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CBS Works Past Troubles for Premiere Week

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 September 2004, 06:00 CDT

NEW YORK - During a week that CBS was fined $550,000 for Janet Jackson's Super Bowl flash and its news division had to apologize for shoddy reporting, at least the prime-time ratings gave its executives something to smile about.

CBS handily won the ratings race during the first official week of the new television season, and stuck archrival NBC where it hurts the most: on Thursday night and among young viewers.

CBS won opening week among 18-to-49-year-old viewers, the demographic most prized by advertisers. NBC has dominated this group for more than a decade, and it's why the network takes in more advertising revenue than CBS, even though CBS has been most popular among all viewers for the past couple years.

Five of the top 10 shows among that youthful demographic last week were on CBS, according to Nielsen Media Research.

CBS was also the clear victor on Thursday, a lucrative night that NBC once owned. "Survivor" topped the NBC comedy duo of "Joey" and "Will & Grace," and "Without a Trace" was the first series to ever beat an original episode of "ER."

Procedural crime dramas accounted for half of the week's top 10. Premiere week also showed the weakness of situation comedy as a genre. Only four comedies - "Everybody Loves Raymond,""Two and a Half Men,""Joey" and "Will & Grace" - made Nielsen's top 20.

"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" was the week's most popular show, and its two spinoffs also finished in Nielsen's top five.

ABC showed some signs of life. The premiere of "Lost," with its crew of beautiful people stranded on a monster-filled tropical island," hit Nielsen's top 10 with 18.7 million. Maniacal carpenter Ty Pennington is turning "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" into a hit and the debut of "Wife Swap" easily beat Fox's knockoff, "Trading Spouses.

Without "American Idol," Fox is starved for a hit. And NBC has to be worried that premiere week's prime-time average of 10.6 million was 2 million short of the same week last year, despite all of its promotion time during the Olympics.

Five of the top six broadcasters, with the WB an exception, had fewer viewers during premiere week 2004 than they had last year, another sign of their fading luster in a multichannel universe.

Several new shows already have shaky long-term prospects: ABC's "The Benefactor" could lend himself some viewers; Fox's "Quintuplets" and ABC's "The Savages" may not have many laughs left; the WB's "Jack & Bobby" hasn't lived up to expectations; and NBC's "LAX" may be grounded now that "CSI: Miami" is back as competition.

For the week, CBS averaged 13.6 million viewers (8.9 rating, 18 share), NBC had 10.6 million (7.1, 12), ABC 10 million (6.6, 11), Fox 5.3 million (3.6, 6), the WB 4.2 million (2.8, 4), UPN 3.1 million (2.2, 4) and Pax TV 630,000 (0.5, 1).

NBC's "Nightly News" won the evening news ratings race, averaging 9.4 million viewers (6.8, 15). ABC's "World News Tonight" had 8.1 million viewers (5.8, 12) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.9 million (4.9, 11).

During the week it issued an apology for its "60 Minutes" story on President Bush's National Guard service, the "CBS Evening News" saw its average viewership drop by 500,000 viewers from the previous week, Nielsen said. However, in a slow news week, each of the news shows lost viewers: ABC also lost 500,000, and NBC 400,000.

A ratings point represents 1,096,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 109.6 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of Sept. 20-26, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 30.6 million; "CSI: Miami," CBS, 22.5 million; "Without a Trace," CBS, 21.5 million; "ER," NBC, 19.7 million; "CSI: NY," CBS, 19.3 million; "Survivor: Vanuatu," CBS, 19.1 million; "Law & Order" special, NBC, 18.9 million; NFL Monday Night Football: Minnesota at Philadelphia," ABC, 18.8 million; "Lost," ABC, 18.7 million; "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 18 million.

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On the Net:

http://www.nielsenmedia.com

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