A hot start for prime-time's new year-round schedule.
Summerland, producer Aaron Spelling's summertime offering for the WB, enticed an estimated 4.6 million viewers Tuesday night, the network said.
The two-hour series premiere ran first in Los Angeles and Atlanta, where about the only other original entertainment were baseball games by the frustrating local teams.
Summerland, starring Lori Loughlin as an insta-mom, that favored Hollywood creation wherein a woman inherits a brood of kids when tragedy befalls someone less deserving of screen time than herself, is scheduled to run 13 weeks.
It is one of several new shows and season premieres that the networks, save CBS, will bow in a time of year historically reserved for reruns and more reruns. Now showing or coming soon: the sitcom Method and Red and The Casino on Fox; the reality series Next Action Star on NBC; and the forgotten final season of The Drew Carey Show on ABC.
Proving there was wisdom to the old summer-rerun philosophy, however, the WB last week found three times as many viewers for a slightly used 7th Heaven (68th place, 3.9 million) than the debut of its Pepsi Smash concert series (94th place, 1.2 million), per Nielsen Media Research.
Elsewhere in the TV week ended Sunday:
A little show called American Idol had a good week for Fox--28.8 million viewers for the Fantasia Barrino-crowning season finale (first place); 25.1 million viewers (second place) for the penultimate episode.The season finale of Fox's 24 properly and expertly exploited its Tuesday Idol lead-in--eighth place, 12.3 million viewers.
Up against Wednesday's Idol blowout, the 39th Academy of Country Music Awards held its own on CBS--11th place, 11.6 million.
The plastic-surgery tournament that was Fox's The Swan averaged 9.4 million devotees for its two-hour closer. The final hour ballooned to 10.7 million viewers, good for 15th place.
A Primetime Thursday report on porn, in the guise of a look at the adult industry's recent H.I.V. scare, sexed up the ABC newsmag's ratings--26th place, 9 million viewers.
A Thursday night ABC broadcast of 2000 big-screener Coyote Ugly was watched by more people--7.1 million (38th place)--than there were ticket buyers to any movie last weekend, with the exceptions of Shrek 2 and The Day After Tomorrow.
The season finale of Star Trek: Enterprise picked up a little warp speed for UPN--69th place, 3.9 million.
Superstar USA, the WB's anti-Idol contest, continued to fall flat with viewers--2.5 million (78th place) for last Monday's installment; 2.7 million (75th place) for the following night's episode.
An ABC prime-time broadcast of Saturday's Stanley Cup game--that's hockey--was watched by approximately nobody, or about 2 million.
Overall, Idol-led Fox ruled the week, which included the final days of the 2003-04 season, in both total viewers, averaging 11.5 million, and 18-to-49-year-old ones.
CBS ran second, with 9.6 million, followed by NBC (7.3 million) and ABC (6.4 million).
UPN topped the WB, 2.8 million to 2.3 million.
Here's a rundown of the 10 most watched shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
1. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 28.8 million
2. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 25.1 million
3. CSI: Miami, CBS, 21.3 million
4. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, 18.3 million
5. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 18.2 million
6. CSI, CBS, 14.9 million
7. Without a Trace, CBS, 12.5 million
8. 24, Fox, 12.3 million
9. Law & Order, NBC, 12.2 million
10. Still Standing, CBS, 12.1 million