www.fgks.org   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
Posted 7/27/2004 9:55 PM

Viewers go for 'The Grid'
By Gary Levin, USA TODAY
•Cable news. TNT's terrorism-tinged drama The Grid premiered with an average 4.3 million viewers for two back-to-back episodes, while USA scored with the second episode of The 4400 (5.5 million), holding nearly all of its premiere audience. USA's Dead Zone and Monk tied with 4.7 million apiece. And Discovery Channel's American Chopper revved up to 4.1 million. (Related chart: See top broadcast and cable shows)
Life after The Practice: Dylan McDermott finds success with TNT's The Grid.
TNT

•Rescue on fire. FX's latest original drama series, Denis Leary's Rescue Me, premiered Wednesday with 4.1 million viewers, more than any episode of the network's acclaimed Nip/Tuck. Predictably, Rescue drew more male viewers.

•HB-oh! The basic-cable results outshone HBO's usually winning Sunday slate of originals. Six Feet Under is holding steady at 3.8 million, but that's well below top draws The Sopranos and Sex and the City. Hollywood comedy Entourage (1.8 million) dipped slightly from last week's low-rated premiere, and Da Ali G Show fell to 929,000 viewers from 1.1 million.

•Studio zero. WB's first "fall" premiere, the Real World-meets-quiz show Studio 7, got off to an anemic start Thursday. With 1.6 million viewers, it did worse than repeats of the canceled Jamie Kennedy Experiment in the time slot.

•Amazing climb. CBS' Amazing Race is showing spunk. The show built again on its prior-week audience, up 6% to 11.1 million viewers, ranking fourth for the week (and No. 2 among young adults). Race's fifth season is its most popular yet, an unheard-of feat for a reality show, helped by a new 10 p.m. ET/PT time slot.

•Spousal support. Fox's copycat Trading Spouses appears to have legs. Last week's premiere averaged 7.5 million viewers, and a repeat of that same episode on Monday of this week nearly matched it with 6.8 million — a strong sign of positive buzz that bodes well for the series. ABC's similar Wife Swap, adapted from a British series and announced before Spouses, is due in late September.

•Days numbers. In Week 2, ABC family drama The Days dropped 17% of its premiere-week audience (and 27% of young-adult viewers), falling to 5.4 million.