UPN Sees Overall Ratings Rise; 'Threshold' Improves Numbers

UPN's ratings have shown positive trends this season without Star Trek: Enterprise, but their Friday nights remained less than stellar in the overnights last week.

On Wednesday night at 8 p.m., America's Next Top Model brought in a 2.8 rating/5 share for UPN against tough competition from the special Destination: Lost on ABC and The Apprentice: Martha Stewart on NBC, plus two CBS season premieres, according to Zap2It. Though the UPN show began the night in fifth place, it moved up to fourth in the 9 p.m. hour against the very highly-rated season premiere of Lost, finishing behind that show on ABC, the premiere of NBC's E-Ring and a repeat of last season's CSI finale.

The Futon Critic reported that UPN was very happy with these ratings, posting a press release in which the network pointed out that it had finished second among adults 18-34, women 18-34 and women 18-49. The fall 2005 premiere was America's Next Top Model's highest-rated premiere ever, giving UPN its best Wednesday night ever among women in time slots that at one time housed both Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise.

Good news continued for UPN on Thursday night, as Everybody Hates Chris, the new series produced by comedian Chris Rock, very nearly tied NBC's Joey for total viewers in the overnights and fared strongly against CBS' Survivor: Guatemala and a repeat of ABC's Dancing with the Stars: Dance-off. Unfortunately lead-out series Love, Inc. dropped the network from a 4.6/7 to a 2.9/5 rating, placing the network in fifth place for the 8 p.m. hour, according to Zap2It.

UPN noted in a press release posted at The Futon Critic that Everybody Hates Chris had finished in first place in the adults 18-49 demographic in several major cities, including New York, San Francisco and Washington DC. The show finished second in the time period among adults 18-49 overall, beating both Joey and FOX's The OC. The new UPN comedy generated a rise of 88% in total viewers, 81% in adults 18-34, 100% in adults 18-49 and 118% in women 18-49. "Everybody Hates Chris is now UPN's most watched episode of ANY comedy in the history of the network," noted the release.

However, the news on Friday nights it not wonderful for UPN, though it is somewhat better for CBS with Brannon Braga and Brent Spiner (Data)'s new series Threshold. Zap2It reported that Smackdown! on UPN finished in fourth place at 8 last night, ahead of the season premiere of The Bernie Mac Show on FOX and a pair of comedies on the WB, but Smackdown! dropped to fifth at 9 when FOX moved up with the premiere of Killer Instinct.

NBC won the later hour with the debut of Three Wishes. But CBS took first place for the night on the strength of the premiere of Ghost Whisperer and the return of Numb3rs at 8 and 10 p.m. respectively. In the middle, Threshold improved upon its first week's ratings, bringing in a 5.6/10 in the overnights as compared to a 5.3/9 for its pilot. CBS's average was a 6.7 rating/12 share, with Ghost Whisperer scoring a 7.3/13 and Numb3rs a 7.0/13.

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