Fantasy Miniseries Can’t Match ABC’s Muscle

“Gladiator” may have made a killing at the box office over the weekend, but NBC’s sword-and-sandal epic “Jason and the Argonauts” put up less of a fight, as ABC received the most thumbs up thanks to the brawn of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

“Jason,” starring Jason London, finished third overall, trailing ABC’s tandem of “Millionaire” and “The Practice” as well as the CBS movie “Cupid and Cate.”

Those results extend an unimpressive run for fantasy sweeps spectaculars. “Arabian Nights,” another miniseries from producer Robert Halmi Sr., scored so-so ratings for ABC, and NBC drew scant tune-in earlier this year with Halmi’s “The 10th Kingdom” and “The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns.” Taken together, there’s evidence the genre has lost some of its allure--especially relative to the high cost of these productions.

Celebrity editions of “Millionaire,” by contrast, set ratings records for that program, helping ABC score its highest-rated week since the Super Bowl. ABC’s musical “Geppetto” also fared reasonably well without approaching the heights “Annie” scaled in November.

The finale of “Boy Meets World” drew that show’s biggest audience in over a year, while the final “Party of Five” was modestly attended, in part due to competition from “Millionaire.”

Cable Top 10

Here are Nielsen’s top 10 cable programs in prime time last week, also ranked by total viewers (in millions).

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Net- View- Program work ers 1. Wrestling (Mon., 10 p.m.) USA 9.62 2. Wrestling (Mon., 9 p.m.) USA 7.86 3. “Entrapment” HBO 3.94 4. Wrestling (Sun., 7 p.m.) USA 3.47 5. Wild Thornberrys NICK 3.11 6. Wrestling (Wed.) TBS 3.07 7. “The Corner” HBO 3.04 8. Wrestling (Mon.) TBS 3.00 9. “Sleep, Baby, Sleep” LIFE 2.78 10. NBA Playoffs (Wed.) TNT 2.69

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Network Averages

Here is the number of viewers that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

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Last Season week to date ABC 18.28 million 14.23 CBS 11.67 12.46 NBC 11.41 12.28 FOX 7.40 8.99 UPN 3.77 3.93 WB 3.27 3.64

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Southland Viewing

Here are Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. The rankings are based on the number of households watching.

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Sta- House- Program tion holds 1. Millionaire (Wed.) KABC 1,402,900 2. Millionaire (Tue.) KABC 1,272,032 3. Millionaire (Thur.) KABC 1,198,746 4. Millionaire (Mon.) KABC 1,156,869 5. Friends KNBC 1,005,062 6. ER KNBC 963,185 7. The Drew Carey Show KABC 785,205 8. Friends (8:30 p.m.) KNBC 774,736 9. Millionaire (Sun.) KABC 759,032 10. 60 Minutes KCBS 743,327

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