Dora Special Births Big Ratings

Some 2.5 million viewers explored the birth of Dora’s siblings Monday.

Highly anticipated special Big Sister Dora --spawned from Nick Jr.’s leading preschool series, Dora the Explorer -- generated a 10.8 rating among kids 2-5 from 1:30 p.m.-2 p.m. March 21, with some 1.3 million of those viewers tuning in to find that their Latina heroine is now the big sister to twins, a boy and a girl.

The show was the highest-rated Nick Jr. telecast in that time slot in three years, and it was up 72% from the same period in 2004. Big Sister Dora attracted 2.5 million viewers overall, according to Nielsen Media Research data, 47% more than the prior year.

The bilingual Dora will take on new adventures with the twins in upcoming Nick Jr. specials Super Babies and Catch the Babies March 28 and April 4, respectively. Both will air at 11:30 a.m.

Elsewhere, Nick scored big with the network-premiere runs of live-action theatrical Scooby-Doo. The March 19 showing from 8 p.m.-9:30 p.m. earned a 9.2 rating among kids 2-11 (2.9 million of those viewers), up 117% from the same slot the year before. It pulled a 10.6 and a 7.4 among kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14.

The previous night, Scooby-Doo scored an 8.5 among kids 2-11, a 9.9 among kids 6-11 and a 7.0 among tweens 9-14, according to Nielsen data.

Overall, the film’s Saturday-night airing was the fourth-highest-rated show in all of basic cable the week of March 14-20 with a 3.8 mark, while the Friday presentation was tied for eighth with a 3.5.