‘Everybody Hates Chris,’ Other Black Shows Already Suffer Ratings Drop on CW
Date: Tuesday, October 03, 2006
By: Monica Lewis, BlackAmericaWeb.com
After a year of critically-acclaimed success that included Emmy nominations and a fast-growing audience, “Everybody Hates Chris” was seen to be the anchor needed to hold down the fledgling CW network.
But if last Sunday’s ratings are any indication, it could be a long season for the new network, as well as the predominantly-black shows that make up its Sunday night lineup.
“Chris,” the brainchild of actor/comedian Chris Rock, was a proven winner in its Thursday night slot last season on the now defunct UPN, but its
second season premiere attracted 2.4 million viewers earlier this week -- a nearly 70 percent drop in the number of people who tuned in to watch the sitcom’s debut in 2005.
What a difference a year -- and a new network -- makes. On UPN, “Everybody Hates Chris,” then airing on Thursdays at 8 p.m., proved to be formidable competition for “Joey,” the “Friends” spin-off that was cancelled midway through its second season. This season, the CW has the show beginning a two-hour block of sitcoms kicking off at 7 p.m. where NFL games and CBS’s “60 Minutes” has long reigned supreme.
The remaining shows in the block -- “All of Us,” “Girlfriends” and “The Game” -- also were met with a lukewarm response. “All of Us,” featuring LisaRaye and Duane Martin averaged 2.3 million viewers,
while “Girlfriends,” the ensemble cast that is now without the popular character, Toni Childs, made famous by actress Jill Marie Jones, had roughly 2.7 million viewers. Viewers for “All of Us” was down 50 percent, while “Girlfriends” saw slightly more than a 30 percent drop.
And while “The Game” is a sitcom rookie, its debut didn’t fare well, with approximately 2.6 million viewers.
Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site..../blackshows104
from Black America Web
Threaded Mode