Syndie Insider

Twentieth's On Air With Ryan Seacrest is getting a nice boost in the Los Angeles market, in large part because of Seacrest's new morning radio show on KISS(FM). Also titled On Air With Ryan Seacrest, it took the place of Rick Dees' show at the station. Before Seacrest's return to radio, his TV show averaged a 1.5 household rating on Fox's KTTV. After the radio show premiered Feb. 23, the TV show jumped 53% to a 2.3 and climbed as high as a 2.9 that week. Since then, On Air has held steady at 2.3 in the nation's second-largest city.

Warner Bros.'Judge Mathis last week took home an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding TV News, Talk or Information Series or Special. Greg Mathis, a former district court judge in Detroit, turned his life around after promising his dying mother he would stop running with gangs. He beat some tough competition for the award. The other nominees: Denzel Washington, for an episode of BET's 106th & Park; PBS's American Experience: The Murder of Emmett Till and Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin; and HBO's Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave Narratives.

With the results of the race among weekly hours now official, Paramount's Entertainment Tonight Weekend has easily won its fourth consecutive February sweeps. Its 4.0 rating was 60% over its nearest rival, NBC/MGM's Stargate SG-1. The week ended Feb. 29 included the third full week and the final weekend of the sweeps. ET Weekend equaled last year's 4.0 household score, its highest since February 2001. No. 2 Stargate SG-1 was up 4% from February 2003 to 2.5, followed by Warner Bros.' off-net ER, unchanged at 2.2. Three shows tied for fourth place: Warner Bros.' rookie The West Wing, averaging a 2.1 in its first February book; Tribune's Mutant X, down 9%; and Twentieth's The Practice, off 16%. Some weeklies may have been hurt by competing against or being preempted by coverage of the Oscars in some markets on Feb. 29, the final Sunday of the sweeps.