AP News, March 20th, 2007
During a week of experimenting for TV networks, both ABC and Fox took advantage of strong lead-ins to entice viewers into watching something they might have otherwise missed.
ABC's new "October Road," a drama about a novelist who returns to his hometown to face the people he burned in print, reached nearly 14 million viewers for its premiere last week, Nielsen Media Research reported Tuesday. Many were undoubtedly people who hung on after just watching "Grey's Anatomy."
Similarly, Fox placed "`Til Death" directly after the "American Idol" results show last week and the freshman comedy recorded its first top 10 finish. "`Til Death" had more than double the audience it had been averaging this year.
Without such strong lead-ins, new shows might never be noticed. NBC gave its new Jeff Goldblum drama "Raines" a liftoff in the slot normally reserved for "ER" on Thursdays. Its audience of 10.5 million was respectable, although it was beaten by "October Road." Despite good reviews, the Andy Richter comedy "Andy Barker, P.I." on NBC didn't even reach 6 million viewers.
And don't go booking any anniversary parties for Fox's "Wedding Bells." It dropped to 5.7 million viewers for its premiere in a Friday time slot last week.
For the week, Fox led the way with an average of 11.4 million viewers (7.0 rating, 11 share). With help from the NCAA men's basketball tournament, CBS had 10.7 million viewers (6.9, 12). NBC had 8.3 million (5.4, 9), ABC 7.9 million (5.2, 9), the CW 3.1 million (2.1, 3) and the i network 650,000 (0.5, 1).
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led the way with 3.6 million viewers (2.0 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 930,000 (0.5, 1) and TeleFutura 610,000 (0.4, 1).
ABC's "World News" had its biggest win since the week Peter Jennings' died, averaging 8.6 million viewers (6.0 rating, 13 share). NBC's "Nightly News," where Campbell Brown filled in for Brian Williams, had 8.3 million viewers (5.8, 12), and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.8 million (4.8, 10).
A ratings point represents 1,114,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 111.4 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For the week of March 12-18, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 29.83 million; "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 26.18 million; "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 22.68 million; "Deal or No Deal" (Monday), NBC, 16.77 million; "Cold Case," CBS, 15.09 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 14.4 million; "CSI: Miami," CBS, 14.36 million; "`Til Death," Fox, 14.07 million; "October Road," ABC, 13.93 million; "Without a Trace," CBS, 13.05 million.
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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is a division of CBS Corp. Fox is a unit of News Corp. NBC is owned by General Electric Co. Telemundo is owned by General Electric. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. The i network is owned by ION Media Networks.
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