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Thursday near finales don't draw
    Thursday was a tough night for series about to come to a close as 3 of the 4 on the night flailed in the ratings. "Big Brother," "Survivor," & "The Olympics," all closing up shop within the next few days, failed to build viewers from pervious performances.
    At 8pm, "Big Brother" did a solid 8.0/15, identical to the numbers it drew last week. But what is disappointing about those numbers is that it was the second last episode: the season finale airs tonight. The Fridat edition of the show usually draws 6-7 million viewers, but if it doesn't draw anymore than that tonight, look for CBS to drop the show all together.
    At 9pm, it was "BBs" compatriot "Survivor" drowning the the ratings, coming in fifth in it's timeslot. And even that was close as the show came with a few hundred thousand viewers of the WB's "Charmed" (4.6 million verus 4.0). The repeats of the season finale airs tonight at 9pm. When it originally aired in August, it drew a phenominal 51.9 million viewers. This time around it will be lucky to draw 10.
    But the consistant loser of the night was NBC's Olympics coverage. From 8 to 11 pm, it drew a 22.5/41. While that may be high in comparison to all of the other nets, for NBC it's certain death. With the Olympics wrapping up on Sunday, it is now impossible to average the 27 million viewers
it promised advertizers. The net will likely have to give out ad spots to make up for the drop in ratings.
    The finale news wasn't entirely bad on Thursday, however. ABC's documentary entry "Hopkins 24/7" wrapped up at 10pm to a 9.3/16, it's best numbers yet. (September 29)

Baseball or the President?
    That's the choice NBC's affiliates are going to have to make next week as both the first Presidential Debates and the Divisional Baseball Playoffs air on the same night. The network is contractually obligated to air live the baseball playoffs, but it is also required to air presidential debates. So next Tuesday, affiliates can either air the playoffs, starting at 8pm, or the presidential debates, which start at nine. NBC's prez Randy Falco said the netowkr left the choice up to the afiliates because "they know their audience best." (September 29)

"Dharma" & "Buffy" do Tuesday
    On a night when the Olympics (20.2/39) dropped to their lowest numbers of the entire games, it was two women who made the news: Dharma & Buffy. They lifted their perspective networks up
on the night, brining ABC into a strong second and the WB into a very close 5th.
    At 8pm, the season premiere of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" brought in a 6.1/11, tying for fourth
in the slot. Although that number is down from last season's premiere, it is almost 4 million more viewers than it recorded the previous week. That helped lead-out "Angel" to a 6.0/12, coming in a solid 3rd in the slot.
    At 9pm, the bell rang for "Dharma & Greg," which recorded a 10.0/20 at 9 and an 8.5/17 for it's second episode at 9:30. It did come second to the Olympics in the slot, but it did cut the margin
from 14 million viewers last week to just over 10 this week. The 9pm episode also held a summer record 65% of "Millionaires" audience. That show saw numbers slip thanks to a repeat (15.3/27) that originally aired in May.
    In the race for 3rd on the week, last week's winner Fox slipped just under CBS 6.5 million viewers to 6.4. But that will likyly change with the series finale of "Big Brother" airing on Friday.
(September 27)

Fox beats out CBS for 3rd
    For the first time since Fox aired the Superbowl in 1998, the net grabbed more viewers than CBS last week, dropping the eye to 4th. Despite airing against the Olympics, Fox averaged 7.7 million viewers last week, 1.7 million more than it's summer average. Nearly all of it's night were within a stone-throw of the average, the highest being Wednesday with the movie "The Nutty Professor"
(10.0/18) and the lowest being the Monday movie "Dumb & Dumber" (6.7/11).
    On the flip side, CBS saw fortunes fall with a slew of "Survivor" repeats. Out of 22 primtime hours, a full 6 were devoted to repeats of the hit summer show. The show, however, did not hold up well in repeats, averaging 5.0 million viewers, hitting a low of just 3.8 million on Saturday. On top of the, only one night managed to crack 10.0 million viewers, with "60 Minutes" (13.8/23) & the movie "LA Confidential" (10.7/16) pulling up the eye's collective socks.
    UPN had a good week too, much on the strength of it's Monday line-up. "The Hughleys" (5.2/10)
had it's highest ranking since January in 61st, with "The Parkers" (5.1/9) nipping on it's heels at 63rd.
(September 27)

