Posted on 12/05/2005 8:03:04 PM PST by buckeyesrule
Sunday night sinners outshine CBS' "Pope"
Mon Dec 5, 2005 3:03 PM ET
By Cynthia Littleton
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The story of a man who is on a fast track to sainthood was no match for the sinners of "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" on Sunday.
The first half of CBS' "Pope John Paul II" miniseries fizzled on Sunday, drawing only about 8.3 million viewers from 9:30-11:30 p.m., according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research.
CBS' lineup was thrown off its regular start times by a roughly half-hour football overrun at the start of primetime, but preliminary estimates indicate a weak turnout that barely registered on the adults 18-49 demo radar. CBS' numbers were only slightly better than the unimpressive showing ABC had on Thursday with its papal biopic "Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II."
ABC had no trouble drawing a crowd Sunday, however, with its 8-11 p.m. stalwarts "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (15.4 million, 4.2/10), "Housewives" (25.4 million, 11.0/24) and "Grey's Anatomy" (20.8 million, 9.4/22).
Fox was in a rerun zone for the night, led by the 8 p.m. encore of "The Simpsons" (9.4 million, 4.3/10). NBC was in its usual territory, highlighted by 9 p.m.'s "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (11.8 million, 3.4/7) and 10 p.m.'s "Crossing Jordan" (12.4 million, 3.6/8).
For the night, it was ABC all the way, as usual, with an average of 18.2 million viewers and 7.4/18 in adults 18-49.
Aren't the Desparate Housewives methodist? So I geuss the Methodist won for once. LOL!
A skewed rating, IMHO, because of the overtime of football. I tuned in late, but couldn't stay awake for the whole show. It seemed a good story of JPII as long as I saw it.
Yes I saw the man who play's John Paul on fox news and the similarities were remarkable.
John Voight as Pope? C'mon.
Some of them: (1) As if he became a priest because the Jewish girlfriend had to go to Palestine. (2) Pope was shown to make a big mistake by saying liberation theology is marxism... (I'm sure Pope was sad that the Bishop was killed, but it doesn't mean he regreted failing to back liberation theology like the movie wants us to believe). (3) At the end, Pope was shown to prefer Poland under communism...
The one in CBS is not finished; the 2nd part will air on Wednesday.
Indeed - a VERY good story - much history re Nazi and Communist occupation of Poland. Started at 9:25 - 2nd half will be Wed at 9PM beginning when he was elected pope.
From Midnight Cowboy to Pope! What a career arc!! (Seriously, no one knows Voight anymore except as being Angelina Jolie's father.)
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I enjoyed the ABC version, thought the actor who played John Paul II did a commendable job. But it was the first time I ever heard that Karol Wotyla as a student had a Jewish girlfriend who ditched him to go to Palestine. Is this true?
I'm not catholic so I could care less about watching something about the pope. 'Specially when college basketball is on.
I watched both and didn't enjoy the ABC version. See post # 6.
OK, the casting was weak, but I really liked this CBS version. I really showed the Pope as a man molded during time of the Nazi occupation and the holocaust.
Didn't see the ABC version, but the CBS version seemed OK. The dialog was weak and predictable in a few places though.
Ned Beaty was the one that had to squeel.
Why would I want to watch it?? Its from CBS, home of Dan Rather and the network that created the 'Reagans' movie of lies. If I had thought it would be a serious movie I might have thought about it.
Uh-uh. Voight was the one who had the purty lips. There's where Ang got 'em from. ;-)
Story was necessarily episodic, but the script was not great. I am sure that the late pope, a thespian, would have had some criticisms of the stilted dialogue.
That said, I NEVER watch the major networks--I just happened to hear about this show, and that it was approved by our new Pope, so I wanted to see it. I didn't even know anyone else had done another show about him.
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