Fox's reality skein "Married by America" got off to a relatively slow start with its two-hour premiere Monday, as NBC's super-sized episodes of "Fear Factor" and "Meet My Folks" produced an easy nightlong victory in adults 18-49, according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen.
"Married," which replaces "Joe Millionaire" in Fox's Monday night reality wheel, averaged a third-place 4.0/11 in adults 18-49 with its first hour and a 4.1/10 with its second. From 9 to 10 (its regular timeslot), "Married" ran third - behind NBC's reality and CBS' comedies.
At NBC, "Fear Factor" (7.0/18 in adults 18-49) and "Meet My Folks" (5.4/14) combined to match the net's best Monday score in the demo in four years. CBS, with an all-repeat lineup, led the night in total viewers behind "Everybody Loves Raymond" (5.5/13 in adults 18-49, 17.6 million viewers overall).
ABC struggled through another Monday, placing last among the major nets with "I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" (2.9/8 in adults 18-49, 8.7 million viewers overall), "The Practice" (2.8/6 in adults 18-49, 8.7 million viewers overall) and "Miracles" (2.3/6, 6.4 million viewers overall).
Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: NBC, 6.2/15; CBS, 4.8/12; Fox, 4.0/10; ABC, 2.6/7.
In total viewers: CBS, 14.3 million; NBC, 13.9 million; Fox, 8.6 million; ABC, 7.7 million.
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com