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ABC, CBS Are Off to an Early Lead in New Season

Posted on: Friday, 14 October 2005, 09:01 CDT

By Alan Pergament

ABC and CBS are hot, Fox is warm and NBC is colder than a Buffalo winter. That's the early forecast as the new TV season enters its fourth week and Fox goes underground for its major league baseball playoff coverage.

The scorecard so far, one network at a time.

NBC: The lone major bright spot is "My Name is Earl," the Tuesday comedy that has had strong enough ratings to get the network assurance of 22 episodes. The science fiction family drama "Surface" is doing OK on Monday, but the Friday night fertility drama "Inconceivable" was canceled after two low-rated episodes.

Martha Stewart's version of "The Apprentice" couldn't get arrested in its new time slot here. It had a 3.8 rating at 9 p.m. Wednesday, just 1.2 points ahead of UPN's low-rated "Veronica Mars." If it wasn't for Stewart's name, her show probably would be on Bravo by now. Benjamin Bratt's "E-Ring" did a little better in Stewart's former 8 p.m. slot, but it doesn't have the ring of success. Even NBC's feel-good reality series, "Three Wishes" (5.2 here Friday) isn't fulfilling NBC's wishes.

Old dramas "West Wing" and "ER" do better here than they do nationally but they are hemorrhaging audience, as are "Joey" (6.8 here last week), "The Office" (6.2) and Donald Trump's version of "The Apprentice" (7.8).

ABC: It has struck some early gold, especially on Channel 7, with "Commander in Chief" (15.6 here). "Invasion" is losing a good share of the audience for megahit "Lost," perhaps because it is tough to ask viewers to watch shows with continuing story lines back-to- back. But "Invasion" still does very well nationally with the age 18 through 49 audience and that makes it a keeper. And though "Night Stalker" isn't scaring up many viewers nationally, it is doing better here. Last Thursday, it out-rated its lead-in, "Alias," here and only lost to Trump, 7.8-6.3. Friday's premiere of "Hot Properties" about three female realtors improved on its lead-in nationally, but local viewers quickly abandoned it.

The move of the Emmy-winning "Lost" to 9 p.m. Wednesday has paid off and it has soared creatively. The one-two Sunday punch of "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" is knocking out the competition, though "Housewives" doesn't pack the same creative wallop this year as it did last. The move of "Boston Legal" from Sundays to Tuesdays has paid off.

CBS: The debut numbers for "Close to Home," Jerry Bruckheimer's heavily-promoted, cliched suburban crime drama, had to disappoint CBS executives. They expected it to grab a larger audience than the canceled "Judging Amy." Though it did very well here (11.1), "Close" lost to a second Heather Locklear episode on "Boston Legal" in the major markets and with 18 through 49 viewers.

The new CBS shows creating some magic are the Monday comedy, "How I Met Your Mother" (though recent episodes haven't been as strong as as the pilot) and "Ghost Whisperer" (11.8 here Friday) with Jennifer Love Hewitt. "Criminal Minds" is doing decently opposite "Lost." Carla Gugino's "Threshold," another alien show with a continuing story line, isn't doing as well here as it is doing nationally despite the "Ghost Whisperer" lead-in.

But CBS is thriving thanks to veteran shows like the three "CSIs,""Without a Trace,""Two and a Half Men" and "NCIS." The Mark Harmon series is a huge hit in Buffalo, pulling in a 13.4 rating at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Fox: "Prison Break," which continues to be as exciting as it is implausible, is a Monday hit and probably would be doing better with a stronger lead-in than "Kitchen Confidential.""Kitchen" isn't exactly heating up, but more people seem to be warming to it weekly and it has a chance of stirring the pot if Fox stays with it. "Bones" is doing decently on Tuesday and will do even better in January once it is behind "American Idol." The post-"Simpsons" comedy, "The War at Home," is doing decently. "Reunion" wasn't hot before baseball, but it is a good show and Fox should stick with it. "Head Cases" was canceled after two weeks, enabling co-star Chris O'Donnell to resume his feature film career. The moves of "Bernie Mac" (1.4 here) and "Malcolm in the Middle" (1.1 here) to Friday is killing the shows and any chance new crime drama "Killer Instinct" (2.3 here) has of succeeding.

WB: Its attempt to raise the age of its viewers isn't working yet. Don Johnson's series, "Just Legal," did much better here than it did nationally before WB pulled the plug. Local ratings for the scary "Supernatural" are very strong, even topping those for its popular lead-in, "Gilmore Girls." It looks like a keeper and WB has given up a full season order. The move of "Everwood" to the killer 9 p.m. Thursday time slot hasn't been a disaster, with the poignant family drama improving the time slot for WB.

UPN: It already has given "Everybody Hates Chris" a full-season order of 22 episodes on the strength of its early ratings and critical support. The second episode lost about half of its pilot audience in Buffalo but the third pulled in a 3.8 here, very high for a UPN series.

The Denise Richards soap, "Sex, Love and Secrets" already has stopped production. There's no secret as to why. Few people even knew or cared that it ever aired. In Buffalo, it had a .5 rating. Yes, a point five.

e-mail: apergament@buffnews.com

Source: Buffalo News

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