HOLLYWOOD -- Reality ruled the ratings roost Monday, with Fox's dominant "Joe Millionaire" posting week-to-week gains and NBC's "Fear Factor" and special preview of "Meet My Folks" also performing very well.
Overall, an unscripted program captured each of the evening's hours across the board in key demos.
According to preliminary Nielsen nationals, "Joe" was up 5% week-to-week in adults 18-49 (to 9.9/22), and drew its largest overall aud yet (18.8 million).
It combined with the best scores in five firstrun tries for "Boston Public" (third-place 4.4/11 in A18-49) to give Fox the night across the board, including its best Monday 18-49 average with regular programs since March 2000 and its largest overall aud (14.3 million) since "Melrose Place" days in February 1996.
Auds greet 'Meet'
"Meet My Folks," a hit last summer during its short run on NBC, bowed with a special preview episode that captured the 10 o'clock hour in all key demos (series-high 6.7/16 in A18-49) and placed second to a repeat of CBS' "CSI: Miami" in total viewers (13.6m). This is NBC's best non-sports 18-49 perf in the hour since part two of mini "Noah's Ark" in May 1999.
"Folks," which also aired a special seg on Tuesday, moves to its regular Saturday-at-10 slot this week.
Strong Monday for NBC
Overall, NBC matched its best non-sports Monday 18-49 average (6.2/15) since May 1999. At 8, "Fear Factor" (6.6/16 in A18-49, 15.6m) cruised with its best demo score since March, while a repeat seg at 9 ran second to "Joe" in 18-49 (5.4/12) and gave NBC its strongest delivery in the hour this season.
Each of Monday's reality skeins posted even better numbers among adults 18-34, with "Fear Factor" (6.8/18) leading its hour by 5 shares, "Joe Millionaire" (11.1/26) by 14 shares and "Meet My Folks" (7.7/20) by 10 shares, according to prelims.
National ratings for Monday were delayed until today due to the Martin Luther King holiday. Ratings for the week of Jan. 13-19 also will be issued today.
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com