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"Less Than Perfect" starting to fit
    It didn't really work airing right after "Bonnie," so who would've thunk it would work after "According To Jim" ? No matter, at the end of the season, "Less Than Perfect" jsut keeps getting better and better. After two weeks of coming close to lead-in "Jim," the show came close than ever last night, notching some of its best numbers ever (9.6mil), only 4% off "Jim"s finale numbers (10.0mil). Maybe keeping the show where it is next season wasn't such a bad idea after all....
    But the big story of the night was that everybody won something. "JAG" aired its last Tuesday episode to 13.3mil viewers at 8pm, followed by the Hitler movie with a solid 12.3mil. Over on Fox, "Idol" got set for its finale with a huge 27.2mil viewers, ad "24" hung on for 14.2mil, though those results have to be a bit disappointing. On the UPN, the "Buffy" series finale hit a season high 5.7mil and the new reality series "The Next Top Model" did okay at 3.2mil, though that too is disappointing. Over on the WB, "Gilmore Girls" and "Smallville" (5.8mil, 8.0mil) were 5th in their timeslots, while "Blue" hit 13mil viewers for ABC at 10pm.
     In the end, not everybody was a winner. Take NBC. "Outrageous Game Show Moments" (6.5mil), "Frasier" (12mil), "Watching Ellie" (9.3mil) and "Dateline" (8.6mil) were not really factors in their timeslots, except for "Frasier," which was third at 9pm. Oh, and there was "8 Simple Rules" on ABC, which dipped to 8.1mil for its finale. Of all the shows "Idol" is airing against, its "Rules" that has been affected the most. Guess you can keep John Ritter down. (May 21)

"Friends" takes a dive
     Remember last May when Rachel had her baby and "Friends" bowed out to 34.7mil viewers? Well, that didn't happen this season. In the lowest rated season finale of the series on record, the show drew 24.0mil viewers from 8-9:10pm. Granted, it was the highest rated series of the year, but the show typically goes out with a huge bang, and at 24mil viewers, than less than the series averaged last season.
    And that pretty much summed up the whole night. "Will & Grace" (21.0mil) did go out on a hgh note, but "ER" (22.0mil) couldn't jazz things up with a sojourn to the Congo (or Hawaii, whatever). "CSI" (23.6mil) didn't put up overwealming numbers, and a repeat at 8pm (13.0mil) wasn't all that and a bag of chips. "Without A Trace" at 10pm did go out with good numbers at 16mil viewers.
     ABC was a very distant, but much improved third on the night with NBA playoffs (8.3mil), while the UPN was fourth with "Smackdown!" (5.0mil). Fox shouldn've ranked sixth just for completely giving up on the night- it drew 3.8mil for "The Pulse" and only 4.3mil for the "Married... With Children" reunion special. What other net goes from drawing 20.0mil one night to 4.1mil the next? The WB was out of it completely with a movie (2.4mil). (May 16)

"Makeover" stands on its own
    ABC got some great news on Wednesday with "Extreme Makeover," the series that is slated to air thursdays at 9pm this fall. Though the show drew 10.8mil viewers, slightly lower than last week, it managed to hold its own despite a special "Bachelor Women Tell All" special airing at 9pm. That show drew 9.6mil viewers, making "Makeover" ABC's highest rated series of the night. "MWK" drew 9.2mil at 8pm and "George Lopez" drew 8.3mil at 8:30pm, pretty damn good considering what was going on over on Fox.
    What was going on over on Fox? The third-to-late episode of "American Idol," which peaked at more than 26mil viewer at 9pm, averaging 24.9mil for the 8:30-9:30pm timeslot. At 8pm, "That 70s Show" (12.9mil) finished its season a few hundred thousand viewers shy of a series record, while at 9:30pm, "The Bernie Mack" show hit 15.1mil and a series record, though a loss 43% post "Idol" is reminicent of "Dharma & Greg" post "Millionaire."
    What else aired on the night? Oh yeah, the "Dawsons Creek" series finale. The show drew 7.4mil viewers, it best numbers since its first season, and slammed the season finale of "Enterprise" (4.4mil) on the UPN. It's too bad you can only air series finales once....
     On NBC, "Dateline" (9.3mil), "The West Wing" (13.5mil) and "Law & Order" (18.3mil) were all at recent levels, while CBS had yet another solid, if boringly consistantly Wednesday with "Star Search" (10.3mil), "60 Minutes II" (10.2mil) & "48 Hours" (10.1mil). Tonight, the season finales over on NBC.... (May 15)

