"Baby Blues;" "Beyond Belief" big on Friday
    WB got an unexpected boost Friday with the premiere of "Baby Blues," it's new sitcom entry.
The two new episodes that aired from 8-9pm both grabbed a 2.7/9, double what WB did in that slot just last week and equal to the numbers grabbed in the regular season by "The Jamie Foxx Show."
This show makes two, the number of summer hits WB has on it's hands, along with drama "Young Americans." Geez, that's way better than the regular season.
    Fox also had a good Friday, much thanks to "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction." The reality show reached it's highest numbers of the summer at 7.2/25. It's now one of the nets highest rated shows,
besting regular season numbers in the 8pm slot. (July 29)

"Millionaire" slams Thursday
    "Millionaire" (21.9/43) slammed Thursday once again, opening a near 12 million viewer gap over competitor "Will & Grace" (10.1/20). The gap became even wider at 9:30 when "Just Shoot Me"
fell almost 14 million viewers behind the ABC quizzer. The alphabet also got support from the 8:30 edition of "Whose Line Is It Anyway," (8.9/22), which recorded it's highest win-margin (20%) yet over NBC.
    But it wasn't all bad news on the peacock. "W&G" seemed to be settling into it's new slot nicely,
coming close to the numbers "Frasier" did there. "ER" (10.0/23) also recorded it's highest numbers in weeks.
    UPN got lucky with "Smackdown" (7.1/16), which recorded it's highest ratings in more than a month, while WB found itself "Popular" (2.2/6) & "Charmed," (3.0/6) with those shows continuing their stellar summer run. (July 28)

"Summer of the networks" continues
    To prove that "The Summer of The Networks" isn't just confined to a ratings resurgeance in
primetime, the big three are also doing big numbers in daytime, latenight and on the week-ends.
     For last week, NBC's "Today" recorded 5.4 million viewers and a 2.2/21 in adults 18-49. Those numbers are on par with what the show did in the regular season, which is especially good now concidering that summer numbers usually dip. "Good Morning America" also did good with 3.6 million viewers and a 1.4/14 in 18-49's, followed by perennial loser "The Early Show" on CBS,
which climbed to 2.4 million and a 1.0/9. All of these numbers are an improvement over last summer.
    The eye did have good news in late-night, however. "The Late Show With David Letterman" wasn't able to beat Jay Leno on NBC (5.6 mil), but at 4.1 million viewers, it is up 20 percent over
a year ago, with a 14 percent increase in adults 18-49. That corresponds with a slight increase of one percent increase on NBC.
    The alphabet net got it's bit of good news from the "British Open" on the weekend. Tiger Woods was a huge smash in the competition, and so was ABC on the tube. For the final day, Sunday, the net recorded a 6.4/21, up 33 percent from last year. In fact, that represents the highest Brit Open closing-day rating since 1972! Saturday (4.6/14) was also good for the Open, as it recorded it's
highest penultimate day numbers in 18 years. (July 28)

"Survivor" grows again
    Into it's ninth episode, "Survivor" continues to grow in the ratings, nudging up another 200,000
viewers to reach 26.4/56, also recording it's highest net share to date. It beat the second place show, "Dateline NBC," by almost 19 million viewers and an astounding 40 net shares. That show recorded a 7.7/16. The eye also got a good boost from "Big Brother," which assumed it's new timeslot post-"Survivor." That show recorded a 17.4/38, five million less than it's last venture in this timeslot, but six million more than it's highest rated performance in any of it's regular timeslots. The show also recorded a huge 8.3/23 in adults 18-49, holding two-thirds of "Survivor"s (12.6/37) lead-in. (July 27)

NBC's hit of the year- "Passions"
    Although "The West Wing" will likely bring home the Emmy glory, "Passions" is bringing home the ratings bacon. For the last ratings week, the one year old soap had the third highest share of teenage females on tv. In one of the most coveted demos, the show recorded a 4.8/21 rating in females 12-17, only being beat out by "Will & Grace" (22) & "Survivor" (27) in share on the week.
    But those numbers are more than good enough to break soap opera records dating back to 1998. The demo has also increased 40% within the last month, going from a 3.4/16; 3.9/17; 4.5/19, and finally to a 4.8/21. The show also recorded 3.3 million viewers.
    In comparison to cancelled NBC soap "Another World" two years ago, "Passions" is up 269% in female teens; 39% in women 18-34; 20% in women 18-49 & 21% in total viewers. (July 27)
 
