Television
At last, NBC KO's Fox's record streak
By Toni Fitzgerald
Aug 29, 2007 - 1:20:43 AM

After a six-month winning streak fueled by reality shows like “American Idol” and “Hell’s Kitchen,” Fox finally had its record streak snapped last week.

For sure, it was a bad week for Fox, which canceled “Anchorwoman” after just one episode and saw ratings for the “Teen Choice Awards” fall 19 percent from last year in adults 18-49.

But it was really a victory for NBC, its first weekly win in 2007 and its best week since the regular season ended in May.

The network had the week’s top three shows among 18-49s with the season finale of “America’s Got Talent,” a “Sunday Night Football” preseason game and “The Singing Bee.” NBC averaged a 2.1 rating and a 6 share in the demographic for the week ended Aug. 26, 11 percent above its summer-to-date average of 1.9/6, according to Nielsen.

That ended 28 weeks of weekly wins for Fox, dating back to February, the longest such streak for any network in 11 years.

Much of the credit for NBC's strong week goes to its decision to limit "Talent" to just one night this summer, down from two, and moving it to Tuesday from Wednesday and Thursday.

That spared it from airing opposite Fox’s hit “So You Think You Can Dance,” which clobbered it on Thursdays last year. 

Under the old format, the competition aired on Wednesday and the results on Thursday, but the results show never did as well, falling by a third from the previous night.

This year, airing on just one night, “Talent” averaged a 3.6 18-49 rating, up 16 percent over last summer’s combined Thursday-Wednesday rating.

For NBC, the timing of last week's win could not be better, as an opportunity to heavily promote its fall lineup of new dramas.

Meanwhile, in broadcast ratings for the week ended Aug. 26:
 
Among adults 18-49, NBC led with a 2.1 rating and a 6 share, followed by CBS at 2.0/6, Fox at 1.7/5, ABC at 1.6/5, Univision at 1.3/4, CW at 0.7/2, Telemundo at 0.4/1, Telefutura and MyNetworkTV at 0.3/1 and Ion and Azteca at 0.1/0.
 
Among adults 18-34, NBC led with a 1.7 rating and a 6 share, followed by Fox and Univision at 1.5/5, CBS at 1.4/5, ABC 1.2/4, CW at 0.8/2, Telemundo at 0.5/2, Telefutura at 0.4/1, MyNetworkTV at 0.4/1 and Ion and Azteca at 0.1/0.
 
Among adults 25-54, CBS led with a 2.5 rating and a 7 share, followed by NBC at 2.3/7, Fox at 1.9/5, ABC at 1.8/5, Univision at 1.2/3, CW at 0.7/2, MyNetworkTV and Telemundo 0.4/1, Telefutura at 0.3/1, Ion at 0.2/1 and Azteca at 0.1/0.
 
Top five English-language Big Five shows (18-49s): 1. NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” 4.2; 2. NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” 3.4; 3. NBC’s “The Singing Bee” 3.2; 4. CBS’s “Big Brother - Tuesday” 3.1; Tie-5. CBS’s “Big Brother – Thursday” and “Two and a Half Men” and NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” 3.0.
 
Top five English-language Big Four shows (total viewers): 1. NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” 13.94 million; 2. CBS’s “CSI” 10.37 million; 3. CBS’s “Without a Trace” 9.30 million; 4. CBS’s Two and a Half Men” 9.25 million; 5. NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” 9.20 million.
 
Bottom five English-language Big Four shows (18-49s): 73. ABC’s “Saturday Movie of the Week” 0.9; Tie-74. ABC’s “Set for Life” and NBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” 0.8; 76. CBS’s “Crimetime Saturday” 0.7; 77. ABC’s “Master’s of Science Fiction” 0.6.
 
Bottom five English-language Big Four shows (total viewers): Tie-72. ABC’s “George Lopez” and NBC’s “Heroes” 2.84 million; 74. CBS’s “Crimetime Saturday” 2.83 million; 75. Fox’s “Anchorwoman” 2.66 million; 76. Fox’s “On the Lot” 2.40 million; 77. ABC’s “Master’s of Science Fiction” 2.14 million.
 
Show on the rise: “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” NBC, Sunday 7 p.m. Sure, it was among the week's least-watched broadcast shows, but in its broadcast debut it more than quadrupled its average nightly cable audience of 721,000 viewers last month.
 
Show on the decline: “Anchorwoman,” Fox, Wednesday 8 p.m. Was it the biggest broadcast bomb of the summer? Fox’s reality show posted just a 1.0 among 18-49s, and the network canceled the show after one episode.