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‘Desperate’ Gives ABC Sunday Win in Viewers, Demo

Oct 4, 2004  •  Post A Comment

The premiere of ABC’s campy “Desperate Housewives” propelled the network to a win for the night in viewers and adults 18 to 49, with help from “The Practice” spinoff “Boston Legal” and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

Touchstone Television’s “Desperate Housewives” scored an 8.7 rating and 10 share at 9 p.m. (ET) in the 18 to 49 demo, the highest-scoring program of the night, according to Nielsen Media Research preliminary national ratings. That was 112 percent above last season’s premiere of “Alias” (4.1/10).

“Housewives” also won the night in adults 18 to 34 (7.5/20), women 18 to 49 (11/25), women 18 to 34 (9.5/25), female teens (4.7/16) and total viewers (21.27 million).

“Housewives'” biggest competitor at 9 p.m., NBC’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” dropped 20 percent (3.5/8 versus 4.4/10) in the demo from last week’s season premiere to this week.

The WB’s “Jack & Bobby” scored a 1.0/2 in the demo at 9 p.m., down 23 percent week to week, and down 24 percent in persons 12 to 34 (1.7/5 versus 1.3/4).

At 10 p.m., “Boston Legal” scored a 5.0/13 among adults 18 to 49, up 25 percent from last season’s premiere of “The Practice.” The show also beat out the second new season episode of “Crossing Jordan” (4.4/11) and the second hour of the CBS movie “Suburban Madness” (2.9/9).

At 8 p.m., the time period premiere of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” scored a 5.7/15 in adults 18 to 49, down 17 percent from its two-hour premiere last week (6.9/17). That was still enough to beat out the season premiere of CBS’s “Cold Case” (3.7/10), NBC’s “American Dreams” (2.4/6), the first hour of the feature “Rush Hour 2” on Fox (2.0/5) and The WB’s “Charmed” (1.9/5).

ABC won the night in adults 18 to 49 with a 5.5/15, followed by CBS (3.6/10), NBC (3.1/8), Fox (2.4/6), and The WB (1.2/3).

ABC also won the night in viewers (14.4 million), followed by CBS (12.79 million), NBC (9.88 million), Fox (5.61 million) and The WB (3.04 million).