• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, February 13, 2008

Despite bleeding money, MyNetworkTV has doubled its key-demo ratings--albeit moderate ones to start--this year. It could have a relatively strong performer emerging in the remake of reality series "Paradise Hotel."

The series featuring attractive singles living together at a resort posted a .6 rating in the 18-to-49 demo on Monday (779,000 demo viewers)--an increase over its .5 (692,000) premiere the week before. That's a 13% increase in 18-to-49 viewers.

"Paradise Hotel 2" comes after the original ran on Fox as a summer series in 2003. The remake received considerable pre-launch promotion from MNTV.

On Monday, it drew slightly fewer 18-to-49 viewers than its "Celebrity Expose" (about Michael Jackson) lead-in, which attracted 805,000. With its premiere on Feb. 4, it outdrew "Expose" by 88,000 demo viewers.

Overall, for the season so far, MNTV has doubled its 18-to-49 ratings from a .2 a year ago in "live plus same day" to a .4 now. In demo viewers, that's an 81% increase from the 320,000 average last year to 580,000 in 2007-08.

MNTV has also narrowed the gap, with CW considerably in the battle for fifth place among English-language broadcast networks in the 18-to-49 segment. A year ago, the CW (with a 1.4) led MNTV by some 1.2 rating points (or about 1.4 million viewers) in 18-to-49s--which is down to about half a point (some 520,000 demo viewers) as the CW has dropped to a .9. Both networks are in their second season.

The CW's target demo, however, differs as it looks to hone in on 18- to-34-year-olds. Still, in that demo, MNTV has closed the gap, as its 18-to-34 performance has also climbed from a .2 to a .4 and the CW has dropped from a 1.6 to a .9. About a 700% margin has been trimmed to 125%.

MNTV does have the advantage of having run strike-proof reality programming, while the CW's scripted series have been affected. Yet, the CW has achieved its ratings gains despite what News Corp. (its parent company) COO Peter Chernin said recently has been a $30 million cut in costs. The all-telenovela format is gone.

Still, the MNTV stations News Corp. owns have seen ad revenues continue to fall--and overall, Chernin said, the company is "not satisfied" with the network.