Quiz Shows Provide Holiday-Week Fireworks

The Fourth of July holiday as usual took its toll on television viewing, as last week’s prime-time standings--in what looked like a throwback to the 1950s--saw four hours of quiz shows sit atop ratings for the major networks, based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

In addition to “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and “Weakest Link,” the top 10 included two newsmagazines, auto racing’s Daytona 400, won by Dale Earnhardt Jr., and NBC’s unscripted summer tryout “Fear Factor,” which, along with “Spy TV,” continues to draw particularly well among those in the elusive 18 to 34 age bracket.

The perceived can’t-miss streak by such alternative fare, however, was dealt a setback by the second edition of CBS’ “Big Brother,” which premiered to mediocre ratings on Thursday and sank substantially with its Saturday telecast--a night when viewing levels do tend to be lower. Still, the show’s only saving grace if the current ratings trend persists is that it costs relatively little to produce and is faring no worse than the programs it’s replacing during a summer that has seen viewers largely bail out on reruns.

CBS’ “Everybody Loves Raymond”--the most watched sitcom seven weeks in a row--and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” have been exceptions in that regard. Fox, meanwhile, tried to scare up viewers with two movies bearing the name of novelist Dean Koontz, which delivered modest results.

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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 NBC 7.76 million 11.14 ABC 7.26 11.66 CBS 7.21 11.84 FOX 5.47 8.94 UPN 3.04 3.65 WB 2.27 3.55

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