In wake of 'Taken,' Sci Fi ratings soar

Network ties for 10th place among basic cablers

By JOHN DEMPSEY

NEW YORK -- It's called the halo effect, and the Sci Fi Channel basked in its glow during the week after chalking up its best-ever ratings with the two-week, 20-hour "Steven Spielberg Presents: Taken."

For the week ended Dec. 22, following the "Taken" blitz, Sci Fi averaged 838,000 households in primetime, which tied it in 10th place among all basic-cable networks.

Compared to the same week a year ago, Sci Fi was up a strapping 95% among households and 88% among adults 25-54, the network's target demographic.

Sci Fi was gloating because most of its primetime schedule last week consisted of rerun episodes of "Stargate SG-1" and "The X-Files" and movies such as the well-worn "Dante's Peak" and "The Witches of Eastwick" plus lesser-known titles like "Army of Darkness," "Gargantua" and "Epoch."

New episodes of "Stargate SG-1" and "Farscape," heavily promoted to "Taken's" solid audience, won't kick off until Jan. 10. Sci Fi's new show, "Tremors: The Series," originally scheduled for Jan. 10, won't make it to the schedule until March, the victim of delayed post-production due to elaborate special effects.

ESPN dominated the basic-cable primetime scene for the week ended Dec. 22, propelled to an average of 2.136 million households by two National Football League games.

ESPN averaged a gaudy 600,000 homes more in primetime than the three networks that tied for second place for the week: Nickelodeon, TNT and Lifetime. USA and the Disney Channel tied for fifth place in primetime. TBS was seventh, Cartoon Network eighth, ABC Family ninth, and Fox News Channel tied with Sci Fi for 10th.