Lifetime Wins Prime
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 8/13/2002 3:50:00 PM
The Anna Nicole Show sagged during its second episode, while Lifetime Television held a comfortable lead in basic-cable's primetime ratings race last week.
The E! Entertainment reality series earned a 3.0 household rating with the second installment of Anna on Aug. 11, according to a Turner Entertainment Research analysis of Nielsen Media Research.
That's down from a 4.1 rating during its Aug. 4 debut , a performance that made it the top show in basic cable that week, the highest-rated program in E's history and tied it with FX's The Shield as the second-highest original series bow in the medium's history.
Despite the household falloff, Anna still held up well among key adult demos, ranking second among the 18-to-34 set and third among the 18-to-49 crowd last week.
Lifetime led the way among networks from Aug. 5 to Aug. 11, averaging a 2.3 household rating in primetime, giving the women's-targeted channel a 0.5-point edge over Nickelodeon and USA Network at a 1.8 average apiece.
A trio of Turner networks -- Turner Network Television (1.7) and TBS Superstation and Cartoon Network (both at a 1.6) -- were next.
Rounding out the top 10: ESPN with a 1.3; Fox News Channel at a 1.0; and TNN: The National Network, Discovery Channel, A&E Network, MTV: Music Television and Sci Fi, all at a 0.9.
For its part, E! averaged a 0.7 for the week.
Nickelodeon topped the total-day household charts with a 1.7 average, well ahead of Lifetime and Cartoon, both with a 1.3.
TBS was fourth with a 1.0, while TNT and USA were knotted in fifth at a 0.8.
USA swept the adult demos, taking the top spot among adults 18-34 (530,000 of those viewers), adults 18-49 (1.09 million) and adults 25-54 (1.12 million).
MTV finished second among the younger group (438,000), ahead of TBS (414,000), TNT (400,000) and TNN (326,000).
TNT (923,000) was second with adults 18-49, narrowly topping Lifetime (910,000). TBS (854,000) and TNN (687,000) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
Among the older adult group, Lifetime placed second with 1.09 million of those watchers, while TNT (1.02 million), TBS (834,000) and TNN (695,000) completed the top five.
TNN's Aug. 5 coverage of the World Wrestling Entertainment fare claimed the first (3.9) and fourth (tied at a 3.4) spots for the week on a household basis.
ESPN's presentation of the New York Jets-Pittsburgh Steelers National Football League preseason game on Aug. 8 (3.6) was second, in front of Lifetime movie Deep Family Secrets -- a 3.5 on Aug. 5.
Nick's ubiquitous SpongeBob Square Pants grabbed the remaining four spots in the top 10, led by a 3.4 on Aug. 5 at 5 p.m.
All told, Spongebob episodes squeezed 16 of the top 50 slots for the week, according to the Turner analysis.
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