According to the Minister’s Wife (who doesn’t visit the Ministry, claiming she can’t remember the URL despite it appearing prominently on three of the Minister’s most worn t-shirts), the third series of 30 Rock is tanking in the ratings and last week’s episode – featuring the Sainted-To-The-Minister’s-Wife Jennifer Aniston – spectacularly underperformed.

According to the t’Internet, last week’s episode of 30 Rock pulled in 7,500,000 viewers – down marginally from the previous week, but up 20% on the average for the show’s first series.

It all depends upon how you read the tea leaves, doesn’t it?

My employer’s proxy server is based in California so I now have access to the US iTunes Store, meaning I’m watching the third series in real time, before any of the second series has aired on Channel Five.

The first couple of episodes seemed weaker than usual (though that may be because I’d missed an entire series of narrative arc) but last week’s show was razor sharp, to wit this exchange between Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon and Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy, who had just revealed he had had sex in a meat locker with Ms. Aniston’s character:

LEMON: What is it with you men?  You’re like junkies.  Why can’t you just say no?

DONAGHY: Lemon, let me explain something that you could have no way of knowing.  Emotionally unstable women are… [he pauses, raising his hands] FANTASTIC in the sack.  I mean, their self-loathing translates into… [he gazes into the distance and smiles briefly to himself.]  Never mind.

Still miles better than anything else on my iPhone.