Interest in "Survivor" drops to new lows
    Even though "Survivor"s can be seen on everything from the Emmys to "Live with Regis" to "Hollywood Squares," viewership for repeats of the show  that launched it all fell to a new low on Saturday. At 9pm, "Suvivor" recorded just a 3.8/8 for CBS, making it the eye's lowest rated broadcast of the entire year; the lowest rated big-4 show of the week; and putting it in a tie with "7th Heaven" and "Charmed" on the WB. Ratings for the repeats have dropped steadily since they premiered last Friday. On Saturday, "Survivor" hit a high with 6.5 million viewers, but has since fallen off that mark by millions. (September 24)

"Sabrina" premieres low on WB
    "Sabrina" made it's premiere on the WB Friday, but it could not cast much magic at all. The show did a 4.3/9 at 8pm on the frog net, a million and a half viewers less than fomer co-TGIF show "The Hughleys" grabbed for UPN just two weeks ago. But that number was good enough to lift the entire night to 5th on the night, also on the strength of the premiere of "Gross Pointe" (3.3/7). The WB paid over a million dollars an episode for the one time hit "Sabrina" after ABC balked at the high cost. That led the alphabet net to disband TGIF after 10 years, which leads us to....
    The premiere of the new ABC Friday. On the weakness of "viewers choice" episodes of "Norm"
& "Two Guys & A Girl," the net fell to an average of 4.6 million viewers from 8-10 pm, falling to fourth in each of it's timeslots. That represents it's lowest ratings on Friday since Christmas.
(September 23)

"Millionaire" slips further on Thursday; so does CBS
    A special one and half hour "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" slipped to it's lowest numbers since last summer on Thursday, falling to a 15.9/25 from 8:30 to 10pm. Though "Olympic" competition is much to blame, the slow has been gradually slipping lately, recording 18.5 million viewers for it's Thursday edition last week. The game show goes into repeats next week, potentially crippling some of it's lead-outs as they go into season premiere week.
    The story was much the same on CBS on Thursday as that net feLl even further behind Fox in the weekly ratings race. The eye grabbed 6.1 million viewers from 8-11 on the night, falling behind every net but the WB (3.6 million). But it even got a close call in that race when Charmed (3.8/7)
nearly beat "Suvivor" (4.4/7) in the 9pm hour. So far repeats of the once hit "Survivor" have declined every night they have aired. (September 22)

Dr. Laura put on hold
    Could it be that GLADD, which consistantly rallies against censorship, is finally getting it's wish to do just that? It seems so: production on the "Dr. Laura" tv show has been put on a week-long hiatus,
and gay groups will likely claim victory. But the real reason could be the format and content of the show, which has ranged from boring to more boring. That has resulted in low ratings and a loss of advertizers. Production will resume late next week, and a spokesperson from home-studio "Paramount" told AP that "all parties" would be happy witht he new shows. (September 22)

Fox jumps out on Wednesday; CBS slips
    Two networks that have been in conversely different directions all summer seem to have switched places this week. CBS, which took home the ratings gold early this summer with "Survivor" has slipped into 4th into Wednesday, while typical slacker Fox actually has a chance to reach second on the week.
    Well, maybe not second, but the net could very well beat CBS out for third, the first time that would have happened ever. So far, Fox is averaging a 7.7/14 on the week, almost a million viewers over CBS at a 6.9/12. That net is seeing numbers slip thanks to "Survivor" repeats, which drew only 5.5 million viewers at 9pm on Wednesday, off from both it's Monday & Tuesday airings. Other than that, numbers are down even nin prover performers like "60 Minutes II" (8.0/13) & "Everybody Loves Raymond" (7.8/14) thanks to Olympic competition.
    Fox meanwhile, seems to be thriving on Olympic competition, airing a slate of movies. Wednesday's airing of "The Nutty Professer" drew a 9.4/18, coming in second in it's 8-10 pm slot.
(September 21)

