Bathtubs fill with gurgling blood. Teens burn to death on grad night. Serial stranglers prowl the streets. Washington, D.C., lies in nuclear ruins. Yes, The Dead Zone is on scary place---So why is this USA Network series, based on characters from the best selling novel by Stephen King, such a big success with women?
Starring Anthony Michael Hall as psychic Johnny Smith, an everyday Joe who wakes up from a six-year coma with the ability to see into the past and future, Zone was a hit from the get go. It’s premiere last June pulled 6.4 million viewers, making it the most widely seen drama series debut in the history of basic cable, and it has since become basic cable’s top-rated drama with the almighty 18- to 49- year old crowd. But here’s what really has the advertisers drooling: Sixty percent of the audience is female.

“The Dead Zone, as a property, was our biggest asset and our biggest headache,” says the show’s co creator and head writer, Michael Pillar (Star Trek: The Next Generation). “You’ve got King. You’ve got Dead in the title. It sounds like a sci-fi/horror guy thing when, in fact, it’s a really romantic, emotional thriller.” One with soapy triangles galore: After emerging from his big sleep, Johnny discovered that his soul mate, Sarah (Nicole deBoer), had married Walt (Chris Bruno), the hunky town sheriff. Though she convinced Johnny to get on with his life -- and he did, by courting Dana (Kristen Dalton), a dishy news reporter -- Sarah showed up at the psychic’s house during the September season finale and wooed him into the sack. Meanwhile, Dana has had a sexual past with Johnny’s surrogate father, the creepy Reverend Purdy (David Ogden Stiers), and Piller hints that Dana will also be bedding Johnny’s nemesis, Greg Stillson (Sean Patrick Flanery), the sex-crazed politician who, you guessed it, has his eye on Sarah.
But the shows female appeal goes way beyond those Payton Place escapades. According to Lloyd Segan, who produces Zone with Piller, women are turned on by Hall’s deeply sensitive character. “What they find most appealing is that Johnny sees things in a way no man does”, Segan says, “He takes things to heart. He has, in a way, a woman’s intuition, and he uses it to save lives and stop disaster.”

In his trailer on the Zone set in Vancouver, British Columbia, Hall doesn’t seem all that comfy with his new heartthrob status. After all, he made his mark in the ‘80’s playing nerdy teens in the Brat Pack hits “The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles” and in recent years he’s concentrated on offbeat cable roles (Bill Gates in Pirates of Silicon Valley, Robert John “Mutt” Lange in Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story).
“For years nobody knew what to do with me,” Says the 34-year old Hall. “Is he a leading man? Is he a character actor? Is he a has-been? I had a lot of doors slammed in my face.” Adds the actor, with a laugh: “Sometimes even I’m not sure what I am. I just pull myself up by the boot straps and keep going. It’s a gift to have landed on a show that people really care about.” Hall who admits to being obsessed with all things psychic (he’ll be appearing January 30 on the syndicated Crossing Over With John Edward), believes that Zone’s allure goes beyond it’s love stories and high-octane shocks. “It’s a very spiritual show,” he notes. “And as the international situation heats up, as life gets increasingly scary, people are looking for the answers where they’ve never looked for them before. The boundaries are widening.