WB Trumpets Smallville, Birds of Prey Ratings
Date: Monday, November 11, 2002Last Thursday TheWB issued a press release touting the success of two of it's comic basedproperties, Smallville and Birds of Prey. TheNovember sweeps are here, and The WB continues to best it's last year ratingsfor Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Tuesday's Smallville keepsbreaking records for the network, and The WB calls Birds part of a"strong Wednesday tandem" with Dawson's Creek.
Smallvillebrought in 9.4 million viewers, marking a new all-time series high for the show.The super show ranked #1 for the night in persons 12-34 (5.5/15), females 12-34(5.7/15), women 18-34 (5.6/14), teens 12-17 (6.2/20) and male teens (6.5/19). Smallvilleranked #1 in its time period in female teens (5.9/21) and finished #2 in itshour, just a few tenths of a rating point out of first and closing in on Fox's 24, in adults 18-34 (5.2/13) and males 12-34 (5.3/14). The show alsoranked #2 in the time slot among men 18-34 (4.8/12) and finished #3 in the timeperiod among adults 18-49 (4.4/10) and men 18-49 (4.2/9).
In spite ofreports that the series is in trouble, the WB's press release looks on thebright side of the Birdsof Prey ratings picture. At 9:00pm, the show, with 4.6 million total viewers, posted its second highestdelivery since its debut in females 12-34 (3.1/8), equaled its second highest inwomen 18-34 (3.5/8), and notched its third highest numbers yet in persons 12-34(2.5/7), adults 18-34 (2.9/8), adults 18-49 (2.4/6), and women 18-49 (2.6/6).The action show topped Fox's Fastlane and UPN's The Twilight Zone amongfemales 12-34 (3.1/8), women 18-34 (3.5/8), women 18-49 (2.6/6 - tied Fox),and female teens (1.9/7).
Though thenetwork has plenty of reason to crow about these gains, Birds of Preystill hasn't been picked up for a full season. Rumors continue to circulate thatthe show is already on the chopping block, but perhaps this release indicatesthat the WB is committed to giving the show a fair shot.