Sean ousts Jenna
    Sean, who continued to vote in alphabetical order, must have felt like bag of sh-t Wednesday,
as his vote was the one to throw Jenna over the top. When voting, Sean said that Jenna might garner one or two votes, but his probably wouldn't be the one to oust her. Unfortunately, the evil alliance
of Rudy, Rich & Sue got wind of this and cast their votes for Jenna too. She was kicked off by
a 4-3-1 margin.
    Kelly, meanwhile, got sucked out of the alliance by Jenna & Colleen. They teamed up with
Gervase to vote for Rich, on his 39th birthday. Rudy won immunity. (July 26)

"Dharma & Greg" beats "Frasier"
    In the first battle of one of the upcoming seasons most high profile, "Dharma & Greg" threw "Frasier" into the corner. "D&G" (11.5/31) fell only slightly from last weeks performance, beating "Frasier" (10.0/28) by a 15 percent margin. Although the ABC sitcom did have a huge Millionaire
(21.0/49) lead-in, Frasier declined about a million viewers off it's normal Thursday night performance. It also declined almost two million viewers from Will & Grace's performance just last week.
    The networks are having a particularly good week so far, with 9 shows registering more than 10 million viewers over the nast two nights. (July 26)

"Mysterious Ways" has it way with NBC
    For the time of year and considering it's slot, "Mysterious Ways" may qualify as NBC's biggest premiere of the last few years. The PAX-destined show opened up with a 10.2/28, beating high profile competition like "Big Brother" (9.3/26) on CBS. NBC, which has planned to only air the premiere of the show, then ship it off to PAX for the regular season, may just wind up keeping the show for itself. It's ratings will likely make it's one of NBC's tops rated shows of the week. (July 25)

Get ready for "The Paramount Network"
    No, not an eighth net, but an old one being transformed. UPN, whose acronyms stand for United Paramount Network, will go under the banner "The Paramount Network" starting on January 1st.
Net prez Dean Valentine says the new name is not as "akward" as the old, and will give it better name recognition with "Paramount" films, it's parent company that was recently bought out by Viacom.
    UPN is also reporting that affiliate reaction is overwealmingly positive. The new logo will be a
triangle surrounded by the Paramount stars, captioned by the words: "Paramount Network." They did admit to concidering renaming the net "Smackdown," but conceeded that not enough viewers would know how to spell it. (July 25)
 

"Mission Hill" pleasant Sunday surprize for WB
    It seems that "Mission Hill," the already cancelled WB cartoon, has finally hit with viewers. Sunday's episode recorded a 2.3/5, buidling over a million viewers from last week and blowing away it's previous high water mark of 1.7 million viewers. Sunday's have been generally sweet for WB this summer, mostly due to the transplant of it's Friday line-up to Sunday births. "The Jamie Foxx Show" is particularly strong, last night recording a 2.6/5, a million viewers more than it recorded in it's regular Friday slot. (July 24)

"Dharma" goes to Fox
    Well not right now, but in 2005, Fox will be the proud owners of "Dharma & Greg"s syndication rights. The net will pay 400 000 an episode for exclusive cable rights to the show, airing it on either Fox Family or FX. The price was inflated after USA & TBS got into the bidding. The net also
has the rights to sitcoms "That 70s Show" & "King of The Hill."
    But some are worried that the deal might not be worth what it seems. Before Fox gets exclusive rights to the show in 2005, the show will have been airing in general syndication for 3 years, diluting it's ratings prowess. "Dharma" fetched 2.2 million an episode for it's syndication rights, clearing 85% of the country and 48 of the top 50 tv markets. (July24)

"Big Brother" falls to lowest numbers yet
    A "Big Brother" weekly re-cap drug the show down to it's lowest numbers yet, also dragging
CBS down in the process.
    The 8pm one hour recap fell to a 5.5/18, losing over a million viewers from last week. It's previous low was 6.6 million, recorded in each of it's past two Saturday airings. CBS wound up in third at a 6.1/21, despite having the highest rated program, "Walker, Texas Ranger" (7.9/28). Fox (7.3/24) pulled together it's second Saturday win in a row, mostly on the back of "Americas Most Wanted" (7.7/25).
    NBC (5.5/18), which had been riding tall all week, fell to forth, drug down by a 10pm repeat of "The Pretender" (4.8/17). (July 23)

