Ratings lag won't slow Fox down

By David Bauder
Associated Press

The prime-time soap "North Shore," with Brooke Burns, left, and Kristoffer Polaha, has proved to be a ratings disappointment for Fox. Fox

The network finished fourth in the ratings last week, behind even ABC, which Fox routinely beat during the winter months. Fox came in third among viewers aged 18 to 49, the demographic it most cares about.

Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie's "The Simple Life 2," which finished just out of Nielsen Media Research's top 10 last week with 9.3 million viewers, is Fox's summer highlight.

None of the network's five other new shows are doing well, even the one by reliable reality producer Mark Burnett. His look at Las Vegas in "Casino" was seen by fewer than 5 million people last week.

Perhaps most disappointing is "North Shore," a soap about young workers at a luxury hotel in Hawai'i. Fox hoped it would catch on as "The O.C." did last summer, but it drew 4.4 million viewers last week.

Fox was hoping to catch attention this summer, saying it was no longer a time to subject viewers to a steady diet of reruns.

"While we're seeing the shows come out of the gate slowly, we are seeing growth in virtually every show each week, and we're optimistic," said Fox spokesman Scott Grogin. "You can't start an entirely new way of programming a network and expect it to come out of the gate like gangbusters, especially in the summer."

While the numbers are small, Fox is taking some solace in the fact that they're not dropping much from week to week, so they may have potential to build.