CBS loser in weekly ratings
    All the networks posted viewer gains over summer averages last week, all except for CBS. The net fell to a 8.3/17, it's lowest net share number of the summer and just half of what NBC (16.5/34)
recorded. The eye's basic problem was the "Olympic" alternative "Survivor", which is fast becoming the Olympic sized mistake. Repeats of the summer hit fell to a 6.0/12 on Friday, dipping further to a 5.1/10 on Saturday. That represents an over 15 million viewers drop from their original broadcasts.
CBS did ave high hopes for the repeats, running them everynight through the Olympics. It even went as far as to call it the "Olympic Alternative." Early numbers from this week are showing further declines, with the Tuesday episode falling to a 5.5/10, just half of what "60 Minutes II" recorded in that slot a week earlier.
    Elsewhere last week, UPN had it's best summer week ever with a 4.3/9. Topping it's list was "WWF Smackdown" (8.4/17) in 41st, followe up by "The Parkers" (6.0/15) in 67th. That show recorded it's highest ranking, viewer total and net share ratings ever. "The Hughleys" (5.8/12) also did a fine job in it's little net premiere, coming in 71st, tying "Moesha" (5.8/15). (September 21)

"Dharma" gets a lift on Tuesday
    Tuesday ratings for a one hour block of "Dharma & Greg" prove wrong what many had suspected: that the show consistantly lost "Millionaire" audience throughout it's half-hour broadcast.
Although the show (11.0/20) did hold just under two thirds of a reduced "Millionaire's" (17.6/28) aud, "D&G's" second episode at 9:30 came in at a 9.5/17, only a million and a half viewers off the 9:30 o'clock showing, or about 14 percent. That puts it above "Sports Night," which lost 25 percent of "D&G's" audience during the regular season, and way above "Norm," which has typically lost 40 percent of the aud during the summer months. The back-to-back episodes were chosen by viewers on ABC's official website. (September 21)
 
CBS big Monday loser with "Survivor"
    All the nets seemed to have good ratings news on Monday, all, that is, except for CBS. Thanks to repeats of the once- hit "Survivor," the net fell to it's lowest numbers of the summer. The reality series, which ran at 9pm, fell to a 5.8/9, just half of what the eye recorded last week with the combo of "Everbody Loves Raymond" & "Becker." That drug the entire night to a 7.4/12, only 1.3 million viewers above perennial loser Fox 6.1/10.
    The big winner on the night was NBC, which drew an average of 24.2 million viewers for it's Olympic coverage. ABC came a distant second, averaging 14.4 million on the back of "NFL Monday Night Football" (17.7/25). The UPN, which beat out Fox last week, slipped back into fifth with "The Hughleys" (5.2/9) & "The Parkers (5.1/9). So far, "The Parkers" is averaging 5.4 million viewers over 3 new episodes, up 38% over last season. (September 19)

Opening Ceremonies draw crowds
    It may not be a "Survivor," but the Opening Ceremonies for the Sydney Olympics drew a huge
crowd anyway, raking up a 28.9/57 from 8 to 11 pm on NBC. That was enough to boost it's weekly average from 9.8 to 13.6 million viewers, leapfrogging over second place ABC (10.6). But the most interesting news of the night came from the repeat of the first installment of "Survivor." It drew a puny 6.2/12 at 9pm, almost 10 million viewers behind what it drew in it's first run and 22 million viewers behind the Olympics.
    Meanwhile, Fox tried to draw younger viewers with "Music Mania 2000," but didn't. The special fell to a 4.0/9 from 8 to 10pm, one of the nets worst Friday performances of the summer. (September 16)

UPN has record summer week
    Thursday was yet another blockbuster night for the future Paramount network, as it swept into
3th place and boosted it's weekly numbers to within a million viewers of 4th place Fox. "WWF Smackdown" (8.4/17) gave it's best performace of the the summer, lifting it's net to a 5.0/11 on the week. Even with lowly Friday yet to come, the net could average no lower than 4.3 million viewers on the week.
    In other Thursday news, NBC came the closest to ABC as it has all sumer, losing by just an 18 per cent margin. As "Millionaire" (18.2/33) fell to it's lowest regular numbers of the summer, "Will & Grace" picked up the slack at 9:30, rushing to a 11.6/21. That's it's highest numbers since moving to Thursday night. (September 15)

UPN doesn't miss a beat on Monday
    The UPN, which only a month ago had an unfortunate future, is rocking it's way into the fall season, raking up a huge Monday. The net scored a 5.1/11 from 8-10, beating both Fox (3.9/8) & WB (3.0/6). Surprizingly, it wasn't the tried and true "The Parkers" (5.2/13) that gave it a boost, it was ABC import "The Hughleys" (5.4/10). That number represents a higher rating than the show
garnered on it's former net some weeks. It also represents the first time a program has grown on "The Parkers" and one of UPN's highest rated Monday telelcasts ever.
    Elsewhere, "Everybody Loves Raymond" capitalized on Patricia Heaton's Best Actress Emmy win, drawing a 12.6/23. That's it's highest viewer total in weeks. (September 12)