"Big Brother" gives weak Friday a boost
    "Big Brother" gave CBS a boost on Friday, on what was otherwise the lowest rated Friday of the summer so far. "BB" recorded an 8.1/30 for the eye, it's highest regular episode net-share rating to date. The show is averaging 8.2 million viewers so far on Friday, ranging slightly from 8.6 to 8.0 million. But a generous lead-in couldn't help "Candid Camera," which fell to a 4.9/20, it's lowest numbers since last summer.
    "Making the Band" fell to it's lowest numbers yet on ABC, averaging a 5.1/19 in the 9pm hour.
The show peaked over a month ago at 8.1 million, and has been falling since. Even 20/20, which had recorded at least 9 million almost all summer, fell to an 8.0/24, it's lowest numbers in a year. (July 22)

"Will & Grace" falls to Millionaire
    The NBC sitcom may have scored during it's Tuesday marathon, but it proved to be no competition for ABC's quizzer, which slammed the red-hot comedy. "Will & Grace," which was
nominated for a sitcom leading 11 Emmy's early Thursday, recorded a 9.4/19, less than half of what "Millionaire" (20.3/40) did. That's a new summer low for the slot for NBC. The previous low was recorded by "Frasier" a month ago, 10.3 million viewers.
    "Big Brother" voted it's first from the tribe and also voted in it's highest regular episode rating yet- 11.3/26. That was good enough to beat the slipping "WWF Smackdown" (6.7/14) and the quickly-fading "Friends" (9.8/23). There was bad news in the 9pm hour for CBS, however. A repeat "City of Angels" slipped from last week, falling to a paltry 4.9/10. Get "Everbody Loves Raymond" in there, stat! (July 21)

Emmy nods for everyone
    Just about everybody got a piece of the emmy nod pie, from mega-hit "The Sopranos" to the forgettable "Love & Money," as the nids were announced early Thursday morning.
       Leading the pack for the sitcoms was- surprize- "Will & Grace" with 11 nods. Each of the four actors got a nod, as did the show and guest star Debbie Reynolds (as Grace's mother). "Frasier" walked away with a wack of nods too, including ones for David Hyde Pierce, Kelsey Grammer as well as the show. Jennifer Aniston finally recorded a nod for "Friends," as did Lisa Kudrow. "Everybody Loves Raymond" & "Malcolm In The Middle" also recorded a slew of nods.
    On the drama side, momentum rushed on side of "The West Wing," "The Sopranos," & "The Practice." Although "WW" & "TS" both record 18 nods, the real story was with the NBC presidential drama That show drew a nod for best drama, and for series star Martin Sheen. It all but dominated the supporting categories, cornering 4 out of 10 possible spots. All other supporting nominations went to "The Sopranos" and "The Practice" with the exception of one, which went to Tyne Daly ("Judging Amy"). Go here for a list of the major categories.
    And the nomination for "Love & Money?"- best art direction in a multi-camera series for it's pilot episode. (July 20)

"Survivor" gets a ratings boost
    After stalling the the ratings for a number of weeks, "Survivor" finally smashed the 25 million
viewer mark, winding up at 26.3/55. The may give the show the momentum it needs to pass 30 million as it head towards the final two. That couldn't help "The Last Don"- CBS's Wednesday
Movie. Previous parts have been sucking for CBS all week, and the Wednesday installment was no exception. Over it's two hour duration, it recorded a 9.0/21, holding only a third of "Survivor's"
audience.
    On the other nets, Fox continued to do well with "Guinness World Records." That show climbed to a 7.0/18, it's highest numbers since last summer, although it placed 4th in it's slot.
    The WB could cheer about "Young Americans." At a 2.5/6, the show held on to most of it's premiere episode audience. (July 20)

"Will & Grace" has strong showing
    With numbers that rivaled what NBC did in the regular season, "Will & Grace" gave the peacock a big boost with it's six episode marathon on Tuesday. The shows, which were voted in by viewers, averaged a 10.3/26 from 8-11pm, The 8pm ep ranked the lowest at 7.4/15, with the 9:30 showing taking top spot with a 12.4/32. During the regular season, NBC averaged only 11.0 million viewers in that same slot.
    NBC didn't win the night, though, as that honour layed with ABC and "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire." That show slid to a 19.5/44, but still managed to crush the competiton, which included a
burn-off episode of "Love & Money" on CBS. The Swoozie Kirtz sitcom drew a skimpy 3.9/10, dropping over half of it's "Big Brother" lead-in. (July19)

"Survivor" alliance strikes again
    Ex- Pagong-er Greg lost his footing on "Survivor" Wednesday night, thanks to the strength of
the alliance and an ironic twist in voting by Sean. The alliance, which appeared to be weakening thanks to loose-link Kelly, voted united in ousting leader-ish Greg. The clincher was an anti-Greg vote by Sean, who followed his voting in alphabetical order strategy. All the other votes cast went to Jenna, who seemed to be near breakdown because she did not recieve a video clip from her kids as the other islanders did. Most voted against her in sympathy.
    An akward moment came at tribal council when host Jeff asked Sue is there was indeed an alliance going on. She quickly answered "No," explaning that she voted off who she least liked. Jeff then proceed to ask Kelly, who laughed before basically repeating the line her team-mate towed .
Close call, but it may not matter now. The island is now inhabited by four alliance members, and another four who are not. Let the picking-off begin. (July 19)

