The WB Scores with Early-Season Premieres

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The WB Television Network Monday night topped even last season’s record-setting ratings, with WB
veteran 7th Heaven opening to the biggest ratings of any of
its premieres ever except the opening of Charmed in 1998, which
7th Heaven tied in the overnights with a 7.7 rating/12 share.

Sophomore Everwood followed that performance with a 5.9/8, below last
year’s series debut but above the premiere of any other WB program in the time
period.

Everwood’s closest competitors were the 1997 start of 7th
Heaven and the two-hour debut of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in
March 1997, both with overnights of 5.1/8.

Most surprisingly, 7th Heaven beat a reairing of The
O.C. on Fox, a repeat of Fear Factor on NBC and repeats of Yes,
Dear and Still Standing on CBS.

It also crushed a repeat of The Parkers and the series premiere of
Eve on rival UPN, while only ABC’s PrimeTime Monday beat it in the
overnights.

Everwood also did well, beating an original episode of Fox’s Paradise
Hotel, a repeat of NBC’s Third Watch and UPN’s season premieres of
Girlfriends and Half & Half.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.