Fox's "Joe Millionaire" showed no signs of slowing down on Monday, dominating the 9 o'clock in both adults 18-49 (9.9/22) and total viewers (18.8 million), according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen. Overall, it was a big night for reality programming, as NBC's "Fear Factor" and the season premiere of "Meet My Folks" also did very well.
"Joe" was up slightly from the previous week and combined with the best scores in five firstrun tries for "Boston Public" (4.4/11 in adults 18-49, 9.9 million viewers overall) to give the net a nightly victory in adults 18-49, 18-34 and 25-54 as well as total viewers, finishing in a virtual tie with CBS in the latter.
NBC's reality skeins captured the evening's other two hours, with "Fear Factor" (6.6/16 in adults 18-49, 15.5 million viewers overall) dominating at 8 hour across the board, including its best 18-49 rating since March. A repeat "Fear" also did well at 9 (5.4/12) opposite "Joe."
And at 10, the return of "Meet My Folks" easily led its all-repeat network competish in adults 18-49 (a series high 6.7/16) and other key demos. This is the best non-sports perf in the hour for NBC in more than 31/2 years.
CBS ran third in both adults 18-49 and 25-54, led by "Yes, Dear" (5.4/13 in adults 18-49, 14.5 million viewers overall) and a repeat of "Everybody Loves Raymond" (5.1/11 in adults 18-49, 15.9 million viewers).
ABC placed fourth with a repeat of "The Rock."
Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 7.2/17; NBC, 6.2/15; CBS, 4.9/11; ABC, 3.3/8.
In total viewers: Fox, 14.3 million; CBS, 14.3 million; NBC, 13.9 million; ABC, 8.2 million.
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com