Sweeps time and no show walks on real legs

By Elizabeth White
   
  Ah, the short, sweet life of a midseason replacement show.
    This February will be do-or-die time for most of the shows that debuted this January, many of which will have just a few episodes under their belts heading into the sweeps period.
    But the scrutiny that these new shows will be under is entirely of their own doing. If they could have established themselves as a breakaway hit, as "Temptation Island" has done, or as a total disaster, as NBC’s "Tucker" did this fall, then these shows wouldn’t be depending on February sweeps for their future.
    But none of the midseason replacement shows have stood out as either hits or misses, with the exception of "Temptation Island."
    And "Temptation Island" hardly qualifies as a series. The current version is a six-episode order, meaning this particular phenomenon will be over by the end of February sweeps. Of course, the show will reappear this May, when Fox hopes it can repeat numbers like Wednesday’s 8.7 adult 18-49 rating and 10.9 household rating.
    Meanwhile, Fox is the reigning king of the midseason series. Last year, the network introduced "Malcolm in the Middle" and "Titus" in the winter. Soon, "Malcolm" was being hailed by critics as the new sitcom standard, and "Titus" was a moderate hit.
    And this January, Fox added another dysfunctional family sitcom to its lineup, "Grounded for Life." But Fox has protected the show between repeats of "That '70s Show" and first-run episodes of "Temptation Island," making it virtually impossible to gauge the true strength of the series.
    On Wednesday, "Grounded" earned a 6.0 rating among adults 18-49 and a 7.3 rating in households. That’s up 54 percent and 28 percent, respectively, against anything else Fox has put in the 8:30 p.m. timeslot all year. 
   But it’s up only 2 and 5 percent over the repeat episode of "That 70’s Show" that served as its lead-in, and "Grounded’s" ratings were 30 percent lower than lead-out "Temptation Island" in both households and adults 18-49.
    The other midseason show this season that has built on its lead-in is the WB’s "Popstars." Last Friday, the show managed a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49, just one-tenth of a rating point below the WB’s average adult 18-49 rating last week. That number is more impressive considering that Friday is one of the least-watched nights of the week.
    UPN’s Friday night replacement, "Gary and Mike," on the other hand, had a dismal 0.9 adult 18-49 rating last Friday. That number is off UPN’s weekly average by six-tenths of a rating point, or by 40 percent. That’s still better than its lead-out, repeats of MTV’s "Celebrity Deathmatch" (0.7 among adults 18-49 last week), still far below what UPN hoped for out of a show designed to capitalize on the "WWF Smackdown!" audience.
   On Tuesdays, both ABC and NBC brought out midseason replacements. But NBC is having better luck with "Three Sisters" than ABC is with "The Mole."
   Last Tuesday, "Three Sisters" earned a 7.4 rating among adults 18-49, and more importantly for NBC, kept 94 percent of its "Frasier" lead-in. But it too, benefits from a protected timeslot, and remains questionable on how it would do without "Frasier’s" help.
   For ABC, "The Mole" is posting consistent but moderate ratings. Last Monday, the reality show had a 4.9 rating among adults 18-49, down 12 percent from the week before. But that was still enough for a second-place finish in its timeslot in households and adults 18-49.
   And shaking things up more for these fledgling shows will be CBS’s "Survivor 2," arriving just in time for February sweeps.

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