm suprised that Lost isn't in there

Franko33
http://www.howtop2p.com

20 Jan 14, 2009 at 10:26 by BSug

iiZNZNZNZ!! What you don't like..

Breaking Bad S02 2009-03

21 Jan 14, 2009 at 10:31 by BSug

Survivor returning on 2009-02-12 Really?!?

Honestly, This show has gotten better over time. But 0×0 will always be zero.
Finest quality snowball on TV. Yuck

22 Jan 14, 2009 at 11:31 by TerribleTony

There is a new episode of Red Dwarf with the original crew being made actually. See bobbyllew on youtube, he has all the info (but it dribbles out).
As for reality shows, they are the only programmes that TV producers/distributors have any control over anymore. You can't leak live shows. Live, such as sports and reality shows are the future of broadcast TV.

23 Jan 14, 2009 at 11:34 by TerribleTony

What a witty comment, you should be a stand-up comedian.

24 Jan 15, 2009 at 04:18 by hame

Thanks for information ;)

__________________________
http://www.jugargame.com

25 Jan 17, 2009 at 15:56 by Captain Obvious

Lost isn't up there because they aren't any new episodes yet! I mean, if they're isn't any episodes how could it be up there :S

26 Jan 18, 2009 at 17:18 by MusikManiacs

i am not shocked why heroes top the list of the most downloaded TV show, because in my country people are really hooked with the tv series and just can;t get enough of it. and I myself is a self confessed heroes fanatic..lol

http://musikmaniacs.blogspot.com

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