Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Pageant wins on slow summer night

NBC’s Miss Universe pulls a 3.2 in 18-49s

Jul 24, 2006

In an era of declining ratings for beauty pageants, simply holding onto the previous year’s audience is an accomplishment. If that happens to give the network carrying the pageant a big boost over the previous week in this very slow summer, all the better.

Last night NBC got a big week-to-week bump for its Sunday night lineup thanks to the “Miss Universe” pageant, which averaged a 3.2 adults 18-49 overnight rating from 9 to 11 p.m.

While that was even to last year, when the pageant aired in early June, NBC did see a 4 percent bump in total viewers, from 9.2 million in 2005 to 9.6 million last night. Its household rating was down slightly, from 6.1 to a 6.0.

But in a summer when almost no shows have produced big ratings, and Sunday evenings have been particularly dismal, NBC got a very nice bump in its 18-49 average the previous week, going from a 2.0 to a 2.5 to win the evening.

“Miss Universe” was the highest-rated show of the night among 18-49s, with only Fox’s “Family Guy” at a 2.9 even coming close. The pageant peaked with a 3.4 in the final hour, including a 3.6 at 10:30 p.m.

Rather than saying much about the pageant, “Miss Universe’s” decent ratings may say more about the lack of selection on TV than anything else. Broadcast had mostly repeats last night, and HBO’s Sunday night lineup has been fairly weak this summer.

Sadly, the pageant was not without its problems. After she’d been crowned the winner, Puerto Rico’s Zuleyka Rivera collapsed during a post-pageant press conference, fainting because her dress was too tight and the room too hot. She was said to be fine shortly thereafter.

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