Time slot shifts at NBC, CBS
    Both NBC & CBS announced time-slot shifts Wednesday, in hopes to fine-tune their scheduals
to bring on greater ratings glory. On the eye, "Big Brother" will now air it's live episode post-Survivor on Wednesday, instead of on Thursday where it is currently showed. When "Brother" premiered in that slot two weeks ago, it drew a monumental 22.5 million viewers, nearly eclipsing it's "Survivor"
lead-in. The show has steadily declined in ratings since then, with recent episodes averaging about
8.5 million viewers. CBS will now air a 1/2 hour edition of "Brother" on Thursday, followed by
a comedy offering.
    Over on the peacock, NBC will shift new sitcom "Tucker" with how-is-that-still-on ""3rd Rock."
"Tucker" is slated to air Tuesdays at 8:30pm and "3rd Rock" Mondays the same time. NBC believes that "The Michael Richards Show," which will air Tuesdays at 8pm, is a much better fit with "3rd Rock," and that 'Tucker" will blow big time so you may as well put it in a timeslot where nobody will
ever notice it. However, this will probably not effect ratings at all, since NBC has a hope and a prayer that either night will beat CBS Monday or ABC Tuesday. (July 19)

"Opposites" bomb
    Fox's new show "Opposites Attract" seems to be a good fit for the network: just like all other new shows, it too has been a complete bomb. For it's heavily promoted Monday premiere, it grabbed a 5.1/14, fourth in it's timeslot, and a million viewers less than the net recorded just last week with repeats of "Titus" & "That 70s Show." One can only imagine what the show would have done with it's originally planned partner- "Time of Your Life." That show averaged a UPN- sized 3.1 million viewers in a brief, brief Wednesday run last month.
    Elsewhere on Monday, "Third Watch" seems to be settling into it's timeslot nicely. In a rematch of late last season Monday at 10pm competitors "Once & Again," "Third," & "Family Law," the NBC cop show humiliated the rest, recording an 8.4/28, 40% ahead of CBS (6.1/20) & 45% ahead of ABC (5.8/19). Looks like NBC's not totally out of the loop afterall.... (July 18)

ABC goes to the toilet
    Well, not exactely the toilet, but the alphabet's new promo plans include urinals and KFC
as it strives to retain it's position as the number one network.
    In a campaign for the struggling sitcom "Norm," ABC will use urinals in the New York & Los Angeles area. Teaming up with Zoom Media, the net will use special technology that will allow series star Norm MacDonald to talk to urinal-users just as they finish up. He will offer up euphamisms like
"another fine use of the colour yellow," and other disgusting phrases.
    Over at KFC, ABC will offer up seven million yellow & black chicken boxes, the official colors
of the network. Some outlets will even change the colour of the big bucket outside.Others will turn their heads in shame, with recent promotional bombs such as the Phantom Menace fresh in mind.
    This follows up previous campaigns with Nokia, bananas & cocktail napkins. Next season it
will be toilet paper & beer. (July 16)
 
Saturday is good for Fox, too
    Fox, which hasn't had a pulse all summer, is finally reviving itself, winning it's first Saturday in weeks. Thanks to "Americas Most Wanted" (6.9/22), the highest rated network show of the night,
Fox (6.3/21) won by a slim margin over NBC (6.1/20). The peacock's movie "Grumpier Old Men,"
featuring the late Walter Mathau, won a (6.8/24), taking the 10pm timeslot.
    CBS (6.0/20) was a very close third, with "Big Brother" (6.6/23) pulling up it's socksa bit, besting last's week performance by a mere 100 000 viewers.
    ABC (5.6/19) was pretty much eating dust, dragged down by a 10pm repeat of NYPD Blue (5.1/18). (July 16)

