CHICAGO (thefutoncritic.com) -- Tuesday's premiere of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" made over Bravo's record books as the series topped the cable channel's previous highs in total viewers, adults 18-49 and adults 25-54. 1,641,000 total viewers watched the opening hour, beating the network's previous record of 1.3 million viewers set by "Riverdance: Live in New York City" more than two years ago (3/17/01). A second episode at 11:00/10:00c also topped "Riverdance's" record with 1,366,000 total viewers.
But that's just one of several records broken by the series on Tuesday (taken from the network's press release):
The premiere of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" improved the time period by a stratospheric 804 percent over Bravo�s 2002-03 season average in 25-54 viewers (129,000). It�s also a 657 percent increase over the slot average for the 2003 calendar year to date (154,000) and a 435 percent jump over the time-period average for the past eight weeks (218,000). Bravo was the #2 ad-supported cable network during this hour, behind only MTV�s "The Real World" and "The Osbournes." Season-to-date, Bravo ranks #38 in the hour.
A second hour of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" ran on Bravo [Tuesday] night at 11 p.m ET and scored Bravo�s second-best total ever among 25-54 viewers, 1.069 million, and best ever in the time period. That figure made Bravo #1 among all ad-supported cable networks for the hour. Season-to-date, Bravo ranks #36 in the hour. The 11 p.m. ET telecast attracted 1.366 million viewers overall, making it the #2 telecast in Bravo history by that measure behind only the 10 p.m. edition.
From 10 p.m-2 a.m., during the four premiere telecasts, Bravo grossed 3.057 million impressions among adults 25-54, a four-hour Bravo record. Bravo ranked #4 in that time period among ad-supported cable networks in 25-54 impressions, versus a season-to-date ranking of #37. From 8 p.m.-2 a.m., the Bravo ranking was #6, versus a #37 season-to-date ranking.
Bravo also set network records for 25-54 impressions at both 12 midnight ET with an encore presentation of the premiere episode and at 1 a.m. ET with an encore of the 11 p.m. program. The midnight episode averaged 422,000 viewers among adults 25-54, up 294 percent versus Bravo�s season-to-date average in the hour (107,000). The 1 a.m. telecast brought in 400,000 viewers in the 25-54 group, up 535 percent over Bravo�s season-to-date average in the time period (63,000).
[Tuesday's] premiere episode earned a spectacular 2.67 household rating in the New York market, up 276 percent from Bravo�s 0.71 average in the time period over the last eight weeks. In Los Angeles, �Queer Eye for the Straight Guy� was also up 276 percent with a 2.82 versus an eight-week average of 0.75. In San Francisco, the increase was 820 percent, 4.14 versus 0.45; in Dallas, the increase was 711 percent, 0.73 vs. 0.09; in Seattle, the jump was 1364 percent, 3.66 versus 0.25; in St. Louis, the gain was 403 percent, 1.91 vs. 0.39; and in Indianapolis, the increase was 409 percent, 2.90 vs. 0.57.
Bravo wasn't the only one celebrating this week as Nickelodeon's "Fairly OddParents" film, "Abra-Catastrophe," brought in 4.5 million total viewers including 1.9 million in its target kids 6-11 demo on Sunday. That's up 136% from the same period last year. A replay the following afternoon also scored well with 3.0 million total viewers.
Such a strong performance trumped TNT's original movie "Prince Charming" that same night as the Christina Applegate-led telefilm scored 2.9 million total viewers, down slightly from the network's recent original "Caesar" (3.36 million total viewers). Nevertheless, TNT more than made up for it with a strong showing for its broadcast of "The Wedding Planner" which brought in 3.4 million total viewers on each of its airings over the weekend.
Lastly, in a rare numbers release from Showtime, a marathon of its original series "Dead Like Me" brought in 800,000 total viewers on Saturday, dead even with the pay channel's numbers from a year ago when the network aired a boxing match. The series, which bowed to 1.1 million viewers on June 27, airs Fridays at 10:00/9:00c.
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