ABC stumbles to finish line
    ABC's Tuesday night line-up tore up the ratings last fall, but since "American Idol" hit the airwaves, the alphabet can't seem to catch a break. A week before the season finale, most of its Tuesday series hit first run season lows. "8 Simple Rules" (7.6mil), and two episodes of "According To Jim" (6.7mil, 8.7mil) were all all season lows, while "Less Than Perfect" (7.6mil) didn't fare much better. "NYPD Blue," however, (12.1mil) capped off the ight with with its best numbers in months.
    "Idol" (23.5mil) continued to grow on Tuesday, even if lead-out "24" didn't at 13.0mil. Season finales of "JAG" (12.8mil), "The Guardian" (12.0mil) and "Judging Amy" (13.3mil) were all at typical levels, while NBC couldn't catch any heat with "Game Show Moments" (7.6mil), "Frasier" (11.0mil), "Watching Ellie" (8.3mil) nor Jane Pauley's goodbye (10.0mil). Over on the UPN, the penultimate episode of "Buffy" didn't do anything in the ratings, drawing 4.4mil, while the likely series finale of "Platinum" (2.0mil) went out with onyl half that audience. "Gilmore Girls" (5.5mil) and "Smallville" (7.6mil) were both at their highest levels in months. (May 14)

Movies suck on Monday
    With both NBC and ABC wrapping up their regular Monday line-ups early, both resorted to movies on the night and got mixed results. NBC was the better of the two with the "Three's Company" movie at 10.7mil, but still, that's hardly a great result. Even worse was ABC and the movie "Ellen Rimbauer" at just 7.3mil, proving that not everything connected with Stephen King will turn to gold for the alphabet. NBC was a close second at 8pm with "Fear Factor" (12.0mil) while ABC was fifth with yet another "Bloopers" special (6.7mil).
    CBS won the night with it's regular line-up (12.0mil, 12.2mil, 18.6mil, 16.0mil, 17.5mil) and nothing was really left for anybody else. "Boston Public" wrapped, but even Whitney Houston couldn't lift the dying drama above 9.3mil, while "Mister Personality" still sucks at 7.6mil. Over on the WB, "7th Heaven" (7.6mil was fourth at 8pm but slipped back to fifth with "Everwood" (5.8mil) at 9pm. The UPN drew about 3.6mil viewers for it's regluar comedy line-up. (May 13)

CBS & NBC close on Thursday
     People must be going on a diet because NBC's super-sizer episodes just aren't what they used to be. Two "Friends" (19.7mil, 19.1mil), "Will & Grace" (16.6mil) and "ER" (22.0mil) won the night in adults by a wide margin and apparently tied CBS's linepu of ":Survivor" (19.2mil), "CSI" (24.6mil) and "Without A Trace" (15mil) in viewers, but either could pull ahead when final nationals are released. Remember when a "big" episode would draw big numbers? Remember when "Friends"  would draw big numbers? What happened?
      For the rest, not much was left on the night. At 8pm, ABC's "Where Are They Now?" special drew 5.5mil viewers, ahead of Fox's "Dog Beauty Pageant" (5.1mil). "WWE Smackdown!" (5.3mil for the night) was fifth in the hour, while the WB's movie "Pitch Black" flatlines in sixth all night. At 9pm, "PrimeTime" took over and drew 8.5mil viewers until 11pm, while "WWE" beat "The Pulse" down to just 3mil viewers. That's one show that won't be coming back, considering that's not even its worst performance of the season. It's in the top 5. (May 9)

"John Doe" won't have to wait
     In the week before ther upfronts, the nets are usually mum about their plans, hoping to build momentum for their presentations. But at least one thing slipped out: "John Doe" will not be back next season, wile could be bad news for the even lower rated "Fastlane." "Boomtown," meanwhile, has added a cast members, fueling hopes that series will be back, and, gulp, "AUSA" could be back also, assuming that Heather Locklear joins the cast. Sigh. (May 9)

