ABC wins a rare Wednesday
With two hours of specials,
ABC won a Wednesday that usually goes to NBC, much thanks to the peacock
being in repeats. ABC started the night off in third, however, with "My
Wife & Kids" (9.7mil) and "It's All Relative" (8.2mil) airing repeats,
overtaken by "60 Minutes II" (12.7mil), Fox's duo of "That 70s Show" (9.4mil)
and "The Simple Life" (11.0mil), but it did manage to beat out "Ed" (7.7mil)
over on NBC. Better have some spark on Fridays Mr. Ed, or you're a goner.
But it was all ABC at
9pm as Barbara sat down with 10 people to the tune of 13.3mil viewers,
beating out the 12.1mil who tuned into a repeat "Law & Order." "King
of Queens" (11.6mil) and "Becker" (10.0mil) were third, while "The OC"
(8.3mil) was a typical fourth. At 10pm, it was ABC once again as Diane
Sawyer sat down with Oprah ad 14.4mil tuned in, just beat out "Law &
Order" (14.3mil). "48 Hours" (7.4mil) was a very distant third. (December
18)
Girls of "Gilmore" renewed
Although there may be 20%
fewer fans this season, they can all take heart- the WB has renwwed "Gilmore
Girls" for a fifth season. NBC has also ordered additional episode of "The
Tracy Morgan Show," although judging by the ratings, not many people will
actually care about that one. (December 18)
CBS flies past NBC on Thursday
Remember how the last edition
of "Survivor" kind of limped towards the finale, ratings wise? Well, that
isn't happening this time. The penultimate episode drew a series high 22.7mil
viewers ta 8pm, nearly outdrawing ABC, NBC & Fox combined. "CSI" aired
to a below average 27mil viewers at 9pm, while "Without A Trace" towed
the line at 16.4mil viewers at 10pm.
So where exactely was
NBC, anyway? Well, it nearly collapsed on the night, aided only by a new
"ER" (19.1mil) at 10pm. "Friends" (14.5mil) did okay for a repeat episode,
but "Good Morning Miami" (11.5mil), "Will & Grace" (12.8mil) and "Scrubs"
(11.0mil) all hit season lows for new episodes, save "GMM," which obviously
bombed in its return to the night.
ABC was a very distant
third as "Threat Matrix" (5.8mil) hit a series low, although "Extreme Makeover"
(8.8mil) and "PrimeTime" (8.0mil) were all within their normal ranges.
"Smackdown" (5.5mil) was fourth on the night, although Fox was up over
its typical numbers with "Tru Calling" (4.8mil) and repeats of "The Simple
Life" (5.5mil avg from 9-10pm). The WB was dead last, although the special
"Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" (3.8mil) was strong for the network.
(December 12)
Trista married to 18mil
Trista & Ryan, reality
tv's super couple, married on Wednesday to 18mil viewers, nearly matching
the finale of the fourth "Bachelor" series, which aired last month. "My
Wife & Kids" opened the night to a typical 11.5mil, while "It's All
Relative" is looking better and better for a second season with 10mil.
NBC was second on the
night, although "Ed" (8.0mil) is certainly not a prize at 8pm. "Law &
Order" aired during the other two hours to 12.4mil and 15.5mil for repeats.
Fox was third overall with 9.6mil viewers for the Billboard Music Awards.
CBS died on the night with, although "60 Minutes" (10.1mil) was third at
8pm. "King of Queens" (9.4mil) and "Becker" (8.4mil) aired repeats in fourth
place at 9pm, while "48 Hours" (6.1mil) was invisible at 10pm.
Over on the mini-nets,
"Smallville" (3.7mil) and "Angel" (2.4mil) were no match at all for "Enterprise"
(2.1mil) nor "Jake 2.0" (1.6mil), both of which hit frighteningly low numbers
for repeats on the UPN. (December 11)
"The Parkers" parked for good
It's starting to look
more and more like "The Parkers" will be ending this season on the UPN.
