"Bachelorette," Reality Score Ratings

Fri., Jan. 10, 2003 1:20 PM PST by Lia Haberman

The networks' new rallying cry: desperately seeking singles reality series.

Strangers searching for their significant others on the dance floor, in hot tubs and over drinks made a love connection with TV audiences this week.

The West Wing, usually a ratings winner, got whomped by a tearful Trista Rehn as The Bachelorette, a gender twist on the original formula, wooed 17.6 million suitors Wednesday night, the best debut for the ABC franchise yet.

Watching physical therapist Rehn, an original Bachelor reject, pick out possible soul mates from among 25 potential suitors attracted the biggest audience ABC has had in that time slot in two and a half years. The premiere episode scored especially well among the coveted 18-to-49 demo (who probably wish their dates could be screened by casting agents).

But Rehn's search for true love wasn't the only dating story to seduce lovelorn viewers this week. The most impressive showing came from Monday night's launch of Joe Millionaire. The sneaky series premiere, in which a blue-collar worker masquerades as a multimillion-dollar Casanova, was a stunning success for Fox. The one-hour episode lured 18.6 million viewers, which marks the best debut yet of any unscripted series.

While Joe didn't manage to best champ Raymond (as in Everybody Loves...), it was the best time-slot rating the fourth-ranked net has had in eight years.

In fact, the numbers were good enough for Fox to grant viewers a second date. On Wednesday, network programming execs announced they had scheduled an encore special to air next Thursday which will include the first two episodes padded with previously unseen footage--because you can never have too much manipulation and rejection.

Overall, average Americans caught on tape have ruled the Nielsen ratings this week as a spate of reality shows made successful midseason debuts on most of the major networks.

ABC's other reality show, Celebrity Mole Hawaii, earned a respectable 10.8 million viewers on Wednesday, helped in part by its Bachelorette lead-in. (B-list actors beware: Ratings indicate that the American public would rather watch the mating games of lowly construction workers and spurned women than the attempted comebacks of Hollywood Squares' familiar faces.)

Meanwhile, Arsenio Hall, no stranger to the fluctuations of public taste, managed to hold his own as the new Ed McMahon on CBS' updated Star Search. The Wednesday variety series, a watered-down version of Fox's American Idol, won its time slot with 13.8 million viewers.

The WB offered up its own special twist on the reality genre this week. Sunday's High School Reunion, aging classmates itching to see who's still single, who's fat and who's rich, was the net's second most watched show of the week, behind Charmed, with 5.2 million viewers.

And on Thursday, the Frog launched The Surreal Life, like the Real World but with people you care about less. The mismatched roomies brought in 5.2 million viewers, which means a tie with Reunion and translates into a bona fide success for the net.

What this means is that viewer's renewed interest in reality series, especially the out-to-score variety, will no doubt have TV execs trying to duplicate the trend, making the genre harder to shake than a bad blind date.

The next tasteless offering to meddle in love and tempt viewers: Fox's Married by America. The matchmaking net goes old world as it attempts to arrange matches between singles "tired of the dating scene." (Some would say get a pet.) The series marches down the aisle in March.