Amish in the City Scores for UPN
By Paige Albiniak -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/29/2004 1:40:00 PM EDT
Proving the axiom that no publicity is bad publicity, the premiere of UPN’s Amish in the City was huge for the smallest of the six broadcast networks.
The two-episode premiere at 8-10 p.m on Wednesday gave UPN second place behind only Fox in adults 18-34 and adults 18-49, according to Nielsen’s preliminary affiliate ratings. The show scored a 2.2 rating/8 share in adults 18-34 and a 2.4/7 in adults 18-49 and took third in total viewers with 5.2 million people watching. Amish in the City also outperformed UPN’s season average on Wednesday nights by 120% in adults 18-34, 100% in adults 18-49 and 83% in total viewers.
Fox’s The Simple Life 2 was the night’s winner, scoring a 3.7/11 in adults 18-49 and lifting all of Fox’s schedule to first place in the key young-adults demos with a lineup of That ’70s Show, Quintuplets, Simple Life and Method & Red. NBC’s Next Action Star was dead on arrival, coming in fifth in the 8 p.m. hour, a deficit from which even a Law & Order repeat could not recover.
At CBS, 60 Minutes 2 and repeats of King of Queens and Two and a Half Men turned in about-average performances, while comedy repeats on ABC were down a bit.
Coverage of the Democratic National Convention by the Big Three broadcast networks at 10 p.m. met lukewarm viewer response. NBC’s coverage was No. 1, averaging a 1.7/5 among adults 18-49 ,with 5.23 million viewers. ABC and CBS were about equal in the demo, with CBS edging out ABC in viewers, 4.4 million to 3.5 million.