The network has decided to order only 19 new episodes of the series, bringing
the total to 110, enough to send the show into syndication and fulfill
a deal with BET. The producing company doesn't see a reason to produce
more episodes unless the UPN dramatically increases the liscensing fee.
Considering that the UPN has a number of comedies higher rated than this
show, don;t expect that to happen.
Did you read my fall
preview? I predicted this exact thing to happen, but like with "Moesha."
After five seasons, all mini-net sitcoms go bust. Well, at least those
on the UPN because the WB has yet to have a sitcom to last that long. (December
11)
"Simple Life" not so big in week
2
Proving that some shows
cool off more quickly than others, Tuesday was a perfect example for the
boradcast nets. At 8:30pm. "The Simple Life" dropped 15% of its audience
from it's premiere week, coming in second in the hour to CBS's "Rudolph"
special (13mil), but beating out ABC's Peanuts special (10.1mil). Over
on NBC, not coming in so good in week two was "The Tracy Morgan Show,"
which dropped to 7.5mil, a full 25% loss from its first week to its second.
"Whoppi" was a bit better at 8.7mil. "That 70s Show" opened the night for
Fox with 8mil.
At 9pm, there were no
no series to talk about, but NBC did win the hour. "Frasier" (12.4mil)
picked up thanks to having a much stronger lead-out with "Happy Family"
(10.4mil), beating "Jim" (11.5mil) and "Perfect" (10.1mil) over on ABC
in viewers and adults. "24" (9.0mil) was third, while a repeat of "The
Guardian" (7.3mil) was m4th in the hour.
At 10pm, ABC's "Line Of Fire"
(8.7mil) felh up pretty weel in its second week, losing about 6% of its
premiere audience. Still, it was no match for "SVU" (13.1mil) and "Amy"
(6.9mil) ws a repeat. (December 10)
"Average Joe" bows out big
"Average Joe"
wasn't showing much promise until about last week when the show drew 14.1mil
viewers for it's penultimate episode. Had it not grown from that, NBC probably
would have felt like a fool for renweing it, but no worries. The finale
of the series drew 17.2mil viewers, NBC's best numbers from 9-11pm on Monday
in years. In adults, the series drew close to a 9 rating, likely bringing
into the top 5 for the week considering that the Survivor finale airs on
Sunday. "Fear Factor" opened the night with a typical 13.5mil viewers.
NBC was first in every
half hour on the night in viewers and demos, but both CBS and ABC did do
well. Football drew a typical 16mil viewers, while "Raymond" (15.1mil),
"Men" (12.7mil) and "Miami" (14mil) were all third with repeats. "Yes,
Dear" (10.7mil) and "Still Standing" (11.5mil) opened the night in second
place with repeats also.
And then there were
the rest. Fox drew 5.6mil viewers for the movie "The Nutty Professor" while
nothing on the WB nor the UPN drew more than 5 million viewers. (December
9)
Reality leads Wednesday
With every network airing
something to do with reality programming (but the mini-nets), all had something
to breag about on Wednesday night. Starting out at 8pm, it was a close
race as NBC's Rockefelle Centre Christmas special drew 11.6mil viewers,
tying Fox's duo of "That 70s Show" (10.1mil) and "The Simple Life" (13.1mil)
for first place, although Fox had a huge advantage in adults and key demos.
"60 Minutes II" (10.7mil) was third, while ABC settled for aout 8.2mil
viewers with comedy repeats. "Smallville" drew 3.4mil for a repeat, while
"Enteprise" drew 2.8mil for the same.
At 9pm,
it was all ABC as viewers apparently really do care about Trista &
Ryan. The duo drew 13.8mil viewers, winning over "The West Wing" (12.7mil)
and CBS's strong combo of "King Of Queens" (12.8mil) and "Becker" (11.3mil).
"The OC" drew 9.3mil viewers, while "Angel" (2.6mil) and "Jake 2.0" (2.3mil)
duked it out for fifth.
At 10pm, "Law
& Order" (17.1mil) was all NBC needed to seal the night, but ABC had
a big outing with the special "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (12.3mil).
"48 Hours" (10.1mil) was last. (December 4)
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