Garnet Guardian
11-23-2002, 07:38 PM
From Yahoo! News (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=797&ncid=763&e=10&u=/eo/20021120/en_tv_eo/10868)
Holy Cancellation!
Tue Nov 19, 8:05 PM ET
By Joal Ryan
Has Batman's daughter been disowned?
According to today's Daily Variety, the WB is clipping the wings of Birds of Prey, its next-generation Bat show, after just 13 episodes.
The report, citing "industry insiders," says ratings unworthy of a superhero and a behind-the-scenes shakeup doomed the show. For the prime-time week ended Sunday, Birds of Prey ranked 107th out of 118 shows. The outing was the Wednesday night's series worst of the fall, drawing just 4 million Bat fans, down from its season-to-date average of 4.9 million.
A call to a WB rep was not returned Tuesday.
Birds of Prey, starring Dark Angel alum Ashley Scott (news) as the Huntress, the crime-fighting spawn of Batman and Catwoman, debuted October 9. The premiere attracted a nothing to Joker about 7.6 million viewers. But the show failed to match the early promise, its caped-and-cowled characters apparently turning off fans of the mortal denizens of Dawson's Creek, its time-slot neighbor.
The family sitcom Grounded for Life might have become the week's second victim, but the WB saved the third-season comedy, recently benched by Fox. The show will debut on its new network home after the February sweeps, Variety says.
Good news for Grounded means not-good news for two other WB comedies. Do Over and Family Affair, previously issued full-season passes by the Frog, now will be asked to provide the network with just 19 episodes a piece (down from the usual 22). The latest ratings recap best illustrates the freshman shows' struggles: The all-new Family Affair placed 116th (2.5 million viewers); the time-traveling Do Over finished in dead-last 118th (2.1 million).
UPN, meanwhile, has super-sized the seasons of the comedies Girlfriends (92nd place, 5.1 million), The Parkers (98th place, 4.8 million), One on One (94th place, 5 million), and Half & Half (105th place, 4.3 million). The netlet wants Girlfriends and The Parkers to hang around for 25 episodes each; One on One and Half & Half, for 23 each.
The crew of Firefly (101st place, 4.5 million), the struggling sci-fi show from Buffy creator Joss Whedon, would be happy to last a regular-sized 22-episode season. But for now they'll have to be content with the news, per Variety, that Fox has ordered two more episodes.
While Fox, the WB and UPN tweaked their schedules, NBC took honors as the most-watched network of the week ended Sunday--its first such victory of the season.
Suffering no shortage of self-esteem (or ways to crunch numbers), NBC has been beating its chest even as it routinely finished second to CBS. Now it has the eyeballs to back up its swagger. Led by its Thursday night lineup, NBC shows averaged 13.6 million viewers, to CBS' 12.7 million.
Going into the week, CBS had won all but one stage of the 2002-03 season. But it stumbled badly on Sunday night, with the concluding half of the miniseries Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen (news - web sites) Story, starring William Hurt, going deep undercover in 77th place (7.3 million).
And while CBS saw CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (news - Y! TV) score another first-place victory (29.9 million), it also saw NBC revive two of its struggling shows via the old Very Special Episode. The venerable Frasier perked up to 11th place (17.3 million) thanks to Niles' heart problems. The feel-good Ed felt really good in 31st place (12.6 million) thanks to an almost wedding for the bowling alley gang.
Elsewhere, ABC's The Bachelor (12th place, 16.8 million) rung up the Peacock's The West Wing (news - web sites) (16th place, 15.8 million) for the second week in a row. The matrimonial-minded reality series wraps its second season on Wednesday.
While Bachelor Aaron Buerge may or may not end up sealing the marriage deal with his prospective bride, the show's producers have sealed a deal with ABC for a new reality show entitled Are You Hot? The series, slated for a 2003 debut, will seek out the nation's hottest hotties (one man, one woman) through a series of American Idol-esque judged elimination rounds before letting viewers decide on the steamiest of them all.
Overall, things continued to heat up at ABC last week, with the network topping its previous season ratings highs. Led by Monday Night Football (eighth place, 19.6 million) and Jennifer Lopez (news)'s engagement announcement to Primetime's Diane Sawyer (18th place, 14.9 million), its shows averaged 10.6 million viewers, good for third place.
Fox's dismal November continued. The network flailed in fourth, averaging 7.7 million viewers. The WB and UPN played it close, with the Frog edging its rival 4.7 million viewers to 4.2 million.
Here's a rundown of the 10 most-watched shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
1. CSI, CBS, 29.9 million
2. Friends, NBC, 25.4 million
3. E.R., NBC, 24.3 million
4. Survivor: Thailand, CBS, 21.6 million
5. Everybody Loves Raymond (news - Y! TV), CBS, 20.8 million
6. CSI: Miami, CBS, 20 million
7. Scrubs, NBC, 19.9 million
8. Monday Night Football, ABC, 19.6 million
9. Will & Grace (news - Y! TV), NBC, 19.09 million
10. Law & Order, NBC, 19.02 million
So my question has it or hasn't it been cancelled?
