Content area
Full text
Round Two Debuts to Flat Ratings as Formula Tweaked
There's good news and bad news for MyNetworkTV's new telenovelas.
The good news is the network's second hatch of prime-time soaps, which premiered last week, managed to maintain the same viewership as the first round.
That's also the bad news.
MyNetwork's "Wicked Wicked Games" and "Watch Over Me," which debuted Dec. 6, were essentially flat in their first two days compared with the network's recent Wednesday average. They also were down slightly versus the premieres of their predecessors.
While the ratings show MyNetworkTV is not losing viewers now that its initial round of telenovelas has concluded, they also show the programming isn't making the gains necessary to justify their prime-time station commitments.
News Corp. launched MyNetworkTV on Sept. 5 with a unique Monday-through-Friday telenovela programming format as a counterstrike to The CW, which also debuted this fall and was formed by merging UPN and The WB. Each self-contained MyNetwork series lasts 13 weeks before being replaced by a new show.
In the metered market overnights, the "Games" premiere earned a 1.0...