Plucked from a comment on John's weblog, a link to the New York Times piece on the Supergirl TV show: The Chinese Get the Vote, if Only for 'Super Girl'. Check this out:

China's runaway summer hit, "Super Girl," ended last weekend with a television viewership that eclipsed the population of North America. State news media reported that more than 400 million people watched the finale of the show, an "American Idol" knockoff, and saw a frizzy-haired music student from Sichuan Province selected as the winner.

Four hundred million? That's what, 6% of the population of the Earth. Still not as large as the 1998 FIFA World Cup Final's cool 1.7 billion, but nearly equal percentage-wise: 30.6% of China watched the Supergirl final, while 28.8% of the world's population in 1998 watched the World Cup.

From a co-worker, I hear that some kid spent RMB 40,000 buying SIM cards to vote for the winner, Li Yuchun. That's what, more than four thousand US dollars; more than the average Shanghai urban employee makes in a year.

Heh, I love numbers.