Friday flies for Fox
    Fox didn't quite win Friday night, but it did fly high, thanks to "Beyond Belief" & "Greed." The reality based pair recorded their highest numbers of the summer. "Belief," which has increased it's ratings for almost every episode so far this summer, topped out at a 6.8/23, nearly toppling it's high
profile CBS competition; "Big Brother" (8.6/30) & Candid Camera (5.8/20). "Greed" also did well
with a 6.1/21, tying it's summer high water mark, set a month ago.
    The eye's "JAG" (6.8/23) appeared to be settling into it's new Friday slot, drawing over a million viewers more than it did last week, even as it's "Nash Bridges" (6.0/17) lead-out fell to it's lowest numbers since last summer
    On the other nets it was same old, same old, although a repeat of "Young Americans" did drop to
a 1.2/4 for the WB, the lowest rated network-tv show of the week. (July 15)

"Survivor" exposed!
    Come one, come all. Yes it's true- you can find out who the ultimate "Survivor" will be- right now! At least that's what http://tv.zap2it.com is reporting, as a boo-boo on CBS's "Survivor" site has come back to bite them in the ass.
    Apparantly, if you go to the Survivor site (www.cbs.com/survivor), and click and paste pics of the list of the Survivors, even those who haven't yet been voted off will paste with a tiny red "X" in the upper corner. All except for one.
    You don't wanna know, so I won't tell, but he is an instructor at a YMCA.... damn, gave it away. But this could just be another publicity stunt, as was Ramona's "Gretchen- Survivor" slip on the Early Show. But then again, it might not be. CBS's reaction to the news may be tell-tale of whether it's true or not: CBS had no reaction to the Ramona slip. (July 15)

Diane Wiest to join "Law & Order"
    The new cast-member to "Law & Order" this upcoming season appears to be Diane Wiest, according to Daily Variety online. She will replace Steven Hill, the show's only remaining original cast
member. According to Variety, his character will not be re-elected to his post, leaving Wiest's
character to fill the void. Hill could make occasional guest appearances, however.
    Wiest is perhaps best known for her two Oscar winning performances, both in the best suporting actress category. She first won in 1986 for "Hannah and Her Sisters," and again in 1994 for "Bullets Over Broadway." More recently she has won a best guest actress Emmy for the CBC/Disney series "Road to Avonlea," and appearing in last season's big flop mini, "The 10th Kingdom."
    Speaking of that mini (and who really doesn't on a daily basis, I know I do), it's coming back. But this time it will be two hours shorter and record even fewer viewers. NBC has the mini slated to return on August 4th, when it will air over four consecutive nights. (July 14)

ABC, WB shine; Fox, NBC falter
    ABC won Thursday night by it's widest margin in over a month last night, pulling the nets week-so-far average up by over a million viewers. Millionaire (20.2/42) led the charge for the alphabet, getting support from 20/20 Downtown (13.2/28), bringing ABC to a 13.7/30.
    NBC (9.2/20) placed a distant second, led down by Daddio (7.0/18) & Stark Raving Mad (6.9/15). The rest of the night performed relatively well, with Frasier registering a 12.3/24 & Friends
(11.0/27).
    Fox (4.3/10) found it's weekly low with the movie "Supercop;" while the WB (2.7/6) logged it's best numbers in a month, with both it's shows performing well, led by Charmed (3.0/6). So far ths week, NBC is leading (10.6/26), followed closely by CBS (10.1/25) & ABC (10.0/25). (July 14)

Ratings wealth continues on Wednesday
    It was another strong ratings day for nearly all the nets on Wednesday, continuing on an odd week that has seen some of the summers highest ratings in the middle of July. CBS had the most to be joyous about, as "Survivor" (24.5/53) bowled over the competiton once again, leading CBS to a win on the night. "Judging Amy" (10.1/26), which followed Survivor, really didn't improve on it's normal Tuesday performance despite the huge lead-in, and "Family Law" (6.4/16), appearing on the schedual for the first time in over two months, fell even further in the 10pm hour. CBS performed much better with repeats of "Everybody Loves Raymond" & "King of Queens" two weeks ago.
    WB got some great news with the premiere of "Young Americans." The show, which pulled a 2.9/7, bested it's "Dawsons Creek" (1.9/4) lead-in by 50%, also improving it's timeslot by the same amount. The show even tied little-net competitor "Star Trek: Voyager" (2.9/7) on UPN.
    NBC got support from Dateline NBC, (8.0/17) which came in second in it's timeslot, giving
it's best performance since the regular season. The capper was Law & Order (11.4/28), continuing on it's already spectacular performance this summer. And, on top of it all, little-old "Law & Order" has also become NBC's top rated summer show, holding 70% of it's regular season audience.
    The big loser? ABC. Thanks to the return of Two Guys & A Girl (5.4/12) & Norm (4.7/10),
the net fell to it's lowest Wednesday numbers since last summer. (July 13)

