'Kingdom' crashes Wednesday
Morning Ratings Flash - Josef Adalian
After a strong start last week, Stephen King’s frosh drama "Kingdom Hospital" suffered the Nielsen version of a cardiac arrest Wednesday night, losing a horrific 33% of its premiere audience, according to preliminary national numbers. News was even worse for UPN’s new CGI-animated laffer "Game Over," which couldn’t get past level one in its initial outing.
As usual, Fox was the big winner for the night thanks to "American Idol" (9.7/26 in adults 18-49, 22.2 million viewers) and a spectacular showing by the net’s biggest unsung hero, "That ’70s Show" (5.6/16 in adults 18-49, 11.7 million viewers.) "Idol’s" wildcard results show was up 14% vs. the same edition last year.
"Kingdom Hospital" (3.7/10 in adults 18-49, 8.5 million viewers) lost one-third of its key demo aud and a staggering 40% of its total aud from last week, when its two-hour bow scored a 5.5/14 in the demo and 14.1 million viewers. Thriller also lost a big chunk of its "Extreme Makeover" lead-in.
Bright spot for ABC is that "Kingdom" seems to be taking a bite out of NBC’s "Law & Order," which averaged a lower-than-usual 4.2/12 with a repeat.
UPN’s videogame laffer "Game Over," despite strong critical notice, got its Asteroids kicked (0.6/2 in adults 18-49, 2 million viewers) at 8 p.m. And "The Mullets," which most viewers thought was dead, apparently still is: Its return to primetime (0.6/2, 1.7 million viewers) barely registered.
Prelim 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 7.3/20; ABC, 3.6/10; NBC, 3.4/10; CBS, 2.3/6; WB, 1.3/4; UPN, 0.7/2.
In total viewers: Fox, 16.4 million; NBC, 9.9 million; ABC, 9.0 million; CBS, 8.3 million; WB, 3.7 million; UPN, 2.0 million.
