This press release just hit the inbox:

MTV’S HIGHEST RATED SERIES TELECAST EVER!
SEASON THREE OF“JERSEY SHORE” DELIVERS 8.45 MILLION
TOTAL VIEWERS FOR PREMIERE

That means the show featuring Snooki, J-Woww, Sammi, Ronnie, Vinny, Pauly D, “The Situation,” and a new girl whose name we haven’t yet (or probably ever will) learned, scored better than the season average of “World News with Diane Sawyer” and the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” and nipped the heels of “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.” In the winter months, the evening news shows do better, so if we compare to last week (a holiday week) Sawyer is ahead of Snooki et. al. “The Jersey Shore” gang also trounced anything on cable news last night.

The full MTV press release after the jump…

MTV’S HIGHEST RATED SERIES TELECAST EVER!

SEASON THREE OF“JERSEY SHORE”

DELIVERS 8.45 MILLION TOTAL VIEWERS FOR PREMIERE

“JERSEY SHORE” SEASON THREE PREMIERE

• Delivered 8.45 million total viewers.

• Averaged an 8.3 P12-34 rating and 6.5 million P12-34 viewers.

• MTV’s most watched series telecast ever.

• Delivered more P12-34 viewers than any broadcast or cable television show this broadcast season.*

• For P12-34, the “Jersey Shore” premiere is +63% versus the Season Two premiere (8.3 vs. 5.1)

and +36% versus the Season Two finale (8.3 vs. 6.1).

• For P12-34, “Jersey Shore” is +46% vs. the Season Two average (8.3 vs. 5.7).

*Excludes sporting events.

Source: Nielsen. L+SD cvg rtg. 1/6/11. Season 2: 7/29/10-10/21/10. Rank on 000s. Broadcast season: 9/20/10-1/5/11.