 
"Survivor" shocker
    Who was voted off the island tonight? Nope, not Sean, the lazy doctor, nor Gervase, the equally
lazy YMCA instructor. On the episode the two tribes merged, it was none other than Gretchen to get the boot. This is a shocker because she had been picked by many to win the million.
    In fact, only a few weeks ago on CBS's "The Early Show", booted-off Ramona described
team-mate Gretchen as a "survivor," leading many to think that Ramona let the winner's name go.
But now it appears that the "slip" was nothing more than a publicity stunt to add some surprise to
the show. A teary Gretchen took her face time at the end of the show to ask her fellow team-mates why they didn't confront her if they had a problem. But they most likely didn't have a problem at all, and that was the problem. With the enlarged tribe, it is becoming clear that the strongest will be booted first, as to lessen the competition.
    Tonight's tribal council saw just about everybody get a vote: Richard, Susan, Colleen, Jenna,
Gervase, Rudy and three for Gretchen. Greg has immunity at the council, and Sean was the only one to slip away without a negative vote. (July 12)

"Bette" a hit
    Well, not yet, but OMD USA, which tests shows with audiences, says that the fall Midler
effort has the best chance of being a hit, along with CBS co-show "The Fugitive." OMD says that
the only other new show to test positively was ABC's "Geena," starring Geena Davis.
    The report says most other shows tested in the mid range, including "Madigan Men" & "The Michael Richards Show," which NBC has high hopes for. The report obviously ignores the pressures of timeslots, as "Bette," deemed to have the highest hit potential, is in one of tv's most difficult slots: Wednesday night at 8pm. Not only is it followed by another rookie, "Welcome to New York," but it is also up against "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" on ABC. On another tell-tale note, for the last two seasons, CBS's shows in that slot have been cancelled, including once-hits "The Nanny" & "Cosby." Although "Survivor" is killing in the slot for CBS now, how much of that audience is really going to stick around for "Bette" ?
    And the most likely to be cancelled? ABC's fall entry on Friday- "People Who Fear People." I dunno. I at least like the title. (July 12)

Tuesday ratings high for the nets
    Just about all the nets shared the ratings wealth on Tuesday night, even as NBC had baseball's
All-Star in it's corner. The Game, which scored 15.1/33 from 8:30 to 11:00, significantly improved NBC's performace on the night, even though the game experienced a sharp decline in viewers from last year.
    Although it was unable to steal the spotlight from the big game, "Millionaire" did steal the ratings
glory with a 21.3/42, it's best showing the nearly a month. "Dharma & Greg" also did well, pulling
a 11.4/27 against All-Star competiton
    The news was mixed on CBS as Big Brother (9.5/19) performed well, but not well enough to mask the revival of Love & Money (5.1/10) which lost a hugh chunk of it's "Brother" lead-in.
    The only other net to have bragging rights was WB, which recorded a 2.6/6 for the Angel/Buffy
duo, the highest of the summer so far.
    Now for Survivor. Well, we'll have to wait for that one until tomorrow. (July 12)

"Raymond" rebounds
    "Everybody Loves Raymond" rebounded to it's highest numbers in nearly a month as CBS took Monday by a slim margin. "Raymond" won the 9pm timeslot with a 12.8/34, which will likely carry it to be the week's number one comedy, after just missing the post last week for the first time since the last week of the regular season.
    CBS also had good news earlier in the night as "Big Brother" halted it's ratings slide, posting
a 9.4/24 at 8pm. Though that is three million more viewers than the show drew on Saturday night,
it's still a bit off the numbers "King of Queens" was pulling the 8pm timeslot since the repeat season came.
    On the other nets, "The Parkers" pulled it's best summer numbers yet with 3.6/9. That's great news for UPN- the show is growing. During the regular season, the Moesha-spinoff averaged 3.9 million viewers. So far this summer it's averaging 3.3, holding a full 85% of it's cold-season audience. For those who don't know, that's better than excellent. (July 11)

"Geico" pulls ads from Dr. Laura
    Ooops, they did it again. It seems gay groups have struck again, this time at Geico, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The auto-insurance provider, which advertized on Dr. Laura's radio show and planned to do so on her upcomming tv show, has folded to pressure from gay groups who don't want Dr. Laura's fall talk show to go to air. Similar pressure tactice have also worked on Proctor & Gamble, which announced last spring it wouldn't advertize on the doc's new show.
    Geico has nearly 19 000 employees nation wide and $9 billion in assets. Apparantly the company had no idea of the content of Dr. Laura's upcoming show, until the gay groups pointed out that she would be decapitating a homosexual every week, on top of the monthly baby-roast. I mean, she is Jewish after all. (July 10)

