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A big fat F for
ABC's
'Scholar' debut
New reality show flops with 1.7 adults 18-49 rating
The summer's young streak of hot
reality shows could not go on forever, and it looks like after a
string of impressive debuts, the summer has its first bomb: ABC's
"The Scholar."
The
show, in which 10 high schoolers compete for a $250,000 college
scholarship, averaged just a 1.7 rating among viewers 18-49,
finishing fourth in its 8 p.m. timeslot.
The good news
for ABC is that “The Scholar” is just a six-episode series. The
bad news is that there are still five episodes left.
Just 4.9 million total viewers tuned in to watch the reality
show. It had by far the worst debut for any new show on the big four
networks this summer.
Last Monday Fox debuted “Hell’s Kitchen” to a 3.2 18-49
rating and 6.8 million total viewers; on Wednesday ABC’s
“Dancing With the Stars” earned a 4.5 among 18-49s and averaged
an impressive 13.5 million viewers.
Thursday NBC’s “Hit Me Baby One More Time” posted a 4.7
18-49 rating while attracting 8.9 million total viewers.
“The Scholar” didn’t even face much competition. All
five other networks ran reruns at 8 p.m. last night.
But “Scholar” finished behind CBS’s “Everybody Loves
Raymond” and “Two and a Half Men,” NBC’s “Fear Factor”
and Fox’s encore of “Kitchen.”
The only small consolation for ABC could be that the show
grew slightly in its second half-hour among 18-49s, going from a 1.7
to a 1.8. But it lost about 100,000 total viewers over the same
time.
ABC, which aired the horror movie “The Ring” for the
remaining two hours of the schedule, didn’t do much better the
rest of the night. The network finished the night fourth among
18-49s with a 1.9 average rating and a 5 share. CBS, which aired two
and a half hours of “Two and a Half Men” repeats, finished first
for the night with a 3.3 average rating and a 9 share. Fox was
second at 2.7/8, NBC third at 2.5/7, UPN fifth at 0.9/3 and the WB
sixth at 0.9/2.
CBS swept the night among 18-49s, starting with a 2.7 average
at 8 p.m. for repeats of “Raymond” (2.6) and “Men” (2.7).
NBC was second while averaging a 2.4 for a repeat of “Fear
Factor” and Fox third with a 2.0 average for a repeat of
“Hell’s Kitchen.”
CBS averaged a 3.4 rating at 9 p.m. for an hour of “Men,”
tying it for first during the hour with Fox, which aired a new
episode of “Hell’s Kitchen.” NBC was third that hour with a
2.4 for a “Las Vegas” rerun and ABC fourth with a 1.9 for the
first hour of “The Ring.”
At 10 p.m. CBS averaged a 3.7 rating for another hour of
“Men.” NBC was second with a 2.6 for a repeat of “Medium”
and ABC third with a 2.1 for the final hour of “The Ring.”
CBS
led the night among households with a 7.2 average rating and a 12
share. NBC was second at 4.5/7, Fox third at 3.6/6, ABC fourth at
3.3/5, the WB fifth at 1.9/3 and UPN sixth at 1.5/2.
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June 7, 2005
©
2005
Media Life
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