The WB Television Network got off to a strong start with its new Monday lineup, capitalizing on
the fact that most of the other networks were still in rerun mode.
The season premiere of 7th Heaven averaged a 7.8 household
rating and a 12 share, according to the Nielsen Media Research metered-market
report. That made it the top-rated show in six-network competition from 8 p.m. to 9
p.m. It beat all the repeat entries on CBS (King of Queens and Yes,
Dear), NBC (Fear Factor) and United Paramount Network (The Parkers and One on
One). And it beat original shows on ABC and Fox. The victims on ABC were
The Drew Carey Show and Whose Line Is It Anyway, which averaged a 5.3/8 and
a 5.5/8, respectively. Fox aired a special about the pyramids that averaged a
6.5/10 in the time period.
At 9 p.m., the competition was a little hotter, from both ABC (Monday Night Football) and CBS (Everybody Loves Raymond and
Becker). As a result, The WB premiere of the much-anticipated
Everwood fell sharply from its 7th Heaven lead-in. It
averaged a 6.1/9, down 22 percent from Heaven's average. During the same
time, the game on ABC averaged a 15.7/22. Raymond and Becker
averaged a 8.9/13 on CBS.
Meanwhile, Nielsen's fast affiliate numbers (preliminary national ratings
that don't measure UPN or The WB) showed that ABC and the football game won the night
among the "Big Four" networks in households, total viewers and the key adult
demographics. The game pretty much kicked butt during the two hours it was on in
prime time (9 p.m. to 11 p.m.).
At 10 p.m., the interesting contest was between a repeat of the CSI: Crime
Scene Investigation episode that set up the Miami spinoff and a repeat of
Crossing Jordan, which the spinoff (CSI: Miami) will go up
against this fall. Monday night, CSI easily won the match-up, placing
second behind football in most of the key categories. In fact, Jordan was
fourth behind Fox across most of the ratings categories.
For the night, fast affiliate household ratings for the Big Four: ABC
9.9/16, CBS 7.9/13, Fox 5.6/9 and NBC 4.3/7.
Adults 18 through 49: ABC 6.5/17, CBS 4.0/11, Fox 3.2/9 and NBC 2.6/7.
The metered-market household ratings (covering 53 markets) for the six
networks: ABC 12.5/18, CBS 8.7/13, WB 6.9/10, Fox 6.8/10, NBC 4.5/7 and
UPN 3.0/4.
