For Fox, baseball is a hit, new shows a miss

As the fall season winds up its first month, Fox is on a ratings roller coaster, grappling with the initial strikeouts of two of its most heavily promoted new series, “The Next Joe Millionaire” and “Skin,” while celebrating the home run performance of baseball’s league championships and the World Series.

According to national viewership data released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research, Fox won the ratings crown in total viewers last week, with six nights devoted to baseball. Fox’s executives pointed out that the games have propelled the network for the first time in its 17-year history to the No. 1 spot in the season so far among adults aged 18 to 49, the demographic that advertisers pay the most to reach.

Fox has traditionally used the playoffs and World Series to promote its delayed fall lineup. But a deluge of commercials failed to generate much interest in Monday’s premiere of “The Next Joe Millionaire,” a sequel to last season’s hugely successful unscripted series, and “Skin,” a Romeo-and-Juliet themed drama set against the backdrop of politics and pornography.

“The Next Joe Millionaire” finished in fifth place in its 8 p.m. time period, averaging 6.6 million viewers, while “Skin” wound up in fourth at 9 p.m., with an average of 6.4. million viewers.

“We’re disappointed, absolutely,” said Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman Tuesday. “We’re obviously experiencing a taste of what the other networks are going through when it comes to launching new shows.”

Berman said the new “Joe Millionaire” “clearly is no longer the phenomenon it was.” The initial show featured a construction worker posing as a millionaire as he wooed several single women. The new version features a cowboy also posing as a wealthy man to several European women who were unaware of the first show.

Saying she feels that that “The Next Joe Millionaire” will eventually catch on with younger audiences, Berman added that Fox would concentrate more on exposing “Skin” to more viewers.

Fox will repeat the first “Skin” episode this Friday, and then show repeats of each Monday episode on Thursdays at 9 p.m. The network used the “double-down” strategy in launching “The O.C.”, which began modestly but grew to become a bright spot for Fox before it temporarily exited to make way for the playoffs and now the World Series, between the New York Yankees and the Florida Marlins.

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Prime-Time TV Rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (Oct. 13-19) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 272.04 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* 1 Baseball Playoffs: A.L. (Thu.) FOX 27.48 2 Baseball Playoffs: N.L. (Wed.) FOX 26.50 3 CSI CBS 21.61 4 Baseball: World Series (Sun.) FOX 20.55 5 Baseball Playoffs: N.L. (Tue.) FOX 19.36

6 Survivor: Pearl Islands CBS 19.35 7 Everybody Loves Raymond CBS 18.18 8 Baseball: World Series (Sat.) FOX 17.69 9 CSI: Miami CBS 17.64 10 Baseball Playoffs: A.L. (Mon.) FOX 17.49

11 NFL Post-Game (Sun.) FOX 15.14 12 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 14.88 13 Two and Half Men CBS 14.73 14 Friends NBC 14.55 15 Without a Trace CBS 13.89

16 Baseball: World Series Pre-Game (Sun.) FOX 13.60 17 Law & Order NBC 12.92 18 Law & Order: SVU (Tue.) NBC 12.65 19 60 Minutes CBS 12.54 20 JAG CBS 12.30

21 Monday Night Football ABC 12.26 22 Still Standing CBS 12.22 23 The Bachelor ABC 11.96 24 Fear Factor NBC 11.95 25 The Guardian CBS 11.76

26 Navy NCIS CBS 11.70 27 Cold Case CBS 11.61 28 ER NBC 11.59 29 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Wed.) NBC 11.58 30 Frasier NBC 11.24

31 Will & Grace (8:30 p.m.) NBC 11.21 32 Judging Amy CBS 11.02 33 Yes, Dear CBS 10.93 34 Joan of Arcadia CBS 10.87 35 My Wife and Kids ABC 10.85

36 The Practice ABC 10.63 37 Whoopi NBC 10.56 38 Las Vegas NBC 10.55 39 Will & Grace (9 p.m.) NBC 10.28 40 According to Jim ABC 10.26

41 The District CBS 10.19 42 It’s All Relative ABC 10.17 43 NFL Monday Showcase ABC 9.99 44 NYPD Blue ABC 9.76 45 Hope & Faith ABC 9.72

46 8 Simple Rules ABC 9.69 47 Lyons Den NBC 9.63 48 Third Watch NBC 9.62 49 King of Queens CBS 9.49 50 Alias ABC 9.45

51 Happy Family NBC 9.24 52 “Jackie Collins: Hollywood Wives” CBS 9.10 53 Law & Order: SVU (Fri.) NBC 8.95 54 Becker CBS 8.87 55 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 8.84

56 The Handler CBS 8.78 57 George Lopez ABC 8.61 58 Less Than Perfect ABC 8.53 59 Hack CBS 8.52 60 I’m With Her ABC 8.47

61 Whoopi (Thu.) NBC 8.39 62 Life With Bonnie ABC 8.33 63 10-8 ABC 8.23 64 Good Morning Miami NBC 8.18 65 Married to the Kellys ABC 8.11

66 60 Minutes II CBS 7.98 67 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 7.96 68 Primetime Thursday ABC 7.95 69 Extreme Makeover ABC 7.91 70 “Toy Story 2” ABC 7.89

71 Karen Sisco ABC 7.86 72 America’s Funniest Videos ABC 7.74 73 American Dreams NBC 7.39 74 Ed NBC 7.14 75 “Erin Brockovich” NBC 6.92

76 7th Heaven WB 6.81 77 Brotherhood of Poland NH CBS 6.74 78 Threat Matrix ABC 6.59 79 “Elizabeth Smart” CBS 6.58 80 Smallville WB 6.47

81 Miss Match NBC 6.46 82 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 6.35 83 Gilmore Girls WB 5.40 84 Charmed WB 5.35 85 Everwood WB 5.29

86 WWE Smackdown! UPN 5.04 87 Angel WB 5.03 L.A. Dragnet ABC 5.03 89 Threat Matrix (Mon.) ABC 4.66 90 Boston Public FOX 4.41

Eve UPN 4.41 92 Girlfriends UPN 4.39 93 Reba WB 4.19 94 Wanda at Large FOX 4.16 95 Half and Half UPN 3.91

96 The Parkers UPN 3.80 97 One Tree Hill WB 3.78 98 Tarzan WB 3.77 99 All of Us UPN 3.71 100 Enterprise UPN 3.46

101 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 3.27 102 Luis FOX 3.24 103 One on One UPN 3.21 104 Like Family WB 2.95 105 Smallville: Beginning WB 2.80

106 Jamie Kennedy WB 2.67 107 Grounded for Life WB 2.66 108 All About the Andersons WB 2.27 109 “Posse” UPN 2.24 110 What I Like About You WB 2.17

111 Jake 2.0 UPN 2.10 112 Run of the House WB 2.09 113 Rock Me Baby UPN 2.06 114 The Mullets UPN 1.85

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*--* Network averages Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season. Network Last week Season to date FOX 19.09 12.45

CBS 11.76 12.83

NBC 9.66 10.98

ABC 8.82 9.67

WB 4.30 4.32

UPN 3.38 3.46

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