Inspiration for this Artikel goes to LotusWhispers, who mentioned in the Rant Thread that some of the lowest ratings for the series were Stelena episodes.

I am not really someone who is interested in numbers. In fact, if the truth were told, numbers bore me stupid. Unless they tell a story, which, if Du look at the viewing figures for Seasons One and Two respectively, I think you'll find they do.

Season 1
The ratings for Season One remained fairly consistent on the whole, getting a good 3 million viewers each week, rising to 4.18 million when 1x07 'Haunted' aired. Now, if Du look at it from a DE Fan perspective, such high ratings don't tie in with us, because there wasn't a lot of DE in 1x07, oder 1x08, and none at all in 1x09, which all scored over 4 million viewers. It's possible that the numbers would have dropped for 1x10 anyway. But what's interesting is that 1x10 'The Turning Point' featured the big SE Liebe scene. The figures are actually good, (3.57 million), but coming right after 3 episodes which received around 4 million each, it looks worse than it really is. 'Bloodlines' did slightly better, with 3.68 million viewers, and from there on, the ratings remain pretty steady until 1x16, when the viewing figures dropped from over 3 million to just 2.80 million, an all time Season low.
What was it about 1x16 that would cause such a dramatic fall? Well, it might be any number of factors which have nothing to do with the Zeigen itself, but let's take a look at the synopsis. Episode 16 'There Goes The Neighbourhood' was one in which SE featured heavily in. It was when they tried to be a 'normal' couple without dealing with any vampire stuff Von going on a double datum with Caroline and Matt. DE had no scenes together.
In the Weiter episode, 'Let The Right One In', the ratings jumped back up to a healthy 3.48 million. The promo pics included the famous DE rain scene, and the rest of the ratings for Season One were good.

Viewing figures for Season 2 were consistently high for the first 13 episodes, scoring a good 3 million each time. Ratings for the season plummetted however, for 2x14, which got 2.79 million only. 2x14 was basically advertised as the episode when SE embarked on a romantic lake-side mini-break while Damon stayed in Mystic Falls and was ambushed Von Jules and her werewolves. In other words, it was going to be an SE-centric episode, with no DE in it.
2x15 fared better, getting 3.07 million, but 2x16 did worse, clocking in with 2.98 and 2x17 only managed 2.73 million. This is surely evidence that coming back on air after an unduly long hiatus doesn't guarantee strong ratings. Basically, the last 4 episodes have had some of the lowest ratings of the entire series. I don't live in the States, so I don't know if there's Mehr to this than meets the eye. But let's look at the facts. The last 4 episodes have been heavy on the action: fight scenes, torture, fires, kidnapping, plotting and so on. The Liebe dreieck has not factored in the Zeigen at all, and there really have been no scenes with DE either. Mehr to the point, the promo pics for 2x17 were of Elena and Isobel, and Damon, Jeremy and Bonnie.
Are the CW worried? They have released an extended promo and a webclip a week in advance. Sometimes they don't release any webclip at all.
I am confident that ratings for the Weiter episode will be strong. I couldn't help noticing while on YouTube, watching the extended promo for the one hundredth time what most people were excited about seeing: yup, Du guessed it: Delena's return.
I don't wish to sound smug about poor ratings, but can it really be a coincidence that among all the episodes of the series which received the worst viewing figures, they were SE-centric episodes? Can it really be a coincidence that during a stint of DE-deprivation, the ratings have been underwhelming? I want the Zeigen to do well, and I hope the ratings go back up Weiter week and remain high for the rest of the series. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there are other factors at work here which are undermining the viewing numbers, and influencing the audience's decision to not watch the show. If Weiter episode's ratings are still low, in spite of it being one of the most eagerly anticipated episodes for DE since 'The Descent', then I will take everything I've written here back, and conclude that DE have nothing to do with high ratings. oder that half of America was affected Von a power cut.