UPN second on Wednesday?
    Once in a while, there's a blue moon. Like that very rare event, once in a very rare while, the UPN comes second on a night. It accomplished that on Wednesday with the premiere of "Amish In the City," which debuted to an astonishing 5.2 million viewers, 4th on the night in viewers, but second in adults at a 2.4/7. could this be the reality smash of the summer, like "Model," "Idol," "Survivor" and "Millionaire" before it? Could the UPN have struck gold two summers in a row? The UPN?
     While viewers were intrigued by "Amish," the others originals on the night are not having so much luck. NBC's "Next Action Star" (3.7mil) is stumbling towards its finale, ABC's "The Drew Carey Show" (3.9mil, 3.7mil) is a complete and utter joke, and Fox's "Quintuplets" (4.7mil) and "Method & Red" (5.4mil) will not live to see another season. Even "the Simple Life," which was tearing up the Wednesday charts, sunk to 8mil viewers on the atypical night where the 10pm hour was overtaken by the Democratic National Convention.
      Repeats on the night were fairly moribund, except CBS's "Two & A Half Men" (7.6mil), which is building audiences (from "King Of Queens" 7mil) in every timeslot it's put into. (July 29)

Fox finally catching fire
    After two months of throwing new series into the fan and seeing them shredding, Fox is finally starting to see some fire on its line-up- thanks to a concept it didn't even come up with. "Trading Spouses" exploded to 9.1 million viewers on Tuesday, overwealmingly winning its timeslot and coming in first on the night in adults (4.5/14). The show, which is a blatant rip off of ABC's upcoming "Wife Swap" is actually pretty good- more or less, it's the family show that Fox has been lacking so far this summer. While the network has been trying to use more sex driven shows to launch its summer line-up, along comes a show where sex isn't even mentioned and it blows everything else away. Lesson to Fox.
     "The Amazing Race" was also a big winner on Tuesday, coming in at 10.0mil viewers at 10pm, winning the timeslot and coming in second on the night in adults (4.2/11), down slightly in both aspects from last week. In the reality race on the night, "Last Coming Standing" (7.2mil) continues to lose out to "Big Brother" (8.7mil), while a repeat of ABC's "Home Edition" (5.7mil) was lost at 8pm. the only other original programming on the night, "Summerland" on the WB, is proving to be a quite strong player, the show that the WB failed to develop during the regular season. The show notched a best-since-premiere 3.9 mil viewers at 9pm and a 1.6/5 in adults 18-49. It was fifth in the slots on all counts, mostly because the nets have been successfully programming Tuesdays so far this summer, especially CBS, and now, Fox. On the week, CBS and Fox are tied in adults at a 3.2, Fox beiung boosted by a Monday repeat of "Spouses" (7mil). (July 28)

"Amazing Race" catching on
    It seems that viewers are finally discovering one of tv's best kept secrets- CBS's "Amazing Race," and no, I won't flogging the series at every turn I can. The show rocketed to 11mil viewers at 10pm on Tuesday, some of its best numbers for a regular episode ever, not including the four that aired after "Survivor" when that show was moved to Wednesdays to accomodate basketball. It was the top rated show on the night in viewers and adults, recoding a 4.5/13  in the important demo, likely putting it in the top 3 for the week in the measure, if not at the top, depending on how "The Simple Life" and "CSI" perform last this week. CBS also won at 8pm with "Big Brother" (9.1mil) and at 9pm with "NCIS" (8.8mil).
     But the other networks did have some good news of their own. ABC was led by a new episode of "Extreme Makeover" (7.6mil) at 8pm, whil Fox launched the good-without-being-disgusting "Trading Spouses" to 7.3 mil, also in the hour. NBC was led by "SVU" (10.1mil), which is down of late, seemingly losing viewers to "TAR." "Last Comic Standing" was at a disappointing 7.1mil viewers, while "Summerland" (3.7mil) continued to put up impressive numbers for the WB. (July 21)

"Summerland" will be back
    Part of the draw of this show may be, you know, actually airing in the summer, as its title suggests, but the WB's hottest series, leading it in the ratings every week since it premiered, will be back mid-season. The WB announced Wednesday that 13 additional episodes have been ordered. The prefered timeslot? I would probably say Tuesdays at 9pm, though the WB may want to branch out and try dramas again on Thursday, which once worked so well. (July 14)

"Amazing Race" tops Tuesday
    Do you know how much pleasure it gives me to write that headline, even if its not true? "The Amazing Race" continued its hot performance (are viewers finally discovering this stellar series?) as the show drew 10.2mil viewer sta 10pm on Tuesday, down just a fraction from its premiere of week earlier and just winning the timeslot over NBC's "SVU" (10.1mil). It even beat out "Big Brother" again as that show saw its typical second week slid with 8.8mil viewers. It was, in fact, a good night all around for CBS as "NCIS" drew a very solid 8.8mil for a repeat at 8pm. Hey, CBS, maybe you should bump "NCIS" from the night, move "Brother" to 8pm, and try and original scripted seires in the hour? I know you're not into that kind of thnig, but it could really take off on the night, considering that anything that CBS does turns to gold.
     But it was Fox's night to win as baseball's All-Star game drew a typical 13.5mil viewers from 8:30 to 11pm. Elsewhere, "Summerland" continues to be hot, drawing 3.7mil viewers, while "Last Comic Standing" is losing some of that heat, slipping to 7.3mil viewers for last night's airing. But the news is good for most of the new programming airing on the night- NBC is going to premiere "Comic" in the fall, "TAR" will be airing on Saturdays and "Summerland" just got extended. Even repeat reality is doing okay on the night- episodes from the first edition of "America's Next Top Model," which have already aired twice, are drawing 2.3mil viewers at 9pm for the UPN. So while Fox is bombing out this summer, some of the other nets are truly coming into their own regarding summer programming. But then again, its mostly CBS. (July 14)

CBS's reality wins Tuesday
    It's been pretty weel known so far thus summer that CBS has been winning despite not airing much original programming. So what happenes when they do premiere their new summer summer series? They win by an even bigger margin. That was the case on Tuesday as the premiere of "Big Brother 5" racked up a solid 9.5mil at 8pm, btu the even bigger surprize came at 9:30pm where the premiere of "The Amazing Race," which is at an all-time high in the hype department, debuted to a big 10.3mil viewers. Myself, I'm breathlessly waiting for the premiere of one of my favorite series, as it's not debuting here until Saturday night. Damn Canada!
     Elsewhere on Tuesday, the nets seemed to be having an up night compared to late as a number of changes worked. A repeat of "Last Comic Standing" on NBC drew a solid 6 million viewers at 8pm, about 25% more than original episodes of "Last Action Star" did, while Fox was up about 15% over last week thanks to ditching "The Jury." "SVU" was again the highest rated series of the night (10.7mil), doucing one of ABC's most high profile summer series "NYPD 24/7" (6.3mil). "Summerland" (3.2mil) on the WB was another high point, although that series did hit a series low. (July 7)
                               June 2004 News