Holy Cancellation!
Tue Nov 19, 8:05 PM ET
By Joal Ryan
Has Batman's daughter been disowned?
According to today's Daily Variety, the WB is clipping the wings of Birds of Prey, its next-generation Bat show, after just 13 episodes.
The report, citing "industry insiders," says ratings unworthy of a superhero and a behind-the-scenes shakeup doomed the show. For the prime-time week ended Sunday, Birds of Prey ranked 107th out of 118 shows. The outing was the Wednesday night's series worst of the fall, drawing just 4 million Bat fans, down from its season-to-date average of 4.9 million.
A call to a WB rep was not returned Tuesday.
Birds of Prey, starring Dark Angel alum Ashley Scott (news) as the Huntress, the crime-fighting spawn of Batman and Catwoman, debuted October 9. The premiere attracted a nothing to Joker about 7.6 million viewers. But the show failed to match the early promise, its caped-and-cowled characters apparently turning off fans of the mortal denizens of Dawson's Creek, its time-slot neighbor.
The family sitcom Grounded for Life might have become the week's second victim, but the WB saved the third-season comedy, recently benched by Fox. The show will debut on its new network home after the February sweeps, Variety says.
Good news for Grounded means not-good news for two other WB comedies. Do Over and Family Affair, previously issued full-season passes by the Frog, now will be asked to provide the network with just 19 episodes a piece (down from the usual 22). The latest ratings recap best illustrates the freshman shows' struggles: The all-new Family Affair placed 116th (2.5 million viewers); the time-traveling Do Over finished in dead-last 118th (2.1 million).
UPN, meanwhile, has super-sized the seasons of the comedies Girlfriends (92nd place, 5.1 million), The Parkers (98th place, 4.8 million), One on One (94th place, 5 million), and Half & Half (105th place, 4.3 million). The netlet wants Girlfriends and The Parkers to hang around for 25 episodes each; One on One and Half & Half, for 23 each.
The crew of Firefly (101st place, 4.5 million), the struggling sci-fi show from Buffy creator Joss Whedon, would be happy to last a regular-sized 22-episode season. But for now they'll have to be content with the news, per Variety, that Fox has ordered two more episodes.
While Fox, the WB and UPN tweaked their schedules, NBC took honors as the most-watched network of the week ended Sunday--its first such victory of the season.
Suffering no shortage of self-esteem (or ways to crunch numbers), NBC has been beating its chest even as it routinely finished second to CBS. Now it has the eyeballs to back up its swagger. Led by its Thursday night lineup, NBC shows averaged 13.6 million viewers, to CBS' 12.7 million.
Going into the week, CBS had won all but one stage of the 2002-03 season. But it stumbled badly on Sunday night, with the concluding half of the miniseries Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen (news - web sites) Story, starring William Hurt, going deep undercover in 77th place (7.3 million).
And while CBS saw CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (news - Y! TV) score another first-place victory (29.9 million), it also saw NBC revive two of its struggling shows via the old Very Special Episode. The venerable Frasier perked up to 11th place (17.3 million) thanks to Niles' heart problems. The feel-good Ed felt really good in 31st place (12.6 million) thanks to an almost wedding for the bowling alley gang.
Elsewhere, ABC's The Bachelor (12th place, 16.8 million) rung up the Peacock's The West Wing (news - web sites) (16th place, 15.8 million) for the second week in a row. The matrimonial-minded reality series wraps its second season on Wednesday.
While Bachelor Aaron Buerge may or may not end up sealing the marriage deal with his prospective bride, the show's producers have sealed a deal with ABC for a new reality show entitled Are You Hot? The series, slated for a 2003 debut, will seek out the nation's hottest hotties (one man, one woman) through a series of American Idol-esque judged elimination rounds before letting viewers decide on the steamiest of them all.
Overall, things continued to heat up at ABC last week, with the network topping its previous season ratings highs. Led by Monday Night Football (eighth place, 19.6 million) and Jennifer Lopez (news)'s engagement announcement to Primetime's Diane Sawyer (18th place, 14.9 million), its shows averaged 10.6 million viewers, good for third place.
Fox's dismal November continued. The network flailed in fourth, averaging 7.7 million viewers. The WB and UPN played it close, with the Frog edging its rival 4.7 million viewers to 4.2 million.
Here's a rundown of the 10 most-watched shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
1. CSI, CBS, 29.9 million
2. Friends, NBC, 25.4 million
3. E.R., NBC, 24.3 million
4. Survivor: Thailand, CBS, 21.6 million
5. Everybody Loves Raymond (news - Y! TV), CBS, 20.8 million
6. CSI: Miami, CBS, 20 million
7. Scrubs, NBC, 19.9 million
8. Monday Night Football, ABC, 19.6 million
9. Will & Grace (news - Y! TV), NBC, 19.09 million
10. Law & Order, NBC, 19.02 million
So my question has it or hasn't it been cancelled?