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"Dinosaurs" Claws into Record Books
The Discovery Channel's three-hour special Walking with Dinosaurs chewed up the competition Sunday night, scoring a brontosaurus-like 8.0 rating and drawing an estimated 10.7 million viewers.
Overall, about 40 million viewers saw some part of the special during its two Sunday telecasts, making it the most-watched nonsports event on cable during the 1999-2000 season. Dinosaurs smashed the Discovery Channel's own ratings record set last month by Raising the Mammoth, which drew a 7.8 rating.
Coproduced by the BBC, Dinosaurs, which charts 155 million years of prehistory using state-of-the-art animatronics, Jurassic Park-caliber computer animation and recent scientific discoveries to recreate the dino world, smashed ratings record in Europe when it aired earlier this year.
While Dinosaurs rampaged on cable, Moses, with an assist from Regis, helped deliver ABC to the Nielsen promised land. Thanks in part to a Sunday night broadcast of the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille epic The Ten Commandments, along with its usual batch of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, ABC won the prime-time ratings race for the 16th week in a row.
After airing the Biblical saga for six consecutive years from 1992 to 1998, ABC gave viewers a rest last year, which probably helped boost the numbers this time around. ABC's ratings for the Charlton Heston flick were up 26 percent over two years ago, as viewers couldn't get enough of the Easter/Passover-season favorite. The show wound up placing in the top 10 for the week ended April 16.
The top 10 was headed up yet again by Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which drew 28 million viewers on Tuesday. The Thursday installment placed third, behind NBC's ER. ABC's Dharma and Greg and NYPD Blue also made the list.
However, not all was peachy at the network. Its new Friday night reality show, Making the Band, a behind-the-scenes look at a prefab boy band à la 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, bombed, drawing a measly 6.8 million viewers to finish in 70th place for the week. (Maybe the show's targeted teen audience was out partying instead of at home tube watching.) And Band's fellow Friday nighter Boy Meets World was just dumped.
For the week, ABC averaged 13.3 million viewers with a 9.0 rating and a 15 share, NBC came in second (10.3 million, 7.5, 13) and CBS third (9.6 million, 6.8, 12), while Fox hit the skids (7.5 million, 5.0, 8). In the battle of the mini-nets, UPN bounced the WB, scoring 3.5 million viewers, a 2.5 rating and a 4 share to its rival's 3.1 million, 2.3 and 4. (Each ratings point represents just over 1 million households; the share is the total number of turned-on sets tuned to a particular show.)
Here's how the Nielsen top 10 lined up:
1. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Tuesday), ABC, 18.7 rating
2. ER, NBC, 18.2 rating
3. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (Thursday), ABC, 17.7 rating
4. Friends, NBC, 12.8 rating
5. Dharma and Greg, ABC, 12.1 rating
6. 60 Minutes, CBS, 11.0 rating
7. Daddio, NBC, 10.9 rating
8. The Ten Commandments, ABC, 10.8 rating
9. NYPD Blue, ABC, 10.7 rating
10. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, 10.0 rating
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