ABC heats up on Wednesday
    ABC has been quite a lethagic network so far this summer; outside of Friday, it hasn't really challenged the dominance of any night. It still wasn't doing so on Wednesday, but its line-up certainly is starting to pick up. "My Wife & Kids" (7.6mil), two episodes of "George Lopez" (8.3mil, 8.7mil) and "Drew Carey" (7.6mil) all challenged for top spot in adults in their respective slots; the only missing link was "The Family" at 10pm, which just can't seem to do anything right and took in only 4.8mil viewers. As for "Lopez," it's consistantly been the highest rated Wednesday series on ABC this summer, what better show to kick off the new TGIF?
     But ABC didn't win the night- that fight went down between NBC & CBS. CBS got excellent showings out of "60 Minutes II" (10.2mil) and "Big Brother" (10.5mil), while "48 Hours" (8.0mil) at 10pm was second in tis slot. NBC, meanwhile, sanwiched "The West Wing" (7.9mil) between two episodes of "Law & Order" (7.7mil, 11.5mil) and viewers actually watched it. Fox was not even close on the night, but it did have a nice showing from "Paradise Island" (6.9mil), which looks like a shoe-in to come back next summer. Meanwhile, over on the WB, the return of "Angel" (1.5mil) went seemingly unnoticed. (August 28)

Are you watching "The OC" ?
    Guess what? After three straight weeks on viewer increases since its premiere, "The OC" did it again in week four, reaching 8.8mil viewers and more than a 4 rating in adults. One of the few shows ever to accomplish this feat, "Survivor" was the last one. If the show can crease it viewer total next week, however, it will surpass "Survivor," which dipped slightly in week 5. Helping matters was the premiere of "Performing As...." which drew an okay 7.2mil at 8pm.
     Other than "The OC," the weren't alot of winners on the night. "Big Brother" (8.8mil) backed off from recent highs, while "Cupid" (7.2mil) started to make up ground for CBS. ABC's sitcoms were up, highlighted by "8 Simple Rules" (7.7mil) and "According To Jim" (8.1mil), though "Life With Bonnie" (7.1mil) and "Less Than Perfect" (7.5mil) were looking for comfortable in their slots than ever.
     Over on NBC, two episodes of "Dog Eat Dog" (5.7mil, 6.7mil) ruined "SVU"s (9.5mil) chances of winning the night for the peacock, and in fact, NBC was fourth on the night in adults. But "SVU" had no problems beating up on the aging dinosaurs "Judging Amy" (5.2mil) and "Blue" (6.0mil). (August 27)

GayTV raking up Thursday audiences
    With a full 60% gay themed line-up on Thursdays (this has to be a network record, no?), NBC is finally starting to see the upside of the summer on the night, which has been struggling with repeats of the :30 shows and "ER" falling into a black hole of sorts. On Thursday, "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy" (8.1mil) reached a whole new audience, falling only slight from it's lead-in, two episodes of "Will & Grace" (8.7mil, 8.8mil). The outsiders on the night were "Friends" (9.6mil) and "Scrubs" (8.5mil) which, alas, do not feature any gay characters.
     Ironically, while "Friends" and "Scrubs" were non-gay  in the 8pm hour, CBS picked up the slack. Chip & Reichen, the married gay duo, took the around the world race by a few minutes as 9.3mil people watched. They said they did it to show that gay people could do anything. Come on, you're gay, not paralyzed. "CSI" (14.1mil) and "Without A Trace" (12.8mil) finished off the night in typical winning form.
     Fox aired football (8.1mil) to a second place finish, well ABC averaged 6.9mil viewers for its line-up, consisting of repeat specials and "PrimeTime." The UPN took in 5.1mil for "Smackdown" while the WB averaged only 2.2mil for repeats of "Jamie Kennedy" and "What I Like About You." (August 22)

Good news all around on Wednesday
     Rarely comes the day where almost all the network have something to be happy about, but Wednesday was one of those nights. CBS won the night in viewers and was second in adults thanks to the winning combination of "60 Minutes II" (8.3mil), "Big Brother 4" (10.2mil) and "48 Hours" (9.7mil), winning every hour but at 10pm. That's where NBC picked up- "Law & Order" (7.3mil, 11.2mil) was very strong at the ends of the night while "The West Wing" (7.1mil) was up over recent weeks.
     Over on ABC, dumping "The Real Roseanne Show" seemed to have immediate benefits. "My Wife & Kids" (8.1mil), two episodes of "George Lopez" (7.7mil, 8.2mil) and "Drew Carey" (6.9mil) all hit summer highs, while "The Family" (4.7mil) was up over last week. Fox, on the other hand, didn't get great results from "That 70s Show" (5.8mil) nor "Bernie Mack" (5.3mil), but "Paradise Island" (6.8mil) was second in its hour in adults despite a fourth place viewer finish. There was nothing on the UPN nor the WB worth reporting. Sorry about the constant exclusion of those network, but I'm busy writing the fall preview at the moment. (August 21)

