ABC sweeps up
-- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/15/2000
As expected, the four celebrity versions of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? led ABC to a banner week in the national ratings.
ABC drew its second-largest weekly audience of the season behind only its Super Bowl week numbers in January-averaging 18.3 million viewers and a 6.6 rating/19 share in adults 18-49 for the week-ending May 7.
ABC won its 19th straight week in total viewers and got back on top of the adults 18-49 race in a large way. Millionaire's special May sweeps editions broke all sorts of records last week, including its most-watched episode to date on May 2, when the game averaged 36.1 million viewers.
The four episodes of Millionaire during the week were the four most-watched programs of the week across all networks.
In the adults 18-49 race, FOX followed NBC's second-place finish with a 3.6 rating, CBS averaged a 3.4, UPN pulled a 1.6 and The WB scored a 1.4 in the demo. In total viewers, CBS finished third with an 11.4 million average, followed by FOX at 7.4 million, UPN averaged 3.8 million and The WB was at 3.3 million.
