Hannah Montana’s latest wasn’t the greatest.
The May 4 installment -- the first new episode of the Disney Channel show to debut since news of 15-year-old series star Miley Cyrus’ controversial pictorial in Vanity Fair broke and the June issue of the magazine was distributed -- attracted 3.12 million to Disney Channel from 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. that night, according to Nielsen Media Research, live + same-day data.
That’s 32% less than 4.6 million viewer average the premieres of the series' five new installments during the 2007-08 TV season have delivered, according to Nielsen live + same-day data. Those episodes, when gauged on a live + seven-day measured, averaged 4.9 million viewers.
Disney Channel officials said the episode, "The Way We Weren't," still topped its competition with persons 2+, kids 6 to 11 and tweens 9 to 14 during its time slot. Moreover, the episode finished third for the week of April 28 through May 4 among tweens 9 to 14, garnering 731,000 of those viewers.
Spurred by the new Hanna Montana installment which finished 12th for the week with 1.17 million tween viewers, the series, including all of its encore airings, was third for the week with 711,000 of those watchers on average.
Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101 (an average of 1.27 million tweens), I Carly (1.03 million) and Josh & Drake (710,000) finished first, second and fourth, respectively, while Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place was fifth (695,000).
