• by Wayne Friedman , July 29, 2005

Even with less glamorous reality shows, ABC stays strong--if not the leader this summer.

It already has the highest-rated summer show in five years with "Dancing with the Stars," and now the network has taken on a rival dance show from Fox with its less glamorous "Brat Camp" reality show.

"Brat Camp," the tough-love outdoor survival camp for troubled kids, survived with 8.9 million viewers in its third week, now besting--albeit ever so slightly--Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance?," which came in with 8.0 million.

This is significant, as ABC and Fox has had a number of skirmishes when it comes to copycat programming. ABC's "Wife Swap" was ripped off by Fox's "Trading Spouses" last season. Similarly, ABC was first to go with "Supernanny"--then came Fox's "Nanny 911."

Still, it's not a clear win for ABC yet. Both ABC's "Brat Camp" and Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" earned a 3.3 adults 18-49 number on Wednesday night--which are healthy audience numbers for the summer. Fox's "Dance" witnessed a big drop--down some 2.3 million viewers in its second week. "Brat Camp" lost some as well--but not as much--down 700,000 viewers week to week.

"'Brat Camp' is another feel-good reality show," said Brad Adgate, senior vp and corporate research director for Horizon Media, New York. "It's in the mold of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Adgate says many of these reality shows are broken down into two or three categories--feel-good shows and the somewhat nastier-tone competition shows.

But he says both shows--"Brat Camp" and "So You Think You Can Dance?"--do have something in common. "Neither are comedic," he says.

Monday-morning quarterbacking shows that ABC's summer success would have meant more--in theory--to the network in the regular fall season.

"'Dancing with the Stars'" was doing a 5.1 adults 18-49 rating," said Adgate. "That would have probably put them ahead of CBS for the season--especially if ABC was able to do a few runs of the "Star." ABC was earning a 3.8 in adults 18-49 for the season."