ABC halts Fox's 22-week winning streak

ABC topped the ratings last week and finally broke Fox’s epic 22-week winning streak.

Fox seized control of the coveted adults 18-to-49 demographic back in January as it launched the seventh season of "American Idol." Broadcast competitors -- their biggest hits sidelined by the writers strike -- were no match for Fox as the network used "Idol" to funnel viewers into other reality hits such as "The Moment of Truth" and "Hell's Kitchen."

Though Fox’s summer reality slate continues to pull in strong numbers, last week it couldn't overcome an action-packed basketball playoff series.

ABC’s presentation of the NBA Finals put the network over the top -- winning Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday night with Los Angeles Lakers vs. Boston Celtics games. The games also provided a strong platform for ABC promote some reality shows of its own -- the upcoming premieres of “Wipeout” and “I Survived a Japanese Game Show.”

On average, the NBA Finals are out-delivering last year’s series by 57% in total viewers and 62% in the demo, making it the highest-rated NBA championship since 2004. The biggest game so far was on Sunday night (17.4 million viewers, 7.3 adults 18 to 49 rating and a 21 share).

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is also benefiting from the added exposure. His primetime pre-game specials, including last Sunday's outing featuring an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama (2.9 million, 1.1/4), have earned 68% higher ratings than his regular late-night show.
Driven by comedy repeats, CBS still led in total viewers for the third summer week in a row, yet was fourth in the adults 18-to-49 demo. The network’s new Thursday night drama “Swingtown” (7 million, 2.3/7) dropped slightly in its second episode, but placed second in the hour. On Sunday night, the 62nd annual Tony Awards (6.3 million, 1.1/3) hit a record low. The network also tried out “Million Dollar Password” (9.4 million, 2.0/7) on Thursday at 8 p.m. and won the hour.

Fox was second in the demo. Up against the NBA Finals, its reality hit “Hell’s Kitchen” (8.8 million, 4.2/12) the previous week’s chart leader, only lost a couple tenths. Wednesday night’s “So You Think You Can Dance” (8.9 million, 3.4/11) also slipped. 

NBC ranked third, with the premiere of new reality series “Celebrity Circus” (6.5 million, 2.3/7) placing second on Wednesday night. The premiere of “Nashville Star” (6.7 million, 2.2/6) was the highest-rated ever for the former USA Network series and tied ABC’s “Bachelorette” among the fourth-ranked shows of Monday night. 

Overall for the week ending June 15: ABC (6.8 million, 2.5/8), Fox (6 million, 2.2/7), NBC (6.8 million, 2.0/7), ABC (6.8 million, 2.5/8) and the CW (1.7 million, 0.6/2).

Comments

[joe manzo]

It would take Celtics-Lakers for ABDNC to beat Fox. When the series is over and ABC's normal pathetic programming returns, expect Fox to reclaim their spot on top.

[Scott]

Big deal. There's only one NBA final. Once this is over, ABC can go back into last place.

[Patrick M. Walsh]

Fox is the best by far.

[Gerard]

I guess if you're 21 Fox programming is really great. Network TV has lost it for some of us who remember scripted dramas as being the norm. Today, they'll setup a camera - let it roll in all variations and call it "Reality TV" - wow.

[Dick Sicario]

Even liberals turn away from political news in favor of the championship games. Then its back to FOX. One out of 23 ? Nice record ABC. The Big Three no longer rule. America is tired of the narrow view, and has moved beyond it.

[General Mortars]

ABC,CBS,NBC has become irrelavent as a news network with their bias and personal opinions.

Basket Ball playoffs saved ABC this week. They(ABC) reverts back to it's boring left tilted news and programs.
This is a doomed network. Only saving grace in cable for CNBC was TIM RUSSERT, now he's gone. They're going down the tubes along with what passes as a pathetic newsman--K. Olberman.

[Speed Levitch]

MSM is dead and dying. Totally left wing biased, no persepctive, nasty commentators/opinionators/experts.

CNN & MSNBC are by far the worst. Blitzer, his crab apple cohost/alky, Brown all BS..

If you are going to express and iodea or opion stop whining and provide some positive input.

They are bordering on treasonous actions.

[Susan]

Fox: Totally right wing biased, no perspective, nasty commentators/opinionators/experts. The mindless blind followers of rightwing crackpots are pathetically trying so hard to remain relevant. The country has had enough of the ugly twisted comments made by the loudmouth blowhards like Limbaugh, Hannity and O'Reilly who do the "thinking" for their cult-brainwashed flock. Keith Olbermann is coming on strong while O'Reilly is frantically looking in the ratings rear view mirror. The old guard rightwing war-mongering fear-promoting big-business loving extremists are on the way out. Good riddance.

