CBS grabs viewers, but not the young
By David Bauder
Associated Press
CBS can claim bragging rights after the first week of a new television season — but with a big asterisk attached.
CBS was easily the nation's most popular network last week, by a margin of nearly 1.5 million viewers over closest rival NBC, its best opening-week showing since 2000. New series "Two and a Half Men," "Cold Case" and "Joan of Arcadia" had promising starts.
Yet CBS had an ominous showing among viewers 18 to 49, still the yardstick by which many in the television industry measure their businesses.
NBC continues to dominate in this demographic. ABC, which had an encouraging first week, finished second while CBS was third. CBS averaged nearly 900,000 fewer 18-to-49-year-old viewers than it did in opening week last year, Nielsen Media Research reported yesterday.
Roughly half of CBS' audience last week was outside of this advertiser-prized demographic, most of them older. CBS has long claimed the advertising industry undervalues older viewers; it's why CBS is second to NBC in ad revenue despite having more viewers.
"In my view, nothing has changed," said NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker. "NBC still wins 18-to-49, and ABC and CBS are duking it out for second."
CBS is in danger of becoming a niche network for the 50-plus crowd, Zucker said.
But David Poltrack, CBS' top researcher, said schedule aberrations account for some of the decline: last season CBS showed part of a young-skewing NFL game in prime-time during opening week and this year didn't. He's confident the 18-to-49 numbers will improve.
"Hit CBS shows start old and get younger," he said. "This was the case with 'CSI,' it was the case with '(Everybody Loves) Raymond.' What we have established in the first week is that we have several potential hit shows. ... The younger demographics are going to come."
CBS and ABC were the only networks to average more viewers last week than during the 2002 season premiere weeks, Nielsen said.
Although ABC's two most popular programs last week have a limited shelf life — "Monday Night Football" goes off the air when the NFL season ends, and the late John Ritter has only two more completed episodes of "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter" available — there were positives for the struggling network.
Nearly 12 million viewers tried the new comedy, "Hope & Faith," while "My Wife and Kids" and "According to Jim" had strong returns. ABC has shown improvement across several different nights, said the network's entertainment president, Susan Lyne.
"We are encouraged," she said. "We know it's a long season but it's nice to start out with some very hopeful signs and that's what we're reading here."
Fox has delayed the premiere of most of its series until after the baseball season. But already, its new Friday lineup of "Wanda at Large," "Luis" and "Boston Public" is struggling.
One thing that hasn't changed from last year: the two most popular scripted series are CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and NBC's "Friends."
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