Philly watched lots of 'Shameless' during Winter Storm Jonas

Comcast says area had 50 percent more on demand viewers during snowstorm

While plenty of Philadelphians undertook the necessary chore of shoveling and enjoyed winter weather activities like sledding over the weekend, many also sat their butts on the couch and simply watched the tube.

According to Comcast, Winter Storm Jonas helped set a record for most concurrent viewers on their Xfinity On Demand Service Saturday with 1.29 million people watching at the same time.

Comcast says the jump in viewership was very significant in areas impacted by the snow. Philadelphia and New Jersey, for example, had a 50 percent jump in viewers from the previous Saturday.

Other areas like New England (40 percent), Pittsburgh and Harrisburg (38 percent), and Baltimore and Washington D.C. (56 percent) also saw big jumps in viewership.

What were people watching? Here are the top five most-viewed shows in Philadelphia on Saturday during the storm:

  1.  "Shameless" -- Showtime
  2.  "Shades of Blue" -- NBC
  3. "Black Sails" -- Starz
  4.  "Game of Thrones" -- HBO
  5.  "Billions" -- Showtime

It should be noted that this information is from Comcast's Xfinity On Demand viewers only. It's safe to say that plenty of people also used Netflix and the other Philadelphia cable provider Verizon's Fios On Demand service. 

Netflix almost famously does not publicly release its viewership numbers. But considering how many city residents were hunkering down over the weekend, it's safe to say their numbers were probably quite high as well.