[Ken]

There are a few shows that I like on ABC, but I enjoy watching High Def. DirecTV doesn't offer my local channels in High Def like they lied about so I got a USB Haupage HDTV Tuner and it is amazing how it picks up every LOCAL and FREE channel but ABC. I suppose that after Febuary 2009, ABC will lose even more people that refuse to pay for TV. Once my "contract" that I never signed runs out with DirecTV, I'll probably just go to free over the air HD and not even worry about anything on ABC since they can't afford decent antennas to send their signal a mere 25 miles.

[John]

There is nothing liberal about the narrow minded uptight dishonest left wingers. Liberal means open minded, not strict, etc. The hatred bashing and shameful cowardly dishonesty of leftist democrats is anything but liberal!

These people are so uptight is is amazing they can even breathe without choking on their narrow restricted ideas! Leftists are afraid of life and freedom!

They are the epitome of negativity and restrictions!

[greengolem64]

Wow...Susan...wow! A lot of 'thought' went into that rant. You really need to pick your head up out of the sand for a little while and 'really' listen. FOX, a cable network, has supplanted the BIG 3 for the last 22 weeks...and it took a sports series (no programming effort on ABC managements part other than deciding how many cameras to cover the games)to give ABC the top slot in one week...and FOX is dead and dieing??? Thanks...for the early morning laugh. It is good to start the day on a happy note.

Oh...if you want to see an angry white man just tune in to K. Olberman...that dude has some serious issues.

Greengolem64

[John]

Speed Levitch: Totally left wing biased, no perspective, nasty poster/non-expert/leftwing cliche'. The mindless blind followers of leftwing crackpots are pathetically trying so hard to remain relevant. The country has had enough of the ugly twisted comments made by the loudmouth blowhard Speed Levitch who does no "thinking" at all for what he'd like to be his cult-brainwashed flock. Keith Olbermann is coming on strong in the absolutely crazy category while O'Reilly is frantically looking at superior ratings to Olbermann. The old guard leftwing no security, baby-killing, profit hating extremists are on the way out. Good riddance.

[Joe Anderson]

Susan - The network you're mindlessly slamming is the Fox News Channel, which actually has more liberals than conservatives on the air. The network actually being discussed here is the Fox Network.

[Bryan]

I love when people like susan go on laughable rants about the, "rightwing war-mongering fear-promoting big-business loving extremists". It's funny when people are SO STUPID! They can't look at the ratings, see fox has had the top 13 spots for the last 22 weeks straight, and say they are on the way out and the majority isn't for fox. That just wouldn't make any sense would it?

[charles t. sherwin]

Ah, liberals, how they misread and try to conceal. Keith is about the least person whose views I wish to ponder; he is a simple-minded moron, the way he throws that stupid paper and proclaims "so many days since victory was declared," and I find him replusive. His ratings will NEVER exceed Fox because he is a contrarian with very little common sense, and I would prefer to watch a test pattern. Goodbye, Obermann, you would be a good washroom attendant at best.

[TexGEOas]

That's what I call a faux headline.

ABC, CBS and especially NBC are becoming irrelevant since they cannot seem to find a way to present fair and balanced news and programming. The news is always liberal-biased from these networks and the programming often contains thinly veiled social or political propaganda messages.

[donna]

ABC could gain higher numbers in ratings if they stop taking off the air great quality tv programs, like October Road this show has substance and a great cast. They need to bring back this show and give the viewers what they want to watch, which is not a reality tv program!

[BigSingh]

If you guys would try and see other sources besides claiming who's liberal and conservative, maybe all involved can get a better perspective without ripping each other apart.

(1) The Writer's Strike REALLY affected what is being broadcast and how it is being broadcast. Series that you fell in love with are gone or are on hold until the fall season. That's why many shows (new or veteran) aren't returning. I liked to watch ALIENS IN AMERICA, but the CW pulled the plug on it after the strike was over.

(2) If you don't like all the reality, raid your DVD collections if you have them. That's what I did, and, until my favorites return in the fall, that's what I'll mostly be watching.

(3) Networks I've written off already: The CW and MyNetwork TV. Reason: the CW is continuing its' programming gear towards the female demographic, so this means that after SMALLVILLE, EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS and THE GAME are done, so am I. MyNetwork TV is getting the WWE, but I've written that show off a long time ago. It no longer makes sense to call a show a "wrestling" show when 2/3 of it is devoted to inane plots that are designed to help sell their next PPV. If I wanted to watch a soap opera, I would tune into the one of the remaining 8 on daytime...and with soaps you do know who writes them.

(4) So the NBA final pulled in big numbers, so what? You all act as if Fox being knocked off the top is saying something but it's not. Some of you are acting like Fox is invulnerable but they're not. The television business runs in cycles; one network can be number one for a while then another would claim that spot. Fox knocked out CBS after it had been #1 for a while, CBS knocked out NBC after it had been #1 for a while. It's cyclical.

(5) Do you realize that CBS is trying out the reformatted PASSWORD and it is winning every slot? Maybe because it's fun.