Sports Fare Hurting ‘Magic Hour’

The ratings box score for “The Magic Hour” has been just so-so three days into its first week, hurt in part by a show featuring another NBA superstar, Michael Jordan, as well as NHL hockey.

The new late-night talk show hosted by former Los Angeles Laker Earvin “Magic” Johnson averaged a 3 rating its opening night in 40 major cities monitored by Nielsen Media Research, then dropped to a 2.1 rating both Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Wednesday, however, an NBA basketball playoff game, featuring Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, drew a huge audience, running until roughly midnight in the Eastern time zone. “The Magic Hour” also began late Tuesday in many East Coast markets because Fox’s telecast of hockey’s Stanley Cup playoffs ran past Johnson’s 11 p.m. start time.

Rick Jacobson, president of Twentieth Century Fox Television’s syndication arm, which distributes the show, acknowledged Thursday that basketball fans were “a significant part of our audience” but added that he’s pleased with both initial ratings and the show’s creative direction.

“A lot of people forget it takes time,” he said. “This is a new experience for him doing this.”

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In Los Angeles, where sports running past prime time hasn’t been an issue, viewing of “The Magic Hour” has gradually fallen. The program was watched in more than 260,000 homes locally its first night, falling to 205,000 and 185,000 the second and third nights, respectively.

With those numbers, KTTV-TV Channel 11 ranked fourth in the time slot, beating “Late Show With David Letterman” and “Vibe,” which was recently canceled but will continue through the summer.

Dick Kurlander, an executive at the TV consulting firm Petry Television, said the first real test for “The Magic Hour” will come during the July ratings sweeps. He added that the disappearance of “The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show” and now “Vibe” could help its cause.

“I think it’s worked wonderfully to their advantage with the cancellation of ‘Vibe,’ so it’ll be on its own out there,” Kurlander said.

Bill Carroll, vice president at Katz Television Group, which also represents TV stations, said ratings so far are “OK, not great,” and that Johnson’s performance as host will be best measured when he can’t rely on big-name guests such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Harrison Ford every night.

“What he’ll face, and what all hosts face, is four or five weeks when Bobcat Goldthwait is your first guest. . . . That’s the real task,” Carroll said.