Who woulda thunk? UPN pulls it off.

UPN's 'Buffy'

UPN's 'Enterprise'

Who woulda thunk?
UPN pulls it off.

Never mind the mishmash lineup, ratings are up

By Kevin Downey

    The outlook for UPN at the beginning of the television season was, to be blunt, grim.
   As the network heads into midseason, however, it’s surging in the ratings and making no significant changes to its schedule.
   That comes in sharp contrast to the other networks, UPN’s rival the WB in particular, which are assessing the damage of the first half of the season and tinkering with their lineups.
   The reason for UPN’s success comes down to its lineup of programs, logically enough.
   But its schedule, at first glance back in September, seemed anything but logical. It was, and continues to be, a mishmash of styles geared to vastly different audiences. It is loaded with programs that seem well past their prime.
    Yet the strategy has worked.
   "UPN has some pretty good nights," says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director at Horizon Media.
    "Their ethnic night on Monday certainly serves a niche; ‘Buffy’ is doing nicely for them on Tuesday; ‘Enterprise’ is a hit on Wednesday; and while ‘Smackdown’ is down a little bit on Thursday, it’s still a staple for 18-34 year olds."
   On Friday, UPN’s movie has an audience about 19 percent higher than it had last season.
    After losing 5 percent of its audience last year, UPN’s audience is up 13 percent this season and its ratings are either up or flat in every major demographic group.
    Perhaps the only disappointment for UPN is "Roswell."
    The network picked up the show after the WB canceled it. "Roswell’s" audience is 24 percent lower than it was on the WB and has less than half the audience of the WB’s "Smallville," which it competes with in the tough Tuesday 9 p.m. time slot.
    "Buffy," which UPN took away from the WB, however, has an audience 25 percent higher than it had last season, based on recent original episodes. And UPN’s "Enterprise," the latest in the "Star Trek" franchise, has an audience 56 percent higher than "Star Trek: Voyager" had in its final season last year. "Enterprise" is now UPN’s highest-rated show.
    UPN’s success would make its rival the WB look bad in any year, but the contrast is particularly striking this season.
    While UPN’s audience is up to an average of 4.6 million, the WB’s is down 3 percent to a bit more than 3.9 million. More troubling, the WB’s rating in its core 12- to 34-year-old audience is off 9 percent.
    "We had a really difficult time on Sunday this year," explains Rusty Mintz, senior vice president of primetime at the WB.
   "It’s clearly brought down our average, especially since it’s weighted more because we have three hours of programming on Sunday compared to two hours on other days of the week."
    The WB is taking steps in midseason to correct the problem.
     It canceled the Sunday series, "Men, Women & Dogs," earlier in the season and in two weeks is adding "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment," something of a modern spin on "Candid Camera."
   But part of the WB’s problem may simply be that it has too many nights of programs to schedule, says Shari Anne Brill, vice president and director of programming services at Carat.
   "I keep going back to the idea that they expanded too quickly. When UPN went to five nights a week, the WB felt they had to add extra hours."
    Since the WB has no plans to scale back from six nights, it’s reworking its schedule.
   The WB also gave the ax to "Elimidate Deluxe" and is adding "Glory Days," from the creator of "Dawson’s Creek" and the "Scream" movies, on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. A drama called "The Young Person’s Guide to Becoming a Rock Star" doesn’t have a scheduled date yet.
    In addition, a second original episode of "Angel" will air on Thursdays along with its regular Monday episode.
   And, while WB executives aren’t discussing details, media buyers say the network will try to extend the success of "Smallville" with similarly themed shows based on the Tarzan and Lone Ranger characters.
    "One of the challenges we have is that we are trying to build the men 12-34 audience," says Mintz.
    "We think we may have stepped in the right direction with ‘Smallville.’ Our objective is to raise the profile with men while not sending the women away packing."
    UPN also has three midseason shows ready, although none have scheduled airdates.
    "Under One Roof" is a reality show that pits families against each other in an attempt to win a house. "As If" is an American version of the British series, and "Random Years" focuses on recent college grads in New York City.

-Kevin Downey is a staff writer for Media Life.

Printer-Friendly Version | Send to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact Us