NEW YORK -- The highly touted new-season premieres of HBO's "Six Feet Under" and E!'s "Anna Nicole" failed to wow in the Nielsens Sunday, capping off a week that saw TBS finishing first among basic-cable networks in adults 18-49 and adults 25-54.
Despite an extensive ad campaign and lots of critical buzz, "Six Feet Under" fell 18% from its March 2002 second season bow, averaging 5.1 million viewers vs. 6.2 million a year ago. Drop-off was more severe with viewers 18-49, with "Six" scoring a 2.5/6 in the demo vs. a 3.4/8 a year ago, a decline of 26%.
In 2002, a new episode of the HBO's hit laffer "Sex & the City" led in to "Six Feet Under," giving it a huge lift, particularly among women. This year, "Six Feet" had to make do with a repeat episode from the first year of "The Sopranos" as a much less competitive lead-in.
Only 1.8 mil for 'Anna'
As for "Anna Nicole," its second season opener -- hyped as "live and super-sized" -- managed only 1.8 million viewers, losing half of its audience from its preem last August, when it harvested 4.1 million viewers. "Anna" was also down vs. its first season average (2.1 million viewers) and its first season finale (2.5 million.)
The underperforming "Anna Nicole" didn't help the opening night of E!'s "Michael Essany," a reality program about a college freshman with his own cable-access talkshow. "Essany" averaged 1.1 million for the half-hour.
Five programs finished in the top 10 for the week among both adults 18-49 and 25-54: TLC's "Trading Spaces," TNN's "WWE Raw" wrestling series, TLC's "Human Beings," FX's "The Shield" and USA's "The Dead Zone."
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