News Shorts

ABC wins 18-49s on State of the Union night
All four networks essentially relinquished last night to the President's State of the Union Address and offered mostly reruns for the hour before the speech, except ABC which took the opportunity to showcase "The Chair" at 8 p.m. The new reality offering helped the network to a win in 18-49s for the night, on top of taking the 8 p.m. hour with a 4.2 in the demo. ABC had a 4.0, NBC a 3.9, Fox a 3.0 and CBS a 2.9 in adults 18-49, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings. Also at 8 p.m., Fox came in second with "That '70s Show" and "Undeclared," while NBC placed third with "Frasier" and "Three Sisters." "Undeclared" dropped 22 percent of its lead-in, and "Sisters" dropped 11 percent of its lead-in. NBC's coverage of the President's speech took the 9 p.m. hour with a 5.0 among 18-49s, followed by a 4.5 from ABC, a 3.1 from CBS and a 2.4 from Fox. ABC regained the pole position at 10 p.m. with its speech analysis, edging NBC's "Dateline" breakdown with an adult 18-49 rating of 3.5 to "Dateline's" 3.1. The average household rating and share for Tuesday night were: NBC 7.2/11, ABC 6.9/11, CBS 6.9/11 and Fox 3.7/6. In this problematic year for ABC, it can be thankful for its miniseries and specials, which have done well with viewers. This time it was the second installment of Stephen King's three-part miniseries "Rose Red," which gave the network a solid win in adults 18-49 on Monday night, with a 6.5. NBC had a 5.3, CBS a 4.9 and Fox a 4.3, based on preliminary Nielsen ratings. Rising steadily each half-hour, the suspense miniseries averaged an 8.3 in the demo for its two hours, though it started out just a half-point above CBS's "Everybody Loves Raymond" at 9 p.m. with a 7.6. NBC's "Third Watch" hauled in a strong 4.9 for the hour, thanks to reruns on Fox of "That '70s Show" and "Malcolm in the Middle." At 10 p.m. "Rose Red" dominated the ratings, nearly doubling the audience for NBC's "Crossing Jordan" for an 8.7 adult 18-49 rating. At 8 p.m., "Fear Factor" continued to put up big numbers, posting an impressive 6.5 among 18-49s for first in the hour. The average household rating and share for Monday night were: ABC 10.1/15, CBS 9.6/15, NBC 8.1/12 and Fox 5.8/9.

Fox News beats out CNN in January ratings
The folks at Fox News Channel love to gloat, and now they have something substantial to gloat about: For the first time in its five-plus years on the air, the conservative-leaning network beat CNN in primetime and total day ratings for a full month. Although it's only available in 77 million homes, nine million fewer than CNN, Fox News averaged 840,000 homes and a 1.1 rating during primetime hours in January, while CNN averaged 757,000 homes and a 0.9 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research. In the total-day race, Fox edged out its rival with 539,000 homes and a 0.7 rating versus 525,000 homes and a 0.6 rating for CNN.

Officials put the kibosh on Tyson-Lewis fight
The long-awaited Tyson-Lewis showdown in Sin City is officially off. The Nevada Athletic Commission elected yesterday to deny former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson a license to fight in Las Vegas, censuring him for a scuffle that broke out at a press conference last week in New York City. The conference was held to promote the fight between Tyson and defending heavyweight champion Lenox Lewis. The two were scheduled to meet on April 6 in Las Vegas, with the fight to be aired in pay-per-view on both HBO and Showtime. But the press conference quickly turned into a brawl, with each side blaming the other for starting it. There is still a possibility that the fight will happen if Tyson can get licensed in another state, but Lewis has indicated that he may choose not to fight. Yesterday, he confirmed a rumor that Tyson bit him on the leg during the altercation. "The fact is that Mike Tyson bit through my trousers and took a significant piece of flesh out of my thigh," said Lewis in a statement.

Fox evacuates 'The Chamber'
Fox may have beaten ABC's "The Chair" to the air, but its reality/torture show "The Chamber" has just about run out of steam. After just one episode in the deadly Friday 8 p.m. time slot and special episodes the previous two Sundays, Fox has plucked the controversial entry from its regular time slot for February sweeps. The remaining three episodes will be strategically inserted at a later time, though there are no plans to produce additional installments. Buoyed by two plum Sunday time slots for its first two special episodes, "The Chamber" started out strongly, as the second special episode scored a 3.9 rating among adults 18-49 with "Malcolm in the Middle" as a lead-in. But the show quickly fell back down to earth last Friday, with its 18-49 rating dropping to a 2.6. Media attention to the show, on the other hand, remained, sustained by a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement from the makers of ABC's "The Chair" and reports of physical injuries stemming from flames sprayed from within the playing compartment.

Study: Raunch a-plenty on basic cable
Forget "Sex and the City" and "The Sopranos"--there's plenty of sex, violence and cursing to be found in the wider world of basic cable, according to a study released by the Parents Television Council on Monday. Cable television programs such as MTV's "Jackass" and Comedy Central's "That's My Bush" contain more than double the amount of profanity, violence and sexual content than do network TV shows, say the study's authors. The study reviewed 33 cable series, all shown between last April and September, and found that the combined average of non-family-friendly moments amounted to 21.6 per hour. According to a similar council study done in 1999, network television shows averaged only 9.8 such occurrences per hour. The 2001 study concluded that Comedy Central's "South Park" was by far the most offensive program on basic cable, weighing in with an average of 126 raunchy moments per hour, followed by MTV's "Undergrads" with 73 and "Celebrity Death Match" with 66.

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