HOLLYWOOD -- Fox's retro laffer "Oliver Beene" impressed in its Sunday bow, retaining all of its young-adult lead-in from "The Simpsons" and dominating its timeslot.
Meanwhile, Bill Clinton and Bob Dole's first appearance on "60 Minutes" slightly boosted the turnout for the newsmag, which was the evening's most-watched program. And overnight ratings for the SAG Awards kudocast were up sharply year-to-year to its best-yet TNT numbers.
According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, Fox's "Oliver Beene" (6.1/15 in adults 18-49) matched the 18-49 rating of its lead-in from "The Simpsons" (6.1/16) and led its 8:30 timeslot in all key categories.
"Beene," the comical travails of a 1960s New York family and clumsy 10-year-old son Oliver, held 93% of its "Simpsons" lead-in among the younger 18-34 crowd (7.0/20 vs. 7.5/22) and built slightly on the toon vet in the 25-54 bracket (5.6/12 vs. 5.5/13).
In overall audience, "Beene's" projected 13.8 million viewers would make it the net's most-watched comedy bow since "Titus" in March 2000.
Fox would certainly welcome a strong addition to its Sunday lineup, as the net has primarily counted on three laffers ("Simpsons," "King of the Hill" and "Malcolm in the Middle") to fill out the night's three hours this season.
Over at CBS, the first night of the new "Clinton/Dole" (or "Dole/Clinton," depending on who will speak first) feature on "60 Minutes," with former President Clinton debating former Sen. Dole in pretaped segments, seemed to bring additional viewers to the newsmag.
Although "60" was down week-to-week in key demo categories (3.0/8 vs. 3.3/10 in adults 18-49), its preliminary overall aud of 16.9 million made it the night's top draw -- and figures to rank among the three largest crowds of the season for the newsmag.
Lead-out comedy "My Big Fat Greek Life" (prelim 3.1/8 in adults 18-49, 13.4 million viewers overall) didn't look nearly as strong in its second Sunday try, declining 30% week-to-week in the demo to tie for third with NBC's "American Dreams." Still, "Greek" placed second in adults 25-54 and total viewers with numbers that are solid improvements over the season averages for former slot occupant "Becker."
The Eye net didn't do much from 9 to 11 with its original "Batman" flashback movie "Return to the Batcave" (2.9/7 in adults 18-49).
As for the 9th annual "Screen Actors Guild Awards" on TNT, Sunday's two-hour telecast averaged a 5.2 overnight rating in Nielsen's 55 metered markets -- a 33% jump over last year's 3.9. Final nationals for all of Sunday's programs will be issued today, but "SAG" could top 5 million viewers for the first time since it last aired on NBC in 1997.
Fox won the night in all key ratings categories as well as total viewers. Original segs of "King of the Hill" and "Malcolm in the Middle" joined "Simpsons" and "Oliver" in winning their slots in the 18-49 demo.
From 9 to 11, NBC's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (5.1/12) and "Boomtown" (3.9/11) placed first.
ABC ran third in 18-49 on the night with repeats of "Tarzan" (3.1/9) and "Alias" (3.0/7) and an original "Dragnet" (3.1/8).
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com