‘Glee Project' Improving After Soft Debut

Fourth episode hits 1M viewers for combined airings

By Andrea Morabito -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/12/2011 4:37:49 PM

Oxygen's The Glee Project showed signs of life in its fourth week after the Glee-themed reality competition series got off to a slow start in its premiere.

Episode four Sunday night attracted 745,000 total viewers at 9 p.m., according to Nielsen, up 64% from the 465,000 that tuned into the June 12 premiere and up 86% to a 0.3 rating in the adults 18-49 demo from the debut.

The series, which counts Glee creator Ryan Murphy as an executive producer, has been on an upward climb since the lackluster opening, with its second and third episodes serving 527,000 and 591,000 total viewers, respectively. Sunday's episode grew about 25% in both total viewer and A18-49 metrics from its last original on June 26.

While the ratings show improvement, The Glee Project still has a ways to go to obtain hit status. Oxygen brass are hoping to turn the series into a franchise to complement its off-network rights to Glee, which debuts on the network in 2013.