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On 'iCarly,' real
stars are kids at home


New Nickelodeon show debuts to big numbers in tweens

Sep 14, 2007

User-generated content has been all the rage on the internet for the past year, with sites like Digg.com and YouTube, and now it’s slowly making its way to television.

During the recent Minneapolis bridge collapse, cable news networks relied on video captured via viewers’ cell phones. The CW is premiering “Online Nation,” a mashup of the web’s best UGC, next week.

And now Nickelodeon has a kids’ UGC show. It’s called “iCarly,” and it debuted to big ratings last weekend, thanks to an interactive element that prompted thousands of kids to submit their own images and videos to air on the show.

Two back-to-back episodes of “iCarly” aired Saturday night, starting at 8 p.m. The first averaged 1.3 million tweens 9-14 and 2 million kids 2-11, and the second jumped 22 percent among tweens, to 1.5 million, and to 2.1 million in kids 2-11.

The show won its timeslot among tweens and accounted for three of the week’s top five shows in that demographic, including a Sunday morning rerun of the previous night’s episodes.

The fictional show follows Carly (Miranda Cosgrove, of Nick’s popular “Josh & Drake"), a girl who becomes a famous webcaster after using the internet to cast schoolmates in a talent show.

Each week, Carly screens comedy sketches, interviews, pictures, even recipes on her show. The catch is that these are submitted by real-life viewers, who have a chance of actually appearing on the show.

Children submitted some 2,200 photos and uploaded 2,000 videos for consideration for upcoming shows following Saturday’s debut. For the week ended Sept. 9, iCarly.com drew 270,000 unique visitors, who spent an average of 15 minutes each on the site, according to web tracker Omniture Site Catalyst.

Nickelodeon has long used its web site to push new shows, with programs like “Catscratch” and “Naked Brothers Band” drawing online fan bases before they’d even premiered.

But “iCarly” is the first to actually put those web fans on TV. If the show continues to draw big numbers, no doubt Nickelodeon will add more interactive features to some of its existing shows.

Meanwhile, in other younger viewer ratings for the week ending Sept. 9:

Among teens 12-17, Fox was first with a 1.2 rating and 5 share, followed by NBC at 1.2/5, Univision at 1.0/4, ABC at 0.9/4, the CW at 0.9/3, CBS at 0.8/3,  Telemundo at 0.3/1, Telefutura at 0.1/1, and Azteca at 0.0/0.

Among kids 2-11, Univision led with a 1.1/5, followed by NBC at 0.9/4, Fox at 0.8/3, ABC at 0.7/3, CBS and the CW at 0.5/2, Telemundo at 0.3/1, Telefutura at 0.2/1, and Azteca at 0.0/0.

The top five shows among kids 2-5: 1. “SpongeBob SquarePants” (Nickelodeon, Saturday 9:30 a.m.); 2. “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” (Disney, Sunday 9 a.m.); 3. “Little Einsteins” (Disney, Sunday 10 a.m.); 4. “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” (Disney, Sunday 9:30 a.m.); 5. “Little Einsteins” (Disney, Saturday 10 a.m.)

The top five shows among kids 6-11: 1. “High School Musical 2” (Disney, Saturday 8 p.m.); 2. “iCarly” (Nickelodeon, Sunday 11:30 a.m.); 3. “Suite Life of Zack & Cody” (Disney, Monday 7:30 p.m.); 4. “Suite Life of Zack & Cody” (Disney, Monday noon); 5. “Hannah Montana” (Disney, Saturday 10:20 p.m.)

The top five shows among kids 9-14: 1. “Suite Life of Zack & Cody” (Disney, Monday 7:30 p.m.); 2. “High School Musical 2” (Disney, Saturday 8 p.m.); 3. “iCarly” (Nickelodeon, 8:30 p.m. Saturday); 4. “iCarly” (Nickelodeon, 11:30 a.m. Sunday); 5. “iCarly” (Nickelodeon, 7:30 p.m. Sunday)

TOP 10 PROGRAMS – BROADCAST & CABLE
Kids 2-5
Week Ended Sept. 9


Program

Net

Rtg%

(000)

1

SPONGEBOB-09/08/2007

NICK

6.3

1007

2

MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE-09/09/2007

DSNY

6.2

999

3

LITTLE EINSTEINS-09/09/2007

DSNY

6.2

987

4

MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE-09/09/2007

DSNY

6.1

984

5

LITTLE EINSTEINS-09/08/2007

DSNY

6

953

6

SPONGEBOB-09/09/2007

NICK

5.8

927

7

MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE-09/08/2007

DSNY

5.8

926

8

HANDY MANNY-09/09/2007

DSNY

5.7

913

9

MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE-09/08/2007

DSNY

5.6

904

10

TAK AND THE POWER OF JUJU-09/08/2007

NICK

5.6

902

Source: Disney-ABC Television Group, based on data from Nielsen Media Research

 

TOP 10 PROGRAMS – BROADCAST & CABLE
Kids 6-11
Week Ended Sept. 9


Program

Net

Rtg%

(000)

1

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2-09/08/2007

DSNY

8

1934

2

ICARLY-09/09/2007

NICK

7.7

1864

3

SUITE LIFE OF ZACK & CODY-09/03/2007

DSNY

7.2

1753

4

S SUITE LIFE OF ZACK&CODY-09/03/2007

DSNY

7.2

1742

5

HANNAH MONTANA-09/08/2007

DSNY

7

1694

6

SPONGEBOB-09/08/2007

NICK

6.9

1673

7

S SUITE LIFE OF ZACK&CODY-09/03/2007

DSNY

6.9

1671

8

ICARLY-09/08/2007

NICK

6.9

1671

9

S SUITE LIFE OF ZACK&CODY-09/03/2007

DSNY

6.9

1669

10

FAIRLY ODD PARENTS-09/08/2007

NICK

6.8

1659

Source: Disney-ABC Television Group, based on data from Nielsen Media Research

 

TOP 10 PROGRAMS – CABLE
Kids 9-14
Week Ended Sept. 9

Rank

Program

Net

Rtg%

(000)

1

SUITE LIFE OF ZACK & CODY-09/03/2007

DSNY

7.1

1741

2

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2-09/08/2007

DSNY

6.8

1669

3

ICARLY-09/08/2007

NICK

6.3

1528

4

ICARLY-09/09/2007

NICK

6.2

1509

5

ICARLY-09/09/2007

NICK

5.9

1447

6

HANNAH MONTANA-09/08/2007

DSNY

5.8

1424

7

S SUITE LIFE OF ZACK&CODY-09/03/2007

DSNY

5.8

1409

8

S SUITE LIFE OF ZACK&CODY-09/03/2007

DSNY

5.7

1396

9

S SUITE LIFE OF ZACK&CODY-09/03/2007

DSNY

5.5

1353

10

CORY IN THE HOUSE-09/08/2007

DSNY

5.5

1337

Source: Disney-ABC Television Group, based on data from Nielsen Media Research

 



Toni Fitzgerald is a staff writer for Media Life.




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