"Freaks & Geeks" picked up
    "Freaks and Geeks" fans who threw a hissy fit when NBC calcelled the low rated show can take a collective sigh of relief. The show has beem officially picked up by Fox Family, the wholesome
counterpart of the otherwise crass Fox empire. Fox Family will air all episodes of F&G, including the two that never made it to air. They will not produce any new episodes. (July 9)

"Freaks & Geeks," "Big Brother" share a Saturday bond
    They're both unqualified flops. NBC, which aired three episodes back-to-back episodes of the
teen dramedy "Freaks & Geeks" Saturday night, recorded near record low ratings for the tryptic.
The show did build slowly though the night, but it's starting point was so low that it really didn't matter. At 8pm, F&G recorded a 3.1/11, half of what NBC recorded the week before. The show
even ranked lower than "The Parkers" (3.3/11), on UPN. At 9pm, the show climbed slightly to a
3.6/13, and finally broker 4 million at 10pm (4.8/21). Doesn't look like NBC will regret cancelling that show...
    Meanwhile, "Big Brother" (6.5/22) on CBS fell even further, purging itself of another 21% of it's viewers. That leaves it at 28%, the amount of Wednesday premiere viewers still watching the show...
    In other Saturday ratings news, NYPD Blue looks to have found itself a good summer home at 10pm. It's Saturday edition (6.0/27), acutally beat it's Tuesday edition (4.9/16). So I guess if Once & Again (which takes NYPD Blue's slot on Tuesday come fall) can do anything verus Judging Amy,
NYPD Blue might just have a new home. Yeah right. (July 9)
 

"Big Brother" bigger flop
    Friday's edition of "Big Brother" confirmed what Thursday's edition hinted at: the show is a flop.
Although it won the 8:00 pm Friday slot with a 8.3/26, it dropped another 28% of it's audience, bringing the total to 14.1 mil, the number of viewers who have feld the show since it's Wednesday
premiere. That's more than the show grabbed in either of it's last two airings. CBS, which had high
hopes for the reality based show a la "Survivor," must be disappointed with the numbers. The base show in The Netherlands was a top rated show, but the American version isn't even cracking the top 10. Thursday's "Brother" ranks 11th on the summer-season, tied with "Dharma & Greg," while the Friday set drops all the way down to 43rd, mired in a tie with "Spin City."
    Although CBS most likely won't cancel the slumping show, it might re-jig it's schedual a bit. It is besting (for now) the previous slot numbers on Thursday & Friday. It will likely out-draw
"48 Hours" (5.9 mil summer avg)  in the 8pm Saturday slot, but the lead-off Monday slot is another question. "King of Queens" repeats (9.4 mil) have been flying high in that slot for two months now, and if "Big Brother" can't best it's numbers, CBS could double up on it's half-hour Tuesday, Thursday or Friday offerings and continue to offer a full hour of "King" on Monday. But then again,
if "BB"'s numbers keep slipping as fast as they are now, CBS might drop the show altogther. (July
8)

Rick Rockwell doing promos for PAX?
    In a move akin to Dr. Laura coming out of the closet, tv.zap2it.com is reporting that PAX-TV will air promos featuring Rick Rockwell, one half of the disasterous Darva Conger &... coupling. The network, which has vowed not to air gratuitus violence or fowl language, is stuck in seventh place in the ratings, with it's highest rated show being "Diagnosis Murder" repeats. Rockwell will help the net promote it's wholesomeness by pointing out what a slimy mistake he made on the Fox special "Who Wants To Marry A Multi-Millionaire?" last spring. In the promo, he will say something to the effect of "PAX-TV is a network where people even meet each other before marrying." Not top quality
wit, but could other witless net UPN come up with something better? (July 8)

"Big Brother"- big flop
    "Big Brother" looks like a big flop- according to Thursday night numbers, where it aired opposite "Friends" on NBC. The show did pull a 11.5/27, winning the 8:00 pm timeslot, but it did lose an incredible 48% of it's viewers from the Wednesday premiere. Combined with a special "Everybody Loves Raymond" (8.1/19), CBS averaged 9.8 million viewers from 8-9pm, up slightly from the 9.1 "Diagnosis Murder" pulled last week. It was beaten in the slot by a special one hour "Friends" (10.6/25). But Brother did make CBS younger. At a 4.2 rating, it represented the highest 18-49 mark for CBS since "Due South" in 1995. But that still doesn't make up for it dropping half it's viewers in just one night. (July 7)

