Let me be clear from the start, I didn't watch Wednesday night's Fox "documentary" on Nadya Suleman, "Octomom: The Incredible Unseen Footage."

I tried, but the opening scene of Suleman primping and mugging for the camera as she brought her herd home so disgusted me that I had to stop watching. It's still there, all two hours of it, on my DVR. But I can't bring myself to go back to it.

I'm sure I'll feel better when I hit delete.

Instead of writing about the show today, I'm going to offer some numbers that are both heartening and disheartening, thanks to Nielsen Media Research, the folks who measure our TV viewing.

First, the good news. "Octomom" wasn't the top-rated prime-time show on Wednesday night around the country. Nationally, the trashy special averaged 4.2 million viewers nationally over its two-hour run. NBC beat Fox for the night with its "America's Got Talent" averaging 7.9 million viewers. No, "Talent" isn't great television. But its Wednesday night victory over the Octomom's bizarre story is somehow heartening for the future of the Republic.

Now brace yourself for the bad news: Channel 6's airing of the Octo-fest topped Wednesday night's Nielsen list for the Milwaukee TV market. It averaged 57,040 southeast Wisconsin homes, with Channel 4's airing of NBC's "Talent" pulling in 54,324 households.

Let's accentuate the positive here. It wasn't a huge win or a huge audience, only an 11% share of Milwaukee TV households that were watching on Wednesday night, compared to the 10% watching Channel 4.

Nationally, we're in the dog days of TV viewing and the fact that the heavily hyped "incredible unseen footage" didn't wipe out all opposition is good news. Really, smart viewers should flee from any show that calls itself "incredible." And the buzz is that the lackluster national numbers may doom Suleman's cable "reality" series.

That would be good for all of us, especially her kids.