Posted on 01/17/2006 2:31:20 PM PST by LdSentinal
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Jack Bauer‘s latest marathon workday got off to a good start Sunday, ratings-wise.
The Fox drama "24" notched its most-watched episode ever with its fifth-season premiere as the first of two back-to-back episodes got a boost from a primetime overrun (in East Coast and Midwestern markets) of the NFL‘s NFC divisional playoff game between the Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears.
Airing from about 8:13-9:11 p.m. EST, the first episode of "24" averaged 17 million viewers and a 7.3 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic (demographic share data for Sunday were not available Monday because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday), according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research. The second hour of "24," which ended at about 10:13 p.m. EST, held onto the majority of its lead-in to finish out with 15.5 million viewers and a 6.7 rating in adults 18-49.
According to Fox, Sunday‘s episodes marked the two most-watched installments of the Emmy-winning real-time drama series since the clock began ticking on "24" in fall 2001. Last year, Fox shifted the series to a January premiere date in part to allow the show to run original episodes in its regular Monday 9 p.m. slot through the end of the season without taking any weeks off for repeats.
The first hour of Sunday‘s season opener improved on last year‘s "24" premiere episode (which also had a special Sunday kickoff) by 16% in adults 18-49 and 11% in total viewers. ABC‘s 9 p.m. dynamo "Desperate Housewives" (22.5 million, 9.5/20) held onto its No. 1 ranking by a comfortable margin, though the presence of "24" probably helped drive the soap to its lowest marks of the season to date for an original episode. At 10 p.m., ABC‘s "Grey‘s Anatomy" (19.1 million, 8.6/20) hung tough and registered its best-ever retention of an original "Housewives" lead-in.
But the combination of the NFL overrun and double dose of "24" gave Fox the clear victory for the night (22 million viewers, 9.2 in adults 18-49) and its highest-rated Sunday since last year‘s Super Bowl telecast on February 6.
In other weekend ratings news, ABC had a good turnout Friday for the second week of its "Dancing With the Stars Results Show" (13.7 million, 3.4/11), which kept the network at No. 1 in both key measures in the 8 p.m. hour, according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen. The news was not so good on Friday for NBC‘s limited-run 10 p.m. drama "The Book of Daniel" (7 million, 2.2/6), which lost Nielsen ground from the previous week‘s underwhelming two-hour premiere. CBS wound up taking Friday honors overall on the strength of the 10 p.m. drama "Numbers" (12.8 million, 3.8/11).
On Thursday, NBC‘s new comedy lineup, anchored by 9-10 p.m.‘s "My Name Is Earl" (12.5 million, 5.9/14) and "The Office" (10.3 million, 5.1/12), made hay in the adults 18-49 demo derby against a repeat of CBS‘ "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (17.8 million, 5.4/13). A good showing from NBC‘s 10 p.m. stalwart "ER" (15.4 million, 6.7/17) gave NBC the nightly win in adults 18-49 (5.6/14) and its highest-rated Thursday since May.
ABC was a player from 8-9:30 p.m. with the second week of its 90-minute performance edition of "Dancing With the Stars" (17.4 million, 4.6/12). The network‘s momentum ebbed at 9:30 p.m., however, with the debut of the sitcom "Crumbs" (11.8 million, 3.6/9).
WB Network also had some good news Thursday with the 9 p.m. second-season premiere of "Beauty and the Geek" (5 million, 2.3/6). On the heels of a solid showing from 8 p.m.‘s "Smallville" (5.5 million, 2.4/6), "Geek" delivered WB‘s best numbers of the season in the time period in all key measures, particularly women 18-34 (3.2/8), female teens (4.0/12) and male teens (3.1/10).
There was a running joke that staff members from the office of the junior senator of Virginia were hoping the show would be a hit so the name of the main character would be well known and catch on in popularity.
The junior senator from Virginia is Senator Allen.
The name of the president on the show is.......President Allen.
24 is the best TV show ever made. And I was a rabid X-Files fan, so when you trump X-Files you've done something.
MM
It's easily the most addicting TV show I have ever seen.
I have only watched Fox and HGTV for years.........this show caught my attention. They were running back to back shows from the first season on one of the networks and now I am hooked. You have to catch it. Worth your while.
Jack Bauer '08!!
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
Does the DVD show the episodes seamlessly...or do they run those summaries before each episode (hour)?
24 is great. Try watching it a few weeks.
It was the first to go back to the old time serial movies. Many will remember the Saturday movie serial with the cliff-hanger leaving you wondering what will happen until the next Saturday. Wonderful fun.
It is also well done, moves fast, has great technology, and mainly the good guys go after the threat and Jack will fight the great battle for us. It is clean, no bad language - just a quality show that leaves you glued to the set for that hour.
In fact, the best rental movies I ever got were a prior season 24 series of tapes. So great to watch straight through four episodes and then making the trip to get the next four for the next night. This is the best way to watch it - but who can wait a whole year for the season?
24 is the fastest hour of TV watching.
Oh, yeah, get your hands on them. Quite a lot of action.
"It is clean, no bad language - just a quality show that leaves you glued to the set for that hour. "
This is probably the clincher. No illicit affairs, explicit language to deal with, although some entanglements lead to consequences. Just good old-fashioned action.
So what's the deal with 24? I've not seen it, but I rarely watch any top 40 tv. What's the allure?
It was Chase's newborn baby (abadoned by its mother?) and then Kim had to make a decision whether to stay with him and become an instant mother. She did, but they never said anymore about them, except that they're "living in the valley."
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She was supposed to, that's how they wrote her.
Summaries, but you can fast foward.
Whatcha gonna do..Jack. That's my favorite line from any season :)
When Chloe double tapped that assassin in that oil field I knew she was my kind of girl
I have seen on IMDB that she is back for a few episodes this season, airing in February.
Oh come on, when she got out of bed & told the guy to get out of her bed, leave. Such a hard nose.
I don't get it. I watched the first few years on DVD's from Netflix but found it unbearably boring after that. It's so predictable or was with the original characters. Stupid daughter, strange girlfriends etc. Maybe I'll have to try again.
You mean West Wing is still on the air??? It went totally in the toilet with the personal leaning writing of Lawrence O'Donnell and we tuned out and tuned in to Homemakeover.
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