Subj : Thursday nights have been Rocked
To   : alt.tv.er
From : Sharon
Date : Sat Sep 24 2005 19:07:20

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.er

http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,17435,00.html
Chris" Rocks

by Joal Ryan
Sep 23, 2005, 1:25 PM PT


Thursday nights have been Rocked.

Everybody Hates Chris, comic Chris Rock's sitcom take on growing up in a 
dicey Brooklyn neighborhood, moved in on the supposed must-see competition, 
topping all comers in its premiere, save CBS' Survivor: Guatemala.

With 7.8 million viewers, UPN's Chris, airing from 8 to 8:30 p.m., finished 
ahead of the likes of NBC's Joey (7.5 million for the half-hour) and Fox's 
The O.C. (6.1 million for the half-hour). Among demographically desirable 
18- to 49-year-olds, it took first in markets such as New York and 
Washington, D.C., and placed second overall.

The Everybody Hates Chris premiere now rates as UPN's most-watched comedy 
ever, a relative achievement, granted, for the network that launched 
Homeboys in Outer Space. And while UPN found greater sitcom success with 
Moesha and Girlfriends, its legacy has been wrestlers, models and Trekkers. 
The 1995 premiere of Star Trek: Voyager still ranks as the network's most 
watched program, with about 21 million viewers.

Rock's comedy, though, does bear the hallmarks of being a breakout and 
breakthrough show for the also-ran network--strong buzz, reviews and 
ratings.

It was just two years ago that NBC owned Thursday nights, as it had for two 
decades, on the strength of its 8 p.m. anchor, Friends. Now, Joey, Friends' 
successor and spinoff, couldn't even outdo a rerun of J. Peterman doing the 
rumba.

For the 8 p.m. hour, the super-size second-season premiere of Matt LeBlanc's 
cross to bear averaged 7.8 million, per Nielsen Media Research. By 
comparison, ABC's Dancing with the Stars Dance-Off, which originally aired 
Tuesday night, hooked 8 million. (The all-new results show, airing 9-9:30 
p.m., saw 10.5 million witness John O'Hurley's victory.)

CBS' Survivor: Guatemala was the 8-9 p.m. time slot's gold standard with 17 
million.

Overall, CBS won the night, on the mega-strength of CSI's sixth-season 
opener (29 million) and the series premiere of Criminal Minds (19.6 
million).

Criminal Minds' fast start--it's the young season's most-watched new show to 
date--comes with two provisos: (1) It won't always air after CSI, as its 
bound for Wednesday nights; and (2) Even when it did air after CSI, it lost 
about 30 percent of the veteran show's audience.

Elsewhere, NBC's Donald Trump-fronted Apprentice won bragging rights over 
the Martha Stewart-fronted Apprentice, but with only 9.9 million viewers the 
show sunk to a series-low for season openers.

NBC's ER, meanwhile, made a strong case for employing the elderly. The aged 
medical drama, now sans Noah Wyle, looked fit in its 12th-season premiere 
with 14.4 million viewers

.