Kimbo Slice Puts Best Foot, Fist Forward

Young men flock to CBS' foray into mixed-martial arts; new Regis Philbin game show paces summer series

It's going to be a weird TV summer.

Prime-time ratings for hockey, that favorite beach-season sport, were way up. But they weren't big enough to beat CBS' foray into brawls. And Kimbo Slice wasn't man enough to take down Regis Philbin.

Well, OK, the Regis thing wasn't all that odd.

The man who made Who Wants to Be a Millionaire a phenomenon drove the new CBS game show Million Dollar Password to the top of the summer ratings. The premiere episode, which averaged 10.6 million viewers, ranked third overall for the week ended Sunday.

CBS was almost, if not more excited, however, about the inaugural performance of Saturday Night Fights, featuring mixed-martial arts star Slice in action.

The show drew fewer total viewers than the crime-show reruns CBS aired on Saturdays during the regular season, but it drew more young male viewers, who facing sold-out screenings of Sex and the City, apparently had no choice but to tune in Mr. Slice and friends.

Overall, the show averaged 4.9 million viewers, and ranked a middling 49th place. Fox's America's Most Wanted (38th place, 5.4 million) beat it in the 9 p.m. hour, but Saturday Night Fights got bigger and bloodier as its long night wore on, peaking from 11:30-11:51 p.m. with 6.5 million viewers for a bout pitting Slice against James "Colossus" Thompson.

There's been no word on when the next Saturday Night Fights will air. Presumably sometime after it can be confirmed William S. Paley has stopped spinning.

Even the late CBS founder might have to appreciate, though, that an upstart sport such as mixed-martial arts topped the tradition of hockey's Stanley Cup.

Airing on NBC opposite Saturday Night Fights in some time zones, Game 4 of the title series drew, on average, 4.044 million viewers (75th place). Hockey was nothing if not consistent. It posted an almost identical number for Wednesday's Game 3 (76th place, 4.041 million).

Far from being miffed that hockey's version of the World Series got iced, NBC was in proud, statistic-spouting mood. And for good reason. According to the network, last week's Game 3 was up by 148 percent in viewers over last year's Game 3.

And with no help from Regis, either.

Here are more ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday:

• Not all the summer shows surprised. Fox's So You Think You Can Dance (eighth place, 9.56 million on Thursday; 10th place, 9.4 million on Wednesday) was its usual strong self.
• Fox's Hell's Kitchen (ninth place, 9.5 million) and The Moment of Truth (19th place, 7.4 million) were solid, but below their American Idol-aided, regular-season averages.
• Much like hockey, American Gladiators has fallen so far, things are finally looking up. NBC says the show's Memorial Day installment (43rd place, 5.1 million) was up by more than 25 percent over the previous episode.
• Supernanny (24th place, 6.7 million), not The Bachelorette (36th place, 5.6 million) paced ABC's summer reality shows.
• Its finale delayed till the summer, ABC's Lost (first place, 12.3 million) looked like a giant among Without a Trace reruns (12th place, 8.5 million).
• Its finale also held off till summer, ABC's According to Jim (50th place, 4.8 million) looked liked According to Jim.
• If it makes you feel better about the state of the nation, ABC's broadcast of the Scripps National Spelling Bee (47th place, 4.9 million) averaged a bigger audience than Saturday Night Fights.
• Then again, a repeat of the NBC clip show Most Outrageous Moments (37th place, 5.5 million) outdrew the spelling bee.
• In cable, the new drama series In Plain Sight (5.3 million) gave USA its biggest debut since the 2004 launch of The 4400.
• Denise Richards: It's Complicated and Living Lohan continued to pull in the looky-loos. After the E! reality shows averaged 1.5 million and 1.45 million, respectively, for their Memorial Day premieres, last Sunday's followups brought in another 1.4 million and 1.2 million, respectively. (E! Online is a division of E! Entertainment Television.)
• Was the Universal Studios fire a buzz kill, or, more frightening for Hollywood, were the movies? The MTV Movie Awards (3 million) posted its third-worst ratings ever, and its lowest since 1996.
• A&E pulled in healthy numbers for its miniseries remake of Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain (4.8 million viewers for Part 1; 5 million viewers for Part 2).

Overall, CBS averaged 7.3 million viewers, thanks to Regis and reruns, and won the week in total viewers. Fox averaged 3.1 million 18-to-49-year-olds, thanks to aspiring dancers and chefs, and won the week in young adults.

In cable, ESPN (3.1 million) and TNT (2.7 million) dominated prime time, thanks to the basketball playoffs.

Here's a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. Lost, ABC, 12.3 million viewers
2. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 10.8 million viewers
3. Million Dollar Password, CBS, 10.6 million viewers
4. 60 Minutes, CBS, 10.3 million viewers
5. NCIS, CBS, 9.8 million viewers
6. Criminal Minds, CBS, 9.7 million viewers
7. CSI: NY, CBS, 9.6 million viewers
8. So You Think You Can Dance (Thursday), Fox, 9.56 million viewers
9. Hell's Kitchen, Fox, 9.5 million viewers
10. So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesday), Fox, 9.4 million viewers