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The summer so far
        Just a week into the summer season, the networks are already asking themselves, will it be an American Idol/Survivor/Millionaire or a Ultimate Love Test/The Rerun Show/The State Vs. kind of summer? The jury is still out, of course, but a number of series did get off to a hot start so far. The biggest, of course, was ABC's campy "Dancing With The Stars," which busted out to 13.3 million viewers, ranking as ABC's fifth highest rated series premiere of the past tv season. Will viewers stick around? The "Idol" voting element certainly won't push them away, but remember, "American Juniors" did the same thing a few years ago. Also, NBC's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" got off to a promising 8.7 million viewers and could very well rank as the highest rated telecast of the week in adults at a 4.5/13. The WB got some good news out of "Beauty and the Geek" as well, with 3.1 million viewers, and a repeat of Thursday actually did better than that with 3.2mil.
       But its the repeats that viewers are sticking around for. Noteably, "NCIS" drew 10.1mil Tuesday at 9pm, and ABC drew 7.8 mil for a repeat of "Supernanny" and 8.2mil for a repeat of the "Lost" pilot of Wednesday, an episode which has already aired 4 times. To Thursday of this week, CBS leads the pack with 10mil viewers, NBC and ABC are tied for secodn with 7.3mil, while Fox trails at 5.3mil. The UPN leads the WB 2.8mil to 2.6mil. Compared to the same period from last season, ABC is continuing its extremely hot role, up 50%, Fox is up 18%, CBS 3% and the UPN 2%. On the downside, the WB is off 9% and NBC 12%. If you look closely, those rankings for gain/loss are the same as during the regular season, even if the percentages are off. (June 4)

"Raymond" cleans up on Monday
       Raymond went out the way it lived: under the radar and not quite record breaking. The sitcom did draw a massive series high 33.1 million viewers on Monday, but that didn't quite reach the highs of "Friends" last season, which had the benefit of a season of promotion. Neverthless, it also led "Two & A Half Men" to a series high 25mil viewers, while a "Ray" retrospective at 8pm drew a massive 23.9mil viewers. Later in the night, "CSI Miami" closed up to a high 23 million viewers. Ray, you will be missed, and you did a really good job on the finale.
       Elsewhere on the night, nobody was really hurt, except NBC. It's movie "Hercules" drew an anemic 7.2mil viewers, fourth in every timeslot, smashed by the finale of "The Bachelor" (10.2mil) and Fox's "Nanny 911" (7.3mil) and "24" (10.7mil). Over on the mini nets, the WB managed a win in viewers with "7th Heaven" (5.2mil) and "Everwood" (4.3mil), but the UPN took it in adults with season high results for "One On One" (3.5mil), "Cuts" (3.8mil), "Girlfriends" (4.3mil) and "Half & Half" (4mil). (May 17)

"Amazing Race" smashes series record
       CBS knew it would be big, but this big? "The Amazing Race" closed out its seventh season with record smashing results- 16 million viewers (the old record was 13.6mil set in the spring of 2002 when it was airing after "Survivor") and a huge 6.7/17 in adulta 18-49, and an even better 7.8/18 in adults 25-54. That will likely put the show in the top 10 on the week in adults, the first time it's ever done that in the regular season (outside of the Christmas/New Year's weeks). It's so hard to believe now that CBS was going to put the show on Saturdays just one year ago. Betcha CBS is doing cartwheels right now. What shows did it hurt? Well, a few, subtlely. "One Tree Hill" slipped to a season low 3.7mil viewers on the WB, while NBC had a whole other group of problems that I'll get too later. Also in the hour, Fox's "House" hit yet another series high, this time 19mil viewers and a 7.5/18 in adults 18-49. That represents retention from "Idol" of an amazing 80% in viewers and 77% in adults 18-49, better than any other post-big-series show on the air right now (Without A Trace, Grey's Anatomy). It'll be interesting to see how "House" does this fall without "Idol," but it's increasingly clear that "House"s numbers are coming because viewers really like the show, not because it airs after a huge hit. In comparison, on this week last season, "Idol" was up 3% in viewers and adults, while "House" was up 56% in viewers and 42% in adults over "24." Say what you will about Fox, but they really did a good thing by moving "24" to Mondays where it's drawing its best numbers ever, and going with a new show on Tuesday. It'll be interesting to see what happens on Wednesdays with the sitcom block obviously not working. "NCIS" drew a solid 13.1mil viewers for CBS at 8pm and was a very solid second in the timeslot in adults.
         The other big news of the night (although it was insignificant overall) was that "Gilmore Girls" was third at 8pm in adults with a 2.2/6, over NBC's 1.7/5 for "Most Outrageous TV Moments" (5.1mil) and ABC's dead duo of "My Wife & Kids" (5.4mil- 1.8/5) and "George Lopez" (5.5mil- 2.1/6). The UPN was a very distant sixth overall. Another big piece of news was the absolute failure of "Will & Grace" on Tuesday, where it's looking to move this fall. "Scrubs" closed out it's 4th season with a weak 6mil viewers, but "W&G" couldn't even hold that, sliding to a pathetic 5.5mil viewers, and a series low for a new episode to boot. NBC should not have renewed this series already. BIG mistake. ABC was third in the hour with "According To Jim" (8.1mil overall), while "Veronica Mars" (which I shall watch this summer) closed out its inaugural season with 2.9mil viewers.
       At 10pm, "TAR" beat out "SVU" (14.1mil) for the first time ever, while ABC's "Blind Justice" (6.4mil) sunks lower by the week. No second season there. (May 11)


                                         April 2005 News