Cartoon Network wins with 'Race'

'Ben 10' draws record 3.98 million viewers

By JOHN DEMPSEY

Cartoon Network harvested more total viewers with the 90-minute original movie "Ben 10: Race Against Time," which ran Wednesday night at 8, than with any other program in the 15-year history of the channel.

The irony for a net devoted to cartoons is that "Race Against Time" is a live-action spinoff of the successful "Ben 10" animated series.

A total of 3.98 million viewers tuned in to the movie, beating the previous record chalked up in November 2001 by another original movie on Cartoon, "Dragon Ball Z."

Among boys 6-11 and boys 2-11, "Race Against Time" was the No. 1-rated program for the entire day, ahead of everything else on both broadcast and cable TV.

The Cartoon Network production stars Graham Phillips ("Evan Almighty") as 10-year-old Ben Tennyson, who has the ability to morph into 10 different aliens, each with unique superpowers, thanks to a supernatural wristwatch called the Omnitrix.