• by Paul Gough , February 25, 2003

With CBS’ projections for victory in households and total viewers in the February sweeps, the network’s chief said it was done in the “craziest sweeps” ever.

“Look at the record, look at the facts, that’s all we ask. It was the craziest sweeps in the history of show business, the month of Michael Jackson, reality finales, reality premieres and shows that just plain defied reality. Others abandoned scripted programming altogether,” Moonves said Monday afternoon during the CBS sweeps conference call.

Moonves said CBS had its highest margin of victory in sweeps since 1993 and the second February sweeps win in three years, with last year’s ratings skewed by NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics.

After a November that didn’t have that many stunts, the networks seemed to make up for it with Michael Jackson documentaries and the finales of Joe Millionaire on Fox and The Bachelorette on ABC. Moonves continually referred to these stunts in his remarks, and said that CBS won total households with few interruptions or changes in programming.

“This was done with our core schedule. This is not a fluke. We are solid, we’ve built our schedule for now and for the future. We are greatly encouraged by what happened this February,” he said.

CBS said it will have had an average 13.8 million total viewers in the February sweeps, more than a million ahead of second-place NBC (12.45 million) and third-place Fox (12.1 million). ABC is projected to have 10.45 million. In 18-49, Fox and NBC are ahead of CBS.

While Moonves acknowledged 18-49’s importance, he said that the total viewers and households gave concrete results.

“Viewers mean cash, viewers mean profitability … We are taking these viewers and we are translating them into dollars,” he said. He congratulated Fox’s apparent 18-49 victory, calling it “a terrific accomplishment.”

Moonves put continued emphasis on the success of CBS’ scripted comedies and dramas, while paying honor to his own entry in nonscripted programming.

“Clearly, reality has become a more important player … I think the cream will rise to the top, has risen to the top. Clearly, Survivor is the class act. I think American Idol has shown that kind of strength as well,” he said.

Moonves singled out CSI, Survivor, Judging Amy and its Monday night comedies, and said the network stood to return five new programs, including CSI: Miami, Without a Trace, Hack, Still Standing.

“Look at the other guys: Which scripted programming is standing out there,” he asked.

He said other networks had scaled back development of scripted programs but that CBS hadn’t joined them.

“We still believe that [scripted programming] is the backbone of the schedule. Reality has its place but it should be the icing on the cake, as opposed to the cake itself,” he said.

Moonves couldn’t resist taking a shot at I’m a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here!, an ABC reality show that is airing partly live for 15 consecutive days beginning last Wednesday. CBS had unsuccessfully challenged the concept in court.

“We felt there were certain elements that they had quote-unquote borrowed from Survivor. The judge did not agree with us … We are not unhappy that it’s on the air,” he said.

He said there’s a “qualitative” difference between the two and refused to rule out a celebrity Survivor sometime in the future.

“A Celebrity Survivor wouldn’t look like this, and by the way, it’s hard to call most of those people celebrities … If we ever did it, it would have to have a higher celebrity value than being married to J-Lo or Rod Stewart as your means of celebrity,” he said.

In a break with tradition, the CBS sweeps conference call occurred a day before the rest of the networks began their calls. NBC and The WB will be tomorrow, and Fox and ABC will hold conference calls Wednesday. A CBS spokesman said the network’s executives were flying back from Sunday night’s Grammys in New York City.

“This day made the most sense for us to give the conference call,” the spokesman said.