NBC’s ‘Spy,’ ‘Fear’ a Cure for Summertime Blues

The major networks are suffering from a precipitous summertime swoon, as viewers continue to scout around for rerun alternatives such as NBC’s hidden-camera show “Spy TV” and the stunt-oriented “Fear Factor,” based on viewing estimates issued Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Even with solid ratings for those programs, ABC, CBS and NBC all experienced double-digit percentage declines compared to the corresponding week a year ago, while Fox’s audience slipped by 9%. Summer ratings for CBS and ABC were inflated last year by “Survivor” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” respectively.

Viewers--particularly those in younger age brackets--are clearly seeking out fresher fare, including “Spy TV,” hosted by Michael Ian Black, which made its debut on Thursday and built on tune-in for its lead-in show (a “Friends” rerun) by an impressive 2.5 million viewers.

“Fear Factor” is also drawing solid ratings Mondays paired with the quiz show “The Weakest Link,” which, like ABC’s “Millionaire” and most newsmagazines, keep churning out original installments during the summer. As a result, only three conventionally scripted series--all of those sitcom repeats--were among last week’s 10 most-watched programs.

ABC’s “You Don’t Know Jack,” a game format hosted by Paul Reubens, performed respectably as well, though the NBC sitcom premiere “Go Fish” went belly-up ratings-wise.

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 CBS 7.98 million 12.07 ABC 7.75 11.88 NBC 7.71 11.33 FOX 4.91 9.12 UPN 2.97 3.69 WB 2.38 3.62

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