Everybody had something to crow about on a strong sweeps night for the broadcast nets Monday, including ABC, whose Diane Sawyer chat with Mel Gibson drew some of the best ratings for any newsmaker interview of the past year.
The second Monday of the February ratings period also saw record-high scores for NBC's "Fear Factor," big numbers for the penultimate seg of Fox's "My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance" and a season high for CBS comedy "Everybody Loves Raymond."
According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, ABC News finished the evening in a big way with a "Primetime" spec interview of Gibson prior to the release of his controversial pic, "The Passion of the Christ." Sit-down averaged a big 5.8/14 in adults 18-49 and 17.0 million viewers overall -- ABC's best non-sports delivery in the 10 o'clock hour since "Stephen King's Rose Red" in January 2002.
Among all newsmaker interviews since the Jacko-mania of last February, Monday's "Primetime" ranks No. 1 in the key news demo of adults 25-54 (7.5/16), edging out Michael Jackson on CBS' "60 Minutes" in December and Jessica Lynch on "Primetime" in November (both at 6.9/17).
The Gibson "Primetime" places a close second to Lynch (5.9/15) in 18-49, and is runner-up in total viewers to Jackson (18.8 million).
Elsewhere Monday, the finale of a couples edition sent NBC's "Fear Factor" to series-record ratings (prelim 8.4/21 in 18-49, 18.6m), posting the net's best non-Olympics rating in the slot since the finale of "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" in 1996.
Also, 10 o'clock reality skein "Average Joe: Hawaii" matched its best score to date (6.2/14 in 18-49, 12.1m) and 9 o'clock's "Las Vegas" delivered more solid numbers (5.5/13 in 18-49, 13.0m), ranking second in its tough hour among adults 18-34.
NBC won the night in 18-49 (prelim 6.7/16 to a 5.7/14 for CBS), the Peacock's largest Monday advantage over regular first-runs on the Eye since October 1998.
CBS, tied with NBC for the 25-54 lead and the winner in total viewers, was paced by "CSI: Miami" (6.7/16 in 18-49, 19.5m), which won the 10 o'clock hour opposite "Primetime" and "Average Joe." Also at 9, "Everybody Loves Raymond" (6.6/15 in 18-49, 19.8m) hit a season high in 18-49.
Fox didn't do much with part one of two-week dating spec "The Littlest Groom" (third-place 3.1/8 in 18-49, 7.5m), but surged to the hour's demo lead from 9 to 10 with the penultimate episode of "Obnoxious Fiance" (7.6/17 in 18-49, 16.1m).
Expect even fatter numbers for its finale next week.
Contact Rick Kissell at
rick.kissell@variety.com