CBS continued its strong ways Tuesday night, while ABC is expected to
shake up its lineup in the wake of another sub-par performance on the night.
The WB's two-hour season premiere of Gilmore Girls set a number of records Tuesday, while Buffy The Vampire Slayer continued to attract viewers
to UPN.
ABC's Tuesday night lineup of comedies and along with new drama Philly struggled for the second straight week, falling to just a 3.3 rating/8 share in adults 18-49 and 7.9 million viewers for the night, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Last week, when ABC launched its new Tuesday night
lineup, the network averaged 9.5 million viewers and a 4.0 rating - leaving ABC
programmers baffled.
This week, second-year comedy What About Joan? and newcomer Bob Patterson dragged ABC's averages
down even more.
At 8:30 p.m. ET/PT, What About Joan? averaged 6.7 million viewers and a 2.5/6 in adults 18-49, while Bob Patterson followed at 9 p.m. with a 2.9/7 and 6.9 million viewers.
The WB's Gilmore Girls actually averaged more viewers (7 million vs. 6.9 million) than Bob Patterson from 9-9:30.
Sources say ABC may pull What About Joan? from the Tuesday schedule and its unclear whether heavily promoted new comedy Bob Patterson starring Jason Alexander will be affected.
ABC executives had no comment.
As for CBS, its three-drama lineup won the night in
total viewers (16.0 million), households (10.8/17) and adults 25-54 (5.7/13) and
finished second to NBC in adults 18-49 (4.4/11 vs. NBC's 4.8/12).
New drama The Guardian averaged 14.8 million viewers, while JAG continued strong with 17 million.
While NBC started the season with three consecutive Tuesday 18-49 victories, new comedy Emeril continued to ha=ve a hard time finding an audience, averaging 7.4 million and a 3.1/8.
The WB's Gilmore Girls set records in adults 18-49 (2.6/6), total viewers (6.6 million) and households (4.0/6). Buffy The Vampire Slayer's second outing averaged 5.6 million viewers and a 2.6/6 in adults 18-49 and the network's other former WB series Roswell debuted with 3.9 million viewers and a 1.7/4 in adults 18-49. - Joe Schlosser