The OC keeps growing
    What are the two hottest shows of the summer? Bravo's "Queer Eye" is certainly the top, but number two belongs to Fox and "The OC." The drama drew 8.1mil viewers on Tuesday, second in its slot and up from the 7.9mil it drew the week earlier, which was up from tis premiere. It also won the slot in adults and almost all the younger demos, finally giving Fox something to brag about. But moving it to Thursdays? You never know, it could work out for the net's long suffering night. Just for the shits and giggles, Fox's last winning combo on Thursdays was "Martin," "Living Single" and "New York Undercover" more than 7 years ago. That's even longer than ABC, which last hit Thursday gold with "Millionaire."
    But it was NBC's night on Tuesday with Shania Twain's concert (10.1mil) and "SVU" (10.1mil). With 10mil people watching the concert, ti should certainly help Shania's struggling record sales. Her latest record "Up!" has yet to break 3 million in sales, this coming after her last album "The Woman In Me" become the second highest selling record of all time.
    There wasn't much left on Tuesday as the ratings will attest. Fox aired the season finale of "American Juniors" (5.4mil) and nobody seemed to care, while ABC topped out with "According To Jim" (6.8mil). This proves on thing: it's time for the fall season to being. Too bad it will kick off on Tuesdays with "Whoppi." (August 20)

ABC wins Monday as "OC" heats up
    ABC won Monday night by a comfortable margin (10.4mil) with pre-season football, but the real story was the solid numbers for "The OC." The drama, which must have Fox doing cartwheels, drew an okay 4.6mil viewers at 8pm, but combined with the 3.4mil it drew last Thursday, that means that 8mil people combined watched the repeat of the episode which drew 7.9mil when new last Wednesday. Fox must be elated, and even better, the ratings for the season episode went up, virtually unheard of for the second episode of any new series. "Paradise Hotel" continued it's summer run with a 4th place 6.2mil at 9pm.
     CBS was second on the night, highlighted by "Raymond" (10.8mil), "King of Queens" (10.4mil) and "CSI Miami" (10.6mil), while NBC continued with reality. "Fear Factor" (9.0mil) was second at 8pm, which "For Love Or Money" (9.3mil) and "Meet My Folks" (8.5mil) had to settle for third in their slots. There was virtually nothing worth mentioning on either the WB of the UPN. (August 19)

ABC ranks second on Thursday
    NBC may call its line-up "Must See," but it was ABC and CBS that racked up the viewers on Thursday. CBS won every hour with "The Amazing Race" (8.6mil), "CSI" (13.1mil) and "Without A Trace" (11.1mil), while ABC was third at 8pm with "ABC's Bloopers" (7.4mil), but a solid second through the rest of the night with "Extreme Makeover" (7.1mil) and "PrimeTime" (7.7mil). NBC was highlighted by "Friends" (8.8mil) and "W&G" (7.1mil), while sandwiched episodes of "Scrubs" (7.0mil and 5.6mil) and "ER" (6.3mil) continued to lose audience.
    There wasn't much left for anybody else on the night. The UPN was fourth with "Smackdown!" (5.0mil), while Fox failed to light any fires with the "Beverly Hills Reunion" (3.0mil) and a repeat of "The OC" (4.3mil). The WB was dead last with "House On Haunted Hill" (2.4mil). (August 8)

"Roseanne" not so real for ABC
    It maight have been the intense reality competition in the hour, or it could have been that viewers just don't care. Either way, ABC will be scratching its head today over the disappointing returns for "The Real Roseanne Show," which drew only 5.9mil viewers in its debut, about 35% of what "Roseanne" drew for its lowest rated original episode in the 9th season. The show was 3rd in the hour, way behind "Big Brother" (9.6mil) and a tick behind the Teen Choice Awards (6.7mil from 8-10pm), but it dead beat another dying series, "The West Wing," which fell to 5.7mil viewers. Looks like Aaron Sorkin got out at the right time... "The Twilight Zone" (2.3mil) was fifth in the hour, which makes me question the UPN's decision to cancel it, which the "Pepsi Summer Smash" (1.5mil) continues to be DOA.
    There wasn't much else to report on Wednesday, but here are the highlights: "60 Minutes II" (9.0mil) won at 8pm with NBC's "Race To The Altar" (5.5mil) continuing to falter, while then old stad-by "Law & Order" (11.0mil) had no problem winning the night's highest rated honour. ABC's "The Family," however, (5.0mil), is looking like Wednesday's biggest disappointment. (August 7)

CBS wins another Thursday
    As has been the case for the entire summer, CBS won Thursday yet again. "CSI" (13mil) and "Trace" (12.0mil) more than made up for the continued disappointing results from "The Amazing Race" (8.5mil) as CBS won every half hour but 8pm, where "Friends" (9.3mil) dominated. Over on NBC, the net had to be getting worried- the night keeps getting worse. "Scrubs" slipped to 8.3mil at 8:30pm, "Will & Grace" to 6.9mil at 9pm and "Scrubs" to 5.9mil) a half-hour later. "ER" (6.9mil) was up at 10pm, but even that's down over last summer.
    Fox was thirs on the night with "Bug Attack!" (5.3mil) and "101 Things Removed From The Human Body" (6.9mil), while the UPN was ABC were vitrually tied for fourth (5.9mil). The WB took a very weak 1.8mil for the movie "Gossip." (August 1)
                                                 July 2003 News