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Week 26 First Four Day Ratings; How The Sitcoms Did

Week 26 numbers (first four nights, Mon-Thu):

Households: FOX: 9.5/14.7; CBS 8.5/13.5; NBC: 6.3/9.9; ABC: 5.8/9.2; UPN: 1.8/2.8; The WB 1.6/2.5.
Total Viewers: FOX: 16.21 million; CBS: 13.3 million; NBC: 9.43 million; ABC: 8.92 million; UPN: 2.62 million; The WB: 2.37 million.
Adults 18-49: FOX 6.7/17.1; CBS: 4.3/11.2; NBC: 3.5/9.1; ABC: 3.3/8.5; UPN: 1.2/3.0; The WB: 1.0/2.5.

Analysis: This week saw Fox cut back a bit on its biggest show but still lead through the first four days, while CBS started its NCAA coverage instead of its normal powerhouse lineup on Thursday. Monday saw CBS prevail big with its comedies and a nice debut for The Adventures of Old Christine and the highest rated show of the nght was once again CSI: Miami. Christine scored 12.36 million viewers in its special 8:30 slot, much better than what How I Met Your Mother usually does and the time period premiere was also better than what CBS has done in that slot this season with 15.09 million viewers. Will the Seinfeld curse actually be over? We shall find out in the coming weeks! Other Monday noteables include Fox, which did well with an episode of 24 and NBC started off strong with Deal or No Deal. ABC's reality line-up did decent, but nothing spectacular. Fox aired a repeat of Prison Break at 8 p.m., but didn't do much. Let's see if the show will do well when it comes back tomorrow. Tuesday it was all Fox with a two-hour American Idol scoring very big with 32.77 million viewers. CBS competed with Fox at 9 p.m. with week two of its new drama The Unit continuing to do well with 18.07 million, almost on par with the premiere last week and built on NCIS's strong 17.55 million. ABC's critically acclaimed and hilarious new sitcom Sons & Daughters was up against the last hour of AI this week and thus suffered big time and was down big from last week. Wednesday had CBS airing a special Survivor on a special night and time due to the NCAA coverage on Thursday and won the 8 p.m. hour barely with 12.68 million. Fox's Bones did well to start off with at 12.07 million--I think many people thought American Idol was coming because now Fox will air it for a half hour on Wednesdays at 9 p.m.--28.09 million tuned in to that half hour. Following that Fox aired a special preview episode of The Loop and scored 13.7 million, losing half of the lead-in's audience. ABC's Lost was a repeat. Thursday ABC was back in business as it surprised many with the two-hour debut of Simon Cowell's American Inventor. Inventor built each half hour in both total viewers and adults 18-49, peaking at 9:30 p.m. The two-hour premiere averaged 14.15 million. ABC has yet another Thursday hit! CBS's usual line-up was pre-empted due to NCAA Basketball coverage scoring less than 10 million in primetime but 10.39 million if you count the coverage all the way until 12:24am. Fox's new sitcom hour of That '70s Show & The Loop did little at 8 p.m. Someone cancel The O.C. already! Friday had CBS have coverage of the NCAA games while NBC was second place. Saturday again CBS did well with the NCAA and NBC tried to revive wrestling on network TV and failed badly. ABC's will win tonight I'm sure, as Grey's Anatomy is still all-new while DH is a repeat but a DH repeat could even win its hour. For the week, Fox will probably hang on to total viewers and adults 18-49 but it will a battle for second place among adults 18-49 with CBS and ABC after what will happen tonight.


Monday Sitcoms

• The King of Queens (CBS) - 11.3 million, up from the previous two weeks--I guess people tuned in more since they were waiting for Christine at 8:30.
• The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS) 2 episodes - The premiere at 8:30 p.m. built on the lead-in in both A18-49 and total viewers; the timeslot premiere episode held on to much of the Two and a Half Men lead-in! We'll see what happens next week before I call this a big hit.
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 17.37 million tuned in, making it by far the highest rated sitcom.
• One on One (UPN), All of Us (UPN), Girlfriends (UPN), Half and Half (UPN) - Repeats were slightly below normal with 2.3-2.7 million average.
  

Tuesday Sitcoms

• According to Jim (ABC) 2 episodes - Repeat at 8 p.m. against Idol suffered, only 5.42 million...the 8:30 p.m. all-new episode was ABC's highest rated sitcom of the night with 5.62 million
• Sons & Daughters (ABC) 2 episodes - Up against AI didn't help. Only 5.38 million and 4.91 million for another new episode.
  
• Scrubs (NBC) 2 episodes - A new episode did 5.8 million at 9. Followed by an encore at 5.49 million.
  

Wednesday Sitcoms

• George Lopez (ABC) - We can finally breathe as AI was not up against the comedies tonight--6.71 million.
  
• Freddie (ABC) - 6.27 million, finally a good sampling after taking weeks of beatings from AI.
• The Loop (Fox) - Special preview episode at 9:30 p.m. following you know who only retained about 50% of the audience but did 13.7 million--making it the third most watch sitcom of the week, that is kind of pathetic with a lead-in that large.
  

Thursday Sitcoms

• Everybody Hates Chris (UPN) - Repeat scored 3.11 million.
  
• Love, Inc. (UPN), Eve (UPN), Cuts (UPN) - Repeats all under 2 million.
• Will & Grace (NBC) - 9.09 million tuned in; not too bad!
• Four Kings (NBC) - Tick tock, tick tock--lost a ton from the lead-in, only 6.83 million.
  
• My Name is Earl (NBC) - No longer the sitcom to beat in A18-49, but a 4.5 rating is still good.
  
• The Office (NBC) - Held on to a chunk of the lead-in in A18-49 with a 4.2 rating.
• That '70s Show (Fox) -5.63 million is decent for Fox.
  
• The Loop (Fox) - Only 4.75 million after 13.7 million tuned in last night.
  

Friday Sitcoms

The WB Friday had an all-new What I Like About You and Living with Fran in dead last place in the 8 p.m. hour. The 9 p.m. hour was slightly better with a new Reba and Modern Men's premiere but still dead last. Modern Men did a 2.1/3 rating--ouch.

Summing it up. The King of Queens, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Two and a Half Men, My Name is Earl were impressive for the week. Everything else was OK (such as The Office, The Loop preview) or just plain old terrible (such as Sons & Daughters 9:30, The Loop Thursday, WB Friday).