Everybody a Wednesday winner
     Everybody seemed to have some good ratings news to boast about on Wednesday, even if the numbers weren't there to back up the claims. Fox, of course, won the night with "That 70s Show" (11.8mil), "Idol" (22.3mil) and two episodes of "Bernie Mack" (14.6mil, 12.0mil), but NBC was a not-too-distant second with "Dateline" (9.1mil), "The West Wing" (13.5mil) and "Law & Order" (17.3mil).
      Over on ABC, "The Bachelor" (13.7mil) isn't showing huge jumps in the ratings, but at nearly 14mil viewers, it's the highest rated show on the network. Lead-out "Extreme Makeover" (11.7mil) continues to do well, while lead-in's "My Wife & Kids" (10.1mil) and "George Lopez" (9.0mil) hit their best numbers in several weeks. CBS wins the stability awards of the night, with "Star Search," "60 Minutes II" and "48 Hours" all drawing 9.2mil, while the WB aired "Dawsons Creek" (4.3mil) and "Angel" (4.2mil) to their best numbers in months.
     I did say that everybody was a winner on Wednesday, and I hate to pick on the poor UPN, but... what the hell. "Enterprise"
actually had an up week at 4.4mil, as did "The Twilight Zone" (2.7mil). But that doesn't make them winners. (May 8)

Tuesday update
     Turns out that "24" did set a series record on Tuesday with 13.6mil viewers, still ridding on "Idol"s (21.7mil) coattails, but impressive nevertheless. Over on ABC, "According To Jim" continues to nip "Frasier" in adults (3.9/10 to 3.8/10), but the real story came at 9:30 with "Less Than Perfect." The show drew 8.6mil viewers and grabbed a 3.5/9 in adults, beating "Watching Ellie" (3.4/8, 8.4mil) by a slim margin. That represents the series best numbers since last fall. (May 7)

"Idol" nudges upwards
    With only two weeks left to go, "American Idol" inched upwards in the ratings charts, this time logging 22mil viewers, a totoal not seen for the series since February. That lifted "24" to 13mil viewers, just a half a million viewers shy of its series high. But what effect did "Idol" have on the other networks? Not much, really. Well, that's not to say other series aren't hurting because of "Idol," it just that its recent increase in ratings really isn't having further impact.
    CBS was second on the night with "JAG" (13.0mil), "The Guardian" (11.7mil) and "Judging Amy" (13.1mil) each ranking second in their respective hours, while ABC was third on the back of "Blue" (11.7mil). Earlier in the evening, "8 Simple Rules" (8.3mil), two episodes of "According To Jim" (7.8mil, 9.5mil) and "Less Than Perfect" (7.2mil) aren't winning any prizes, but are ranking second on the night in adults. NBC struggled all night with "Game Show Moments 4" (6.5mil- hey, it was so outrageous, why wasn't it included in specials 1-3?), "Watching Ellie" (8.7mil) and "Dateline" (8.8mil), though "Frasier" continues lead the night and stay out of the danger territory it was deeply entrenched in only a month ago. Still, at just 11mil viewers, it clearly doesn't warrant the $5.5mil an episode NBC is paying for it.
     The WB had a good night with "Gilmore Girls" (5.3mil) and "Smallville" (6.7mil), while viewers seem to be apathetic about the impending series final of "Buffy" as that series drew only 4.1mil. "Platinum" ended the night at 2.2mil. (May 7)

CBS easily wins Monday
   CBS easily won Monday night and it didn't really have any competition in any hour. "Raymond" (19.0mil) hit a multi-month high, "Still Standing" (15.5mil) was strong, even if "CSI Miami" (14.8mil) hit a first run low and "King of Queens" (12.3mil) and "Yes, Dear" (12.7mil) weren't doing cartwheels. The only competition to speak of was "Fear Factor," which ran until 10pm and earned 13.2mil viewers. "Jordan" closed the night for NBC by barely breaking the 10mil viewer mark.
     Over on ABC, the net was actually third, but did anybody notice? "The Practice" aired for what may have been the last time, and only drew 10.6mil viewers. "Bloopers" aired at 8pm to 9.3mil, a third place finish in the hour. "Boston Public" (8.0mil) for fourth at 8pm with "7th Heaven" (7.5mil) nipping at its heals, while the surprizingly-impotent "Mister Personality" (6.0mil) not only fell to a series low, but also fell to fifth behind "Everwood" (6.2mil). The UPN drew about 3.6mil viewers for its comedy line-up.
(May 6)

