First boot gives 'Brother' a boost
Weekend wanes, Eye spies move to Wednesday
The ouster of William on Thursday's "live" one-hour episode helped "Brother" to its second best viewer total (11.32) and best marks in key demos since its post-"Survivor" premiere on July 5. According to Nielsen, these best-since-preem demo categories include: adults 18-49 (4.6/16), adults 25-54 (4.8/16), adults 18-34 (4.4/16) and men 18-34 (3.7/15) -- all timeslot-winning perfs.
The series appears to be having a more difficult time getting the young adults who drive the show's ratings to show up in the 8 o'clock hour on Friday and Saturday. So, while Thursday's ratings were encouraging, at least so far the surge hasn't extended to the subsequent weekend segs.
Reliable national data won't be available until today but Friday's Nielsen metered-market homes rating of 5.5 is 7% behind last week's 5.9, while Saturday's 3.9 is off 17% (4.7).
Big-market blight
Thursday's "Brother" would have fared even better if it had more success in some of the nation's larger cities. The hour finished first in 25 of Nielsen's 46 metered markets but in just three of the top 10 (Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington). And in the biggest market of all, New York, it finished a disappointing fifth (3.3/6), just ahead of the WB.
CBS is looking to give the series a boost this week when it moves the showcase hourlong episode from Thursday to Wednesday, following the net's runaway hit "Survivor." Not only will "Brother" benefit from a huge lead-in, but there's also not as much competition in the Wednesday at 9 hour as there is Thursday at 8, where NBC's "Friends" still has a lock on women 18-34 and UPN's "WWF Smackdown!" pins down young males.