Moralizing at PepsiCo
    7Up, a popular soft drink under the Pepsico umberella, has decided to discontinue advertizing
on WWF Smackdown!, the highest rated show on the UPN. The company simply stated that it no longer wanted to advertize on wrestling shows. A UPN spokesperson, contacted by tv.zap2it.com,
stated that while they wish 7Up would reconcider, they were not concerned about losing the ad revenue, which will quickly be replaced by other companies eager to tap into Smackdown's youth-male audience. Coca-Cola & MCI have also banned ads on the wrestling show. (July 7)

"Big Brother" means big numbers
    It couldn't best it's Survivor lead-in on Wednesday, but the one hour premiere of Big Brother (22.4/45) did well nonetheless, keeping 93% of Survivors (24.0/47) lead-in. That show seems to have stabilized in viewers, drawing 24.1; 24.0 and again 24.0 in it's last three outings. Although Big Brother did well enough to make it's Wednesday edition TV's number one show (followed by Millionaire Tuesday & sister-show Survivor), the true test for Big Brother will be in the coming weeks as it airs five nights a week. If it does continue down the auspicious hit-track, it could boost CBS Monday & Tuesday into the stratosphere, and even pull Thursday & Friday up by their collective socks. I guess it's wait and see. (July 6)

"Raymond" hits number 5
    In a summer dominated by another CBS hit, Everybody Loves Raymond has quietly slipped
into the number five position in the summer ratings race. It's move was much faciliated by the fall of
48 Hours Monday, which dropped to an average of 13.2 million viewers. The ratings for Everybody Loves Raymond did drop slightly, but not enough to drop it further than 48 Hours. It's currently
averaging 13.2 million viewers since the regular season ended, which is especially good considering that last summer only a select few repeats of the show reached 13 million viewers. Also, the show has reigned as top comedy for 7 weeks, going back to the last week of the regular season. (July 6)

Head of Fox's dramas leaves post
    Danielle Gelber, who has been head of Fox's dramas for the last eight years, has decided to leave that post to persue other opportunities. The move is speculated to be the direct result of Gail Berman being appointed to president of Fox entertainment. Berman is expected to make several important changes to the slumping net. Over her career with Fox, Gelber oversaw development of hits like "The X-Files," and "Party of Five;" but also last season flops "Time of Your Life," "Get Real," "Ryan Caudfield," & "Harsh Realm." Before joining Fox, she worked at Spelling Television, where she developed the smash hit "Beverly Hills, 90210."

Bad week for the nets
    It's only Wednesday, but the nets have already gotten off to a bad start. Thanks to the July 4th
holiday, the six nets have logged their lowest numbers since.... the last July 4th holiday. NBC (7.6/26) so far has a slight lead over ABC & CBS (both 7.1/24). Meanwhile, Fox has collapsed
to a 3.8/12, down 37% from last week. UPN (1.9/7), meanwhile, had Dilbert (0.8/3) logging it's lowest numbers ever, closely followed by "Shasta" (1.1/4) & "I Dare You" (1.0/3). "WB" (1.8/6) hosted a score of losers, led by "Buffy" (1.5/4) & "Angel" (1.4/4) on Tuesday.
    And it doesn't look to get too much better, either. Only CBS has something to cheer about,
with top-rated "Survivor" tonight and the premier of 5-day-a-week "Big Brother" to follow.

Passions finally gets it's due
    This oft ignored but excellent NBC soap is finally getting it's due: it's now the highest rated soap among the advertizing droolfest of teen girls. For the week of June 26, the soap, which turns one this Wednesday, logged a 3.4/16 in girls 12-19, even beating sister-soap Days of Our Lives, which
recorded the previous high last July. Soaps often rely on the summer months to draw teen girls and, in turn, ratings and advertizing bucks. Passions even did well in women 18-49, logging a 1.8/11, setting a series record. And those numbers will only increase this week as the show enters a long-awaited story arc that will encompass most plotlines from the last year. Passions can be seen weekday at 2pm on NBC, but will be pre-empted Thursday & Friday for tennis. Go here for a
review of this rocking sudser.

"Elian:" The movie
    Despite protests and collective groans from millions across the land, "The Elian Gonzales Story"
will go into production in Los Angeles this week. The bastardized version of Elian' story will start shooting Wednesday and go through to the 7th. It will air on Fox Family later this season. But if you don't have cable, don't worry. CBS is planning to one-up Fox Family by making a 4-hour miniseries. There is no word on when it will shoot or air. Elian Gonzales, who was mentioned in 96.3% of CNN stories over the past year, will not make a cameo in either version, however. He will be far too busy scrounging for food and fresh water in his native Cuba.