Lowe Tops Jennings in July 4 Ratings

AP via MSNBC.com ^ | 7/9/02

[GeneD]

Filed at 6:17 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- In probably the only time they will ever compete with one another, Rob Lowe can say he beat Peter Jennings.

Lowe was host of NBC's Fourth of July coverage of fireworks from New York City, which drew 7.9 million viewers, making it 28th for the week in the Nielsen Media Research rankings.

Meanwhile, ABC's ambitious Independence Day special with Jennings ranked a dismal 66th, with 4.6 million viewers.

Jennings' music special was the one that created a small controversy with country music fans, when singer Toby Keith complained that he wasn't booked to sing his Sept. 11-themed song, ``Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).''

The July Fourth week traditionally is one of the least-watched television weeks of the year.

For the week, CBS averaged 8.3 million viewers (5.7 rating, 11 share), NBC averaged 7.3 million (5.0, 11), Fox had 5.9 million (3.6, 7), ABC had 5.2 million (3.5, 7), UPN had 2.2 million (1.5, 3), the WB had 2.1 million (1.4, 3) and Pax TV had 1.1 million (0.7, 1)

NBC's ``Nightly News'' won the evening news ratings race with 9.3 million viewers (6.7 rating, 15 share). ABC's ``World News Tonight'' had 9 million (6.2, 14) and the ``CBS Evening News'' had 7.8 million (5.5, 12).

A ratings point represents 1,055,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 105.5 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of July 1-7, the top 10 shows, their networks and ratings: ``60 Minutes,'' CBS, 8.6; ``Everybody Loves Raymond,'' CBS, 7.9; Movie: ``A Time to Kill,'' CBS, 7.7; ``48 Hours-Monday,'' CBS, 7.4; ``Dateline NBC-Tuesday,'' NBC, 7.4; ``Becker,'' CBS, 7.3; ``Law & Order,'' NBC, 6.6; ``Law & Order: Criminal Intent,'' NBC, 6.6; ``Crime & Punishment,'' NBC, 6.3; Movie: ``Murder, She Wrote: South by Southwest,'' CBS, 6.2.

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On the Net:

http://www.nielsenmedia.com

[Paul Atreides]

How about that, bragging rights between two losers.

[IronJack]

All I need to know about Rob Lowe is his video encounter with a teenage girl a few years ago. Never was a man so appropriately named.

The only way I'd watch him is if he was going to be tied to a post and publicly horsewhipped.

[Joe Boucher]

Who knows, someone may have watched jennings the socialist had he put on some good old country boys proclaiming their patriotical ideas about the good ol U.S.A. instead of some pablum crapppppppp.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Ah heck, that ain't saying much.

Shoot, even Home Depot can beat Jennings any day of the the week. 8<)

[LenS]

Wow, a win by 3.3 million can't be excused by the Philly and Boston ABC affiliates doing local shows instead of the network stuff. It looks like PJ's Canadian socialism is getting noticed.

To be honest, I've always wondered if the 3 Big Heads' ratings are really determined by the popularity of the local market's 6 PM newscasts and not by the slug behind the chair at 6:30 PM.