Suddenly, UPN is a contender

As the dust settled on the first week of the fall TV season, the big winner was ... UPN?

For most of its existence, Viacom’s mini-network has been mocked for its programming, an odd mix of “Star Trek” spinoffs, pro wrestling and cut-price sitcoms. The business story isn’t any better; the network lost so much money -- at least $1 billion since starting in 1995 -- that senior Viacom executives publicly floated the notion of a shutdown.

Privately, some agents said they wouldn’t even bother pitching projects to the network because it paid writers and actors relatively meager rates and its long-term prospects were so unsettled.

So imagine the forehead-slapping in Hollywood suites last week when UPN -- with an assist from comic Chris Rock -- waltzed to its best premiere week ever, with double-digit growth in total viewers and also among the young adults most sought by advertisers.

The biggest source of UPN’s newfound sizzle? “Everybody Hates Chris,” the family sitcom that Rock originally developed as a pilot for Fox.

But returning UPN series such as the reality contest “America’s Next Top Model” have also hit record highs, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research.

“It’s getting the most buzz of any network” this fall, said Stacey Lynn Koerner, executive vice president at ad firm Initiative.

With Rock’s involvement -- plus a 10-minute sneak peek that drew raves from advertisers in New York in May -- “Chris” was expected to open strongly. But its Thursday premiere received UPN’s highest rating ever for a sitcom, with 7.8 million total viewers, handing the season premiere of NBC comedy “Joey” a humiliating defeat. Back for its second year, “Joey’s” first half-hour drew 7.5 million viewers. UPN’s showing is especially impressive because the network is available only in 90% of the U.S. while NBC is available in virtually every market -- and “Joey” was spun off from the network’s mega-hit sitcom “Friends.” Last season, the NBC comedy averaged 10.2 million total viewers.

Analysts say that with “Chris,” Viacom’s billion-dollar bet on UPN may finally start paying off. Early next year, Viacom will split its broadcast and radio operations into a separate company from its fast-growing cable networks, including MTV and Nickelodeon. But UPN will remain under the oversight of CBS honcho Leslie Moonves.

“If these numbers hold up for ‘Chris,’ that show will be a grand-slam home run for UPN,” said Shari Anne Brill of New York-based ad firm Carat. “It’s a real game-changer for the network.... Fox is probably kicking themselves right now for letting that show go.”

“Chris” even has some Hollywood agents warming up to UPN. “The stars aligned on this one,” said UTA partner Jay Sures, who represents one member of the producing team for “Chris.” “Great script, great cast, incredible promotional campaign.”

Of course, it’s still too early to say whether UPN has arrived for good or merely hit another peak in its roller-coaster history. The network spent heavily to promote “Chris” -- estimates range from $12 million to $15 million in marketing costs, more than twice those of typical new sitcoms -- and its early ratings success could prove short-lived.

Moreover, UPN has had trouble getting advertisers to pay top dollar for some of its most-watched series, such as the sitcoms “Girlfriends” and “All of Us,” because they mostly attract black viewers with incomes lower than marketers prefer. As of last May, the median household income for UPN viewers was $37,000; its longtime rival the WB Network logged a household median of $45,000, while ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox were at $50,000 or more.

It remains to be seen whether “Chris” can become a “crossover” show that attracts affluent viewers as well. The stakes are particularly high because advertisers spend more money on Thursdays than on any other night of the week.

Dawn Ostroff, UPN’s entertainment president, realizes that the network has a long way to go.

Even before “Chris” premiered, “we really wanted to manage everybody’s expectations,” Ostroff said in an interview Friday. “We know what the network is really capable of, and we are not [like] CBS or NBC or ABC, where we can start right out of the box and just have those kinds of numbers.”

Still, UPN has made great strides since 2000, when Mel Karmazin, then Viacom’s president and chief operating officer, reportedly told investors in London: “UPN will become profitable, or it won’t exist. If we can’t make it profitable, we don’t need it.” (Karmazin left Viacom in 2004 and is currently chief executive of Sirius Satellite Radio.)

The network got off to a strong start in 1995 with the debut of “Star Trek: Voyager,” seen by 21.2 million viewers.

But too many UPN shows got no attention, while others -- such as the 1998 sitcom oddity “The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer” -- became the butt of jokes. Since Moonves took over the network in 2002, though, UPN has shown more interest in staying the course. Now in its fifth edition, “Top Model” has turned into a signature series. “Girlfriends” and the other UPN sitcoms did surprisingly well last week against a doubleheader of ABC’s “Monday Night Football.”

Another UPN advantage: Top CBS executives routinely work on its programs and campaigns. For “Chris,” veteran CBS marketing guru George Schweitzer pulled out all the stops with a blitz that included a pilot screening for the Congressional Black Caucus, 1 million bumper stickers passed out by guerrilla “street teams” and airplane and helicopter banners in New York and Los Angeles, as well as more conventional ads in entertainment magazines.

Even one of the victims of Hurricane Katrina smiled on “Chris.” Nine-year-old Charles Evans, whose family was displaced from its New Orleans home by the storm, appeared on the Sept. 18 Emmys broadcast alongside “Chris” star Tyler James Williams.

The marketing coup wasn’t lost on UPN’s Ostroff: “I got more phone calls about that moment on the Emmys than almost anything else in a long time.”

Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.