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You've Got Big Ratings, Charlie Brown
For a Christmas season said to be under attack by "Happy Holiday"-insisting Grinches, Linus' congregation seems to be doing all right.
A Charlie Brown Christmas, the most explicitly religious of TV's classic seasonal specials, gathered its largest audience in at least four years, per Nielsen Media Research.
On the occasion of its 40th birthday, the 1965 vintage cartoon was watched by 15.3 million viewers, good for eighth place in the TV week ended Sunday. According to ABC, which has broadcast the special since 2001, the Bible-quoting Charlie Brown ranked first in its time slot among viewers young (kids, ages 2-11) and demographically mature (adults, ages 25-54).
Other Christmas specials bearing up okay in this year where, as Fox News' Bill O'Reilly asserted in Human Events, the holiday is "under siege...by secular forces that want to wipe out any public display of America's Judeo-Christian traditions," were the latter-day Peanuts offering I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown (41st place, 8.6 million), and the live-action Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (59th place, 6.9 million). Both aired on ABC.
Less successful in the ratings was the concluding half of CBS' papal miniseries, Pope John Paul II (70th place, 6.2 million). It appears the Wednesday night competition, including ABC's Freddie (53rd place, 7.4 million), and not secular forces, was responsible for the pope's weak performance. Freddie Prinze Jr. was not reached for comment.
Prinze conclusively cannot be linked to the downfall of three other Christmas-themed specials: NBC's annual outing for It's a Wonderful Life (73rd place, 5.9 million); the WB's rebroadcast of the cartoon Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer (90th place, 3.4 million); and Fox's attempt at uplifting, wish-fulfillment fare, Dear Santa (105th place, 2.8 million).
In the case of the Sunday-night-aired Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, secular forces, by which we mean CBS' 60 Minutes (fifth place, 19.7 million), again are suspected of luring away audiences.
The Trilateral Commission, meanwhile, could be considered a possible culprit behind the barely there 108th place performance of the WB's would-be wholesome Family Television Awards (2.5 million).
Either that, or the fact that Survivor: Guatemala finale (third place, 21.2 million) was on over on CBS.
Elsewhere:
Survivor just missed hogging three top 10 spots--one for the finale, one for the post-finale reunion (11th place, 15.2 million) and one for the penultimate broadcast on Thursday (fourth place, 20.2 million).No single show hogged more viewers than CBS' CSI (first place, 30.9 million)--the only prime-time series, per the network, to top 30 million viewers so far this season.
Oprah Winfrey's Dec. 1 sit-down on David Letterman's Late Show was watched by a whopping 13.5 million, the most since, as CBS reported, the show's host "returned from heart surgery" five years ago.
The fifth-season finale of UPN's America's Next Top Model fattened up with 6.4 million witnesses (64th place) to the crowning of Nicole Linkletter, implored by host Tyra Banks to share her catwalking talent "with not just America, but with the world."
ABC's outgoing Alias moved to Wednesday. Its lousy numbers (65th place, 6.4 million) only made it seem as if it were still on Thursday.
Fox's 16th Annual Billboard Music Awards did not top the charts--67th place, 6.4 million.
The CBS Evening News with Bob Schieffer saw its audience grow by 970,000 "viewers," or, as they're known in layman's terms, old people.
Overall, in a week in which ABC's Desperate Housewives took off Sunday out of respect for the Survivor blowout, CBS dominated, winning in total viewers (averaging 14 million) and the 18-to-49-year-old demographic.
ABC (9.6 million) placed second in both categories, followed by NBC (9.4 million) and Fox (5.7 million).
UPN (3.6 million) showed more growth; the struggling WB (3.1 million) resorted to layoffs.
Here's a look of the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
1. CSI, CBS, 30.9 million viewers
2. Without a Trace, CBS, 21.8 million viewers
3. Survivor: Guatemala--Finale, CBS, 21.2 million viewers
4. Survivor: Guatemala, CBS, 20.2 million viewers
5. 60 Minutes, CBS, 19.7 million viewers
6. Law & Order: SVU, NBC, 16.3 million viewers
7. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 15.7 million viewers
8. A Charlie Brown Christmas, ABC, 15.344 million viewers
9. ER, NBC, 15.338 million viewers
10. CSI: Miami, CBS, 15.326 million viewers
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