Emmy predictions not bad
    The Emmy predictions made on this site by yours truly turned out to be not bad at all. Out of the 10 major categories, 9 of which had predicitons, 5 were correct. Wrong were Best Actor; Best Actress & Supporting actress in a Drama along with Best Actress in a comedy. Not a bad rate at all. Now for Emmy 2001 predictions..... (September 11)

ABC wins 3rd week in a row, 10 of 12
    In the past three months, ABC has only lost the weekly ratings race twice. As amazing as that seems (especially since the summer's "It" show was on CBS), the alphabet managed it's biggest win yet over it's rivals last week. ABC (12.6/30) beat it's nearest competitor CBS (8.2/20) by a whopping 53 percent, the higest margin of victory by any network this summer.
    The net had especially strong nights on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Sunday, when everything seemed to come together. It was led by the premiere of Monday Night Football (22.9/42), which beat last year's score by 2 percent. "Millionaire Tuesday" (22.8/51) was next, followed by the "2000 Emmy Awards," which pulled in a 21.5/38. The broadcast was the highest rated Emmy show in 14 years, also recording it's highest 18-49 share since 1994. To top off the cake, ABC snatched the top 7 positions in the ratings chart, a feat it has not accomplished since "Celebrity Millionaire" in May took 9 of 10 spots.
    On the other nets, it was biz as usual, with a few exceptions. NBC bombed spectacularly
with the "Hispanic Heritage Awards" on Saturday, which fell to 90th place and a measly 3.0 million viewers. UPN had good news however, both "The Parkers" (5.1/12) & Moesha (4.7/11) broke out to record premieres, giving the net it's first Monday night win over Fox ever. (September 11)

"Big Brother" scores big Saturday
    CBS's flailing reality show "Big Brother" scored it's biggest numbers yet for a Saturday airing,
besting it's previous mark by over a million viewers. The show scored a 7.9/24 from 8 to 9pm, coming in first in the timeslot over Fox's "Cops" combo (7.6/23). The represents the first time that the show has won it's Saturday slot, and it's highest viewer total of the week, outside of Wednesday.
    An NBC, the "Hispanic Heritage Awards" proved fatal for the net, falling to a 3.0/8 at 10pm.
That's 100,000 viewers less than ABC scored during it's May airing of the hispanic ALMA awards.
(September 10)

"PJs" bow low for WB
    "The PJ's" came up with less than stellar numbers on it's new network, bombing on it's first Friday airing. The show scored a 2.2/8 at 8:30, exactely half of what a repeat of the show scored on Fox last Tuesday. WB had high hopes for the urban clay-mation comedy, which was a hit for Fox in it's first season, did not air until this summer because Fox did not have a timeslot for it. It was originally
schedualed to air Sundays at 7 on WB, but they changed that in August.
    In other WB news, Popular will likely score it's second straight week at the very bottom of the ratings chart. The show scored a 1.3/5 at 9pm, the lowest numbers for the WB in that slot all summer. While things don't look at all good for the frog net on Fridays, that should change next Friday when "Sabrina" makes it debut. Or maybe not. (September 9)

Monday night premieres score
    Season premieres of "NFL Monday Football" & "The Parkers" scored for their respective networks on Monday, throwing the other nets into a heap. Over on ABC, "NFL" brought in a 22.0/42 from 9pm on, peaking at 10:30. That is down from last season's premiere of 24.1 million viewers, but, coupled with "20/20 Downtown" (14.6/36), it lead ABC (19.5/40) to a win on the night. Usual champ CBS (8.0/16) dropped to 3rd on the night, led down by "Big Brother," which fell to it's lowest Monday numbers yet.
    On the mini nets, UPN scored it's first ever Monday win over Fox (4.0/9 vs 3.7/9), lead by the surge of the second season premiere of "The Parkers" (4.9/12). That show scored both it's highest viewer total and net share ever. That should only grow next week when co-show "Moesha" let's loose on it's fifth season. (September 5)