Quick Hits
by Staff -- Multichannel News, 11/16/2008 5:00:00 PM MT
`Ruby’ Records for Style Network Debut
New York — The premiere of The Style Network’s Ruby was the channel’s most-watched and highest-rated original series debut ever, drawing 545,000 viewers and a 0.66 rating.
The Nov. 9 hour-long premiere more than tripled Style’s primetime average among households, up 230%; women 18-49, up 263%; and total viewers, up 287%, and placed Style in the Top 20 cable networks with key female demos women 18-to-49 and 25-to-54. In total, more than 2 million unique viewers tuned in to the series on Sunday night.
“Ruby is truly an inspiration and we are delighted that Style viewers have embraced the series,” Style executive vice president Salaam Coleman Smith said. “The response at mystyle.com has also been fantastic and many women are coming together to share their own stories as they follow Ruby’s journey.”
Savannah resident Ruby Gettinger weighs a life-threatening 500 pounds, and Style’s cameras follow her personal journey to lose weight, get healthy and battle discrimination.
Nick’s iCarly Telepic Draws Nearly 8 Million
New York — Nickelodeon’s Nov. 8 premiere of its first iCarly original movie broke ratings record for the kids-targeted network.
The movie, iGo to Japan, which followed the exploits of iCarly (Miranda Cosgrove) and her friends as they travel oversees to attend a Web-based awards show, drew 7.6 million viewers, a network record for a live-action television movie. It also broke ratings records among kids 2-11 (4.3 million) and K2-11 (3.6 million).
Following iGo to Japan, Nickelodeon’s original series debut of True Jackson, VP drew an additional 4.8 million viewers. The series stars Keke Palmer as an enterprising 15-year old that gets tapped to head the youth division of Mad Style, a major fashion label.
iGo to Japan was the most watched entertainment show for the week of Nov. 3 to Nov. 9, but it finished a distant 15th, as cable network news coverage of the Nov. 4 presidential election dominated the weekly ratings race.
Goldberg to Produce for Discovery Nets
New York — Actress Whoopi Goldberg will produce several projects for Discovery Communications’ Investigative Channel and Science Channel as part of a development deal between Goldberg’s Whoop Inc. production company and Discovery’s Emerging Networks Group.
Under the agreement, Goldberg and her producing partner, Tom Leonardis, will develop targeted series for Investigation Discovery and Science Channel, with a guarantee that at least one concept, executive produced by the team, will receive a greenlight, according to Discovery.