"Hunter" dead
    After only three weeks on the air, NBC has given "Hunter" the boot. The show averaged about 5.5mil viewers in its run, about a million less than the net got with repeat of "Law & Order." (May 6)

ABC & NBC top Friday
    Both NBC and ABC were in the running for top honours on Friday, up until 10pm, that it. From 8-10pm, NBC's "America's Most Talented Kid" finale drew 9.6mil, it's best numbers in several weeks. But that wasn't enough to top ABC over the two hour span, who aired the solid fall-back "Americas Funniest Videos" (9.6mil, 10.3mil) and came up first a first place finish. The divergence came at 10pm where "SVU" (14.1mil) man-handled ABC's weakling "20/20" (8.8mil).
    CBS and Fox, for all intents and purposes, were out of it. CBS was third at 8pm with "Star Search" (7.1mil), third at 9pm with "Hack" (8.5mil), and still third, albeit close, at 10pm with "CSI Miami" (8.7mil). Fox aired "Big Mama's House" on the night to the tune of 5.5mil viewers. (May 3)

Format changes to ratings
    You will notice some format changes to the ratings in this upcoming week, but only the final ratings list posted in the archive. I have started using a spreadsheet to enter the ratings, which saves me alot of time in sorting, ect. The changes aren't that drastic, but I thought I should give you a heads up. (May 3)

Presidential address comes as worst time
     NBC and CBS must be cursing the president today (of course, under their collective breaths, learning from what happened to the Dixie Chicks). His presidential address couldn't have come at a worse time for the two nets- in the middle of their top Thursday line-ups. NBC started out the night with weak results from two episodes of "Friends" (18.4mil, 17.7mil), which likely tied "Survivor" in the hour in viewers (18.1mil), but winning in key demos. then came the presidential address at 9pm, and that threw the entire night off. "CSI" (23.2mil) slide to a season low at 9:30pm, but beat out "Will & Grace" (16.5mil) for first place. With "CSI" in the path, "ER" (19.2mil) came close to series lows, while "Without A Trace" (13.2mil) continued the fall-off at 10:30pm.
     But what hurts another.... Fox and ABC actually used the presidential address as a reprieve from their weak schedules. "My Wife & Kids" (6.6mil, 6.8mil) was better than average at 8pm, while "PrimeTime Thursday" (7.6mil) was average from 9:30-11pm. Over on Fox, the "Cops" special "Caught Red Handed" apprehended only 5.3mil viewers from 8-10pm, minus the 9:00pm half hour. The UPN, at 4.8mil viewers, was unaffected by the address, as was the WB, which aired the season final of "JKX" to a solid 3.3mil, followed by a repeat at 9:30pm, which drew 2.8mil. (May 2)

Something for everyone on Wednesday
     Wednesday proved that there was something for everyone on network tv, and the networks saw the ratings promised land for offering such variety. If you want dramas, "The West Wing" (13.0mil) and "Law & Order" (18.1mil) took the cake on NBC, with the WB offering up "Angel" and "Dawsons Creek" (3.9mil) and the UPN getting a rise out of both "Enterprise" (4.1mil) and "The Twilight Zone" (3.4mil), which hit highs not seen since last fall. 
      If sitcoms were more to your liking, there was an entire block from 8-10pm, albeit on two different networks. Though "My Wife & Kids" (8.5mil) and "George Lopez" (8.4mil) were weak on ABC, a series high "Bernie Mack" (14mil) and the finale of "Wanda At Large" (10.3mil) led the night in the genre. Ironically, the only four sitcoms on the night do not air opposite each other (except when "That 70s Show" is on the sched at 8pm), and are all headlined by minority performers. 
     There's plenty of reality to go around on Wednesday too, though the obvious standout was the hour of "American Idol"{ (19.0mil). "The Bachelor" (13.3mil) continues a slow, but steady climb, while "Extreme Makeover" at 10pm (12.1mil) has finally seemed to solved ABC's woes in the hour. Less fortunate, however, was CBS's "Star Search" (7.8mil) which skidded to Wednesday series lows in the hour.
      On the newsmag side of things, there was "Dateline" (7.7mil) at 9pm, "60 Minutes II" (9.6mil) at 9pm and "$8 Hours Investigates" (8.1mil) at 10pm, take your pick. Or better yet, don't. (May 1)
 

                                      April 2003 News