The three highest-rated original series on cable TV, bolstered by nightly reruns of TV movies and "Unsolved Mysteries," will catapult the women's Lifetime network to No. 1 in primetime for 2001.
Although there are still three weeks remaining before Dec. 31, Lifetime -- whose original series "The Division," "Strong Medicine" and "Any Day Now" all average better than a 2 rating in their
original runs -- is claiming the primetime lead based on a comfortable margin over second-place TBS. Through Dec. 9, Lifetime is averaging 1.586 million households (a 2.0 rating) compared with TBS'
1.453 million homes (a 1.7 rating).
But in the important demographic categories of adults 18-49 and 25-54, TBS will come out on top in primetime, followed by TNT and USA. Lifetime will finish no
better than fourth, although it's up by double digits in both demos from 2000. TBS and TNT are up only marginally in the demos year to year, and USA is down (by 15% in adults 18-49 and by 9% in
25-54).
The highest-rated individual program of the year was TNT's made-for-cable Tom Selleck Western "Crossfire Trail," which averaged 7.74 million households on Jan. 21. MTV's "2001 Music Video
Awards" on Sept. 6 ended up third, harvesting 6.99 million homes, behind a Bears-Dolphins NFL game on ESPN Nov. 25, with 7.44 million households.
Only six other entertainment programs made the top
75: a "Rugrats" special on Nickelodeon, the original Whoopi Goldberg movie "Call Me Claus" on TNT, the TBS theatricals "Rush Hour" and "Pretty Woman" and the first parts of the four-hour miniseries
"Attila" (USA) and "Mists of Avalon" (TNT).
The rest of the list consisted of a mix of NFL games on ESPN, news reports post-Sept. 11 on CNN and WWF wrestling on TNN.
Only 13 of the 44 networks
analyzed by Turner Entertainment Research increased their primetime ratings by double digits over those of last year. In order of their finish: Lifetime (up 18%), TNN (25%), CNN (25%), Fox News
Channel (45%), Lifetime Movie Network (75%) and BET (20%).
Also, MSNBC (20%), Food Network (25%), Gameshow Network (25%), Travel Channel (33%), Bravo (33%), Hallmark Channel (33%) and CNN Headline
News (50%).
Eleven of the 44 rated networks plunged by double digits. In order of their ranking: TBS (down 11%), USA (19%), A&E (14%), ESPN (20%), MTV (11%), American Movie Classics (11%), Sci Fi
Channel (11%), ABC Family (13%), WGN Superstation (14%), VH1 (20%) and Toon Disney (33%).
-- Reuters/Variety