'Cleveland,' 'FlashForward,' 'Vampire,' 'Glee' are most-pirated new shows

By Eriq Gardner

The new television season is upon us, so it's time to take a peek at which shows are being gobbled up by torrent users.

Looking at Pirate Bay's top 100 TV shows, it appears that Fox's "The Cleveland Show," ABC's "FlashForward," the CW's "The Vampire Diaries" and Fox's "Glee" are the biggest new hits in underground circles. "Cleveland" premiered strong last night, so it's hard to say whether torrent fervor dampened or fueled enthusiasm for watching the show live. "Glee" has earned modest ratings while "FlashForward" and "Vampire Diaries" are off to strong starts.

CBS may be getting some extra attention this year, thanks to a leaked email published by TechCrunch last week that revealed CBS Interactive CEO Quincy Smith's anti-Hulu sentiments. "We should think about how hard it would be to prove that some ratings declines are a result of reckless hulu streams," wrote Smith. 

TV viewers won't be able to watch CBS programming on Hulu but many are looking online--and not just on CBS.com. Shows including "How I Met Your Mother," "The Big Bang Theory," "NCIS," and "The Mentalist" are all popular on torrent sites. In fact, the latter appeared on Pirate Bay a day before its US season premiere, thanks to an uploaded copy taken from Canadian television. And yet, the show still managed to attract more than 14 million viewers.

We're not sure Smith is going to be able to prove that the appearance of online versions cannibalize TV ratings, but we bet they surely hurt DVD sales of these shows.