NEW YORK, USA Comedy Central s Tosh.0 , BET s The Game and ABC s The Middle have earned record ratings in 2011.

The three networks have competed fiercly for primetime audiences with their flagship comedies, but in 2011 all 3 shows have had their heighest ever ratings.

BET, which has an audience majority of African American viewers, made a triumphant push with The Game as it drew an estimated 7.7 million viewers. The demand was so high for the show it exceeded a 300% increase when it switched from the CW Network over to BET.

While BET performed incredibly well, ABC has increased the popularity of The Middle by nearly 30% year on year with 10 million viewers tuning in.

Comedy Central s Tosh.0 , which has more of a niche audience demographic drew in over 3.5 million viewers, an excellent performance for the network.

All in all, there is a rise in TV audiences for Sitcom shows, and it would appear that despite the massive demand for online content, audiences are coming back to TV.

Sitcoms vs reality TV

Reality TV may still be a winner with CBS American Idol unbeatable at the top of the network pillar, but searches for Idol fell online in the last quarter of 2010. Also, recent contestants had very poor record sales compared to last year s winners.

Online trends are more closely watched as they give an early indication over the popularity of shows as people search for them online, talk about them on social networks; and buy products.

Stats for American Networks