‘Millionaire’ Spreads Wealth

“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” brought about a reversal of fortune in November, stemming the flow of TV viewers from the major networks while providing the lifeline that hoisted ABC to a sweeps victory--and left NBC in third place--for the first time in five years.

The quiz show phenomenon, which will return as a regular series in January, aired 18 out of 28 days during the ratings survey that ended Wednesday. November is one of three months stations use to negotiate advertising rates, prompting networks to roll out the big programming guns hoping to boost their performance.

Yet “Millionaire” so tipped the balance of power--lifting ABC from third to first place--some executives are questioning whether those results will truly be reflective of future viewing patterns, a complaint registered in relation to past sweeps affected by extraordinary events such as the Winter Olympics.

Peter Chrisanthopoulos, president for broadcast and programming at ad agency Ogilvy & Mather in New York, suggested “Millionaire’s” influence would cause media buyers to approach last month’s data skeptically.

“On a local basis things need to be discounted, because it’s atypical for one program to run 18 times in a month,” he said, referring to the ABC quiz show. “The bread and butter of each network’s schedule is the regular programming, because that’s what’s going to be there next month and the month after.”

David Poltrack, CBS’ executive vice president in charge of research, was more pointed, calling ABC’s inflated numbers “useless to ad agencies and advertisers.”

That said, even rival networks welcomed some of the viewing trends. Overall tune-in to the four major networks actually rose slightly compared to November 1998--a rare achievement for broadcasters, who have experienced a steady loss of audience to cable and other alternatives.

One of the newer broadcast networks, UPN, also enjoyed a ratings surge versus a year ago, thanks primarily to “WWF Smackdown!”--a two-hour wrestling show that accounts for a fifth of UPN’s prime-time output.

ABC’s audience soared nearly 20% over the corresponding frame last year, to an average 15.2 million viewers, largely because “Millionaire” exceeded ratings for the programs it replaced by more than 150%.

The Disney-owned network even surpassed NBC among adults age 18 to 49, the demographic segment most sought by media buyers, which usually best translates into sales revenue.

ABC’s principal competitors nevertheless took heart from how well they weathered the storm. With holiday perennial “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” leading the way Wednesday, CBS edged NBC for the full survey, averaging 13.6 million viewers to the Peacock network’s 13.5 million. Despite “Millionaire’s” success, each declined by less than 1% from the previous year.

Fox suffered through the weakest sweeps performance, losing 15% of its audience compared to ‘98, sliding to about 10.1 million viewers. Moreover, after finishing just behind NBC among adults 18 to 49 a year ago, Fox sank to a distant third by that measure while leading CBS, which generally appeals to an older audience.

CBS’ Poltrack noted that more than half the extra viewers who watched “Millionaire” came from cable, and many quickly abandoned adjacent ABC series.

“It helped the shows that immediately followed it to a slight degree, but about a half-hour after it ended, that audience was gone,” Poltrack said.

As a sign of “Millionaire’s” confined afterglow, NBC still drew the biggest nightly audience from 10:30 to 11 p.m.--the key half-hour to stations because it funnels viewers directly into late newscasts, a crucial profit center for local broadcasters.

“It’s clearly not a case of ABC succeeding at our expense,” said NBC West Coast President Scott Sassa, at the same time hailing “Millionaire” as a signpost of network television’s unique ability to “capture the imagination of the nation.”

ABC officials pointed out that “Millionaire” helped 13 of the network’s series hit season highs and aided in promoting its lineup by luring more people to the network.

Other ABC highlights included the most-watched sweeps movie, the musical “Annie,” as well as audience growth for its Emmy-winning drama “The Practice,” which saw its viewing jury rise by more than 5 million viewers from November ’98. Even attributing part of that to an assist from “Millionaire,” it’s an impressive turnaround for a series network officials chose to preempt twice during last year’s sweeps.

“ER” remained the month’s top-rated program, averaging more than 29 million viewers--slightly healthier than its year-ago chart. That’s particularly notable given that NBC’s preceding comedies were noticeably weaker, underscoring the medical drama’s strong “appointment” relationship with viewers.

Although the WB network remains ahead in the race of fledgling networks, attracting about 4.2 million viewers, UPN narrowed the gap, as the former cooled by 13% versus its 1998 results. According to WB, much of that has to do with losing some its national exposure on Chicago superstation WGN.

WB continues to be a significant national player in terms of teens, ranking first within the narrow demographic of teenage girls thanks to such shows as “Dawson’s Creek,” “Charmed” and “7th Heaven.”

By contrast, thanks to wrestling, UPN fares best among boys and young men. The network’s 40% viewership gain, to about 3.9 million viewers, in essence restores its audience to levels from 1997, before the network sought to change course with a dramatically revised lineup.

Total prime-time viewing of cable rose slightly, but the combination of “Millionaire” and other programming stunts slowed its advance. Broadcast executives noted with some enthusiasm that the aggregate rating for the top 10 cable networks was flat compared to last year, with most of cable’s growth attributable to the crush of new channels. The average home now receives nearly 60 viewing options.

Preliminary data also shows a minor increase in year-to-year TV usage during November, indicating television continues to flourish overall despite leisure-time competition from the Internet and personal computers.