Breaking Amish: What Are Its Ratings? How Popular Is This Reality Show?

September 24, 2012 by Hollywoodite

Breaking Amish is turning out to be hugely successful. Millions of people are watching the show each week, despite its alleged lack of credibility and its admitted lack of authenticity.

Here are the cast bios for Breaking Amish since the only things that appear to be true are their names, ages, and religious backgrounds.

* Abe Schmucker, 22, is Amish from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He was previously arrested in 2008 for being drunk in public (he pretends not to drink alcohol, at least often, on the show). Abe also reportedly has a baby with Rebecca (whom he’s dating but pretends to barely know on the show).

* Jeremiah Raber, 32, of Holmes County, Ohio was adopted by Amish parents. Raber reportedly left the Amish community 14 years ago. Court records indicate that he was arrested for domestic violence in 2005, and he’s now divorced with three kids.

* Kate Stoltzfus, 21, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania is the Amish daughter of a bishop. She is also an aspiring model who was arrested for D.U.I in April 2012.

* Rebecca Byler, 20, is Amish From Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. She’s revealed to wear false teeth during the second episode. She has a baby with Abe, as mentioned above.

*  Sabrina Burkholder (née Von High), 25, was born to Puerto Rican and Italian parents, but adopted by a Mennonite family. She got married in 2009, and she left the Mennonite community years ago.

The September 9 pilot of Breaking Amish was viewed by 3.097 million people, earning the highest ratings for TLC in eight years (compared to 2.253 million viewers for the August 8 pilot of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo on the same channel, The Learning Channel a.k.a TLC). For comparison, Keeping Up With The Kardashians got 3.034 million viewers, Real Housewives of New Jersey did 2.965 million, and Long Island Medium did 3.521 million the same week.

The second episode of Breaking Amish was viewed by 2.888 million people (compared to highs of around 2.9 million for HCHBB). For comparison, the season finale of KUWTK got 3.567 million viewers, Married to Jonas had 2.210 million, and Long Island Medium had 3.120 million viewers the same week.

You will be able to read about Kate’s past, the allegations about the show, how it’s staged, and TLC’s own admission that show is fake in subsequent posts.

In case you missed it, here’s Sabrina and Kate talking about their experiences on Today Show before the premiere.