NEW YORK (AP) – Having jumped the gun on the fall TV season, Fox’s drama “The O.C.” continued to show growth in the ratings last week.
The first new series out of the gate for 2003-04, the show boosted its audience again -this time by 100,000 to nearly 8 million viewers for its third episode, according to Nielsen Media Research figures Tuesday. It ranked 31st overall for the week.
But mostly reruns reigned, as the 2002-03 TV season neared its official mid-September end.
This gave the upper hand to CBS, which claimed the top two slots with “CSI” and “Without a Trace” repeats, as well as 11 of the top 20 shows.
ABC placed only two shows in the top 20, while Fox’s most-watched program, an NFL preason game (Dallas at Pittsburgh), notched 28th place.
For the week of Aug. 18-24, CBS led with an average 8.7 million viewers (6.0 household rating, 11 share), NBC had 7.5 million viewers (5.2 rating, 9 share), ABC 6.6 million viewers (4.5 rating, 8 share), and Fox 6.0 million (4.0 rating, 7 share). UPN had 2.7 million viewers (1.8 rating, 3 share), the WB 2.5 million viewers (1.7 rating, 3 share), and Pax TV 860,000 viewers (0.6 rating, 1 share).
NBC’s “Nightly News” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 9 million viewers (6.5 rating, 14 share). ABC’s “World News Tonight” had 8.5 million (6.2 rating, 13 share), and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.6 million (4.8 rating, 10 share).
A ratings point represents 1,067,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 106.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
For Aug. 18-24, the top five shows, their networks and viewerships: “CSI,” CBS, 14.6 million; “Without a Trace,” CBS, 12.1 million; Movie: “Code 11-14,” CBS, 11.8 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 11.4 million; “Law & Order,” NBC, 10.7 million.
“Everybody Loves Raymond,” CBS, 10.6 million; “CSI: Miami,” CBS, 10.5 million; NFL Preseason: Tampa Bay at St. Louis, ABC, 10.4 million; “King of Queens,” CBS, 10.3 million; “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” NBC, 10 million.
—
On the Net:
http://www.nielsenmedia.com
AP-ES-08-26-03 1833EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
