‘Kendra on Top’ on WEtv gets boost in TV ratings amid scandal

They say misery loves company -- and in the case of reality star Kendra Wilkinson, that means a lot more viewers for her reality show.

Wilkinson has lived her life in the reality fish bowl in various forms since E!’s Playboy mansion series “The Girls Next Door” launched in 2005. Her latest reality vehicle, “Kendra on Top,” has been an average performer on female-skewing WEtv since its debut in 2012.

But, perhaps not so shockingly, recent allegations that her husband, former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Hank Baskett, was involved in a sex scandal with a transgender model over the summer has resulted in a boost in rubberneck viewership.

Seven episodes into its third season, which premiered Oct. 3 and airs successive episodes on Friday nights, viewership has seen a significant jump when three days of delayed viewing are factored in. Among women ages 18 to 49, the show averaged an uptick of 52% with 620,000 viewers in the demographic; and a nearly 45% increase in total viewers with 1.2 million.

It’s quite the lift for the AMC Networks-owned cable channel. WEtv’s year-to-date prime-time average for new episodes of its shows when three days of viewing are factored is 428,000 in the demo and 938,000 in total viewers.

This season, which is at its midway point, has basically doubled its Season 2 averages in live-plus-three-days of viewing, which stood at 326,000 viewers in the women 18-49 demo and 615,000 total viewers.

“I think, obviously, it’s a very, very compelling story,” Marc Juris, president and general manager of WEtv, told the Los Angeles Times. “And we were there as it was happening, so we were able to catch it pretty much with the emotional rawness as events unfold. Everyone is looking for the truth. And the search for truth is really compelling.”

Wilkinson certainly isn’t the first reality star to have cameras rolling through personal hardship. Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott’s recent marriage woes/circus were caught on Lifetime’s “True Tori.” The truthiness of it all has been the cause for speculation and the ethics cause for rumination across the blogosphere.

Juris says discussions were had with Wilkinson about whether the cameras should document the chaos: “Kendra chose to share this story with everyone. And it has engaged people in a way that is relatable -- and also really, really interesting.”

Twitter: @villarrealy