CBS maintains commanding February sweeps lead
For the past two years, the networks that aired the Super Bowl have also won the February sweeps among adults 18-49 ABC and Fox. It looks like CBS will join them. CBS has averaged a 5.8 rating among 18-49s between Feb. 1 and Feb. 19, according to Nielsen, up 61 percent versus last year. It still has a huge lead on No. 2 Foxs 4.2 average, likely too much to make up in the next eight days. ABC stands third at 3.6, NBC fourth at 3.0 and CW fifth at 1.3. Much of CBSs year-to-year sweeps growth can be attributed directly to the Super Bowl, of course, but even when you throw that out the network would be up 8 percent versus the 3.6 it averaged through the corresponding day last year, when the network carried an unusual amount of repeats opposite NBCs Winter Olympics coverage. Second-place Fox is up 2 percent versus last year, thanks to a strong start from American Idol and a nice boost for House. ABC, meanwhile, is off 40 percent from February 2006 when it aired the Super Bowl, but would be off 12 percent even without the game. Similarly, NBC is off 39 percent from last year, when it had the Winter Olympics, but it is down 6 percent discounting the Games. And CWs 1.3 is up 18 percent from the 1.1 UPN averaged during the same period last year but down 13 percent from the WBs 1.5.
Three athletes join ABC's brigade of 'Dancing' stars
It seems a good bet that an athlete will make the finals of ABCs Dancing with the Stars for a third straight season. Thats because this year, theres three of them. Following the success of former NFLers Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith, the runner-up and winner for seasons two and three, respectively, season four of the hit show has three athletes: boxer Laila Ali, Clyde Drexler, a former NBA basketball star, and Apolo Anton Ohno, an Olympic gold medalist in speed skating. The other nine finalists were also announced on Good Morning America yesterday. They are: singer/actor Billy Ray Cyrus, ex-N Sync-er Joey Fatone, former Miss USA Shandi Finnessey, radio/TV show host Leeza Gibbons, Paul McCartneys estranged wife Heather Mills, Sopranos actor Vincent Pastore, former supermodel Paulina Porizkova and ex-Beverly Hills, 90210 actor Ian Ziering. The show will air Mondays starting March 19 with a two-hour special, with the results airing Tuesdays starting March 27 at 9 p.m. Last fall the show ranked No. 1 in households, with a 13.5 rating Tuesday and 12.7 for Wednesday's results episode. In adults 18-49, the shows averaged a 5.8 and 4.9, respectively.
NBC News regains total viewers lead from ABC
The NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams regained its usual lead among total viewers last week, the week ended Feb. 18, a week after ABCs World News with Charles Gibson pulled ahead for the first time in months. But World News stayed just a tick ahead of Williams in adults 25-54, drawing 90,000 more viewers. In total viewers, Nightly News averaged 10.17 million, while World News averaged 10.06 million. It marked the ninth straight week of growth for the ABC show, which was the only news program to rise over the same week last year, up 11 percent. NBC was flat, and CBSs Evening News with Katie Couric was down 3 percent, to 7.78 million. Gibson averaged 3.24 million 25-54s, Williams drew 3.15 million, and Couric had 2.64 million.
Ad-nausea: Restaurateur protests poor NYT review
When New York restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow read a review of the Kobe Club, his new restaurant, in The New York Times earlier this month, he was not pleased. So in response he bought a full-page ad in yesterday's Times and filled it with a letter he penned defending his restaurant and questioning the credentials of the papers restaurant reviewer. The review, written by Frank Bruni and published on Feb. 7, says of the restaurant: Although Kobe Club does right by the fabled flesh for which its named, it presents too many insipid or insulting dishes at prices that draw blood from anyone without a trust fund or an expense account. Bruni also likened the atmosphere of the restaurant, which has 2,000 samurai swords suspended from the ceiling, to a mix of samurai fantasia and torture chamber. He gave the restaurant a satisfactory rating but no stars. For his part, Chodorow responds that the review of the restaurant was less about the food and more about the owner. He also slams the paper for having a food critic who doesnt really have a food background, but instead wrote about politics. In fact, writes Chodorow, the newspaper hasnt had a real food critic with food background -- Amanda Hesser aside -- since Ruth Reichi, who is now editor-in-chief at Gourmet magazine.
Nielsen critic erinMedia slashes staff and ambitions
Nielsens not getting a serious competitor after all. Just a few weeks ago, erinMedia said it was set to receive a $25 million infusion from Boston-based Spark Capital to help develop a rival to Nielsens TV measurement system that would draw data from set-top boxes. Now it looks like that wont happen. Following Nielsens recent launch of DigitalPlus, which uses digital set-top boxes to measure ratings, Spark Capitals interest cooled and it notified erinMedia that the money was no longer coming. Tuesday the erstwhile Nielsen competitor laid off most of its staff and said it will not be actively pursuing the new ratings system. Instead, its focus will shift to licensing its patents to research companies. ErinMedia, under founder Frank Maggio, will continue to pursue its anti-trust suit against Nielsen, which it filed nearly two years ago and is set for federal trial next year.
