No Landslide for 'Reagans' on Showtime

[TexasStooge]

By Andrew Wallenstein

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Despite a flood of hype surrounding its controversial movie "The Reagans," Showtime saw a small stream of viewers for its Friday premiere.

Sold by CBS to its cable sibling last month amid criticism of its depiction of the former first couple, the three-hour movie drew just 1.2 million total viewers, according to sources. Showtime, which traditionally declines to release ratings numbers, would not confirm the figure.

But it must come as a disappointment to Showtime, which is available in more than 12 million homes. Originally scheduled to air in March, "Reagans" was rushed to air in order to capitalize on the controversy of recent weeks.

The premium channel did, however, indicate that "The Reagans" more than doubled its primetime average and was its highest-rated original film in two years.

"The Reagans" tied another Reagan-themed movie, "The Day Reagan Was Shot," which aired in December 2001.

"Over the course of its run on Showtime, we expect 'The Reagans' to reach a substantial portion of Showtime's overall subscriber base," said a Showtime spokeswoman, who added that the film will run numerous times over the network's multiplexed channels and video-on-demand.

In other premium cable rating news, the HBO series "Carnivale" wrapped its premiere season Sunday with an episode reaching 3.5 million total viewers -- a hair below its season average. That total puts it far behind season averages earned this year for fellow series "Sex and the City" and "Six Feet Under" but on par with what HBO earned for "The Wire." The network has yet to announce approval of a second season for "Carnivale."

On basic cable, Nickelodeon drew heavy interest in its new "Rugrats" spinoff series, "All Grown Up." The Nov. 28 premiere episode lured 5.2 million total viewers, making it the highest-rated series opener to air on the network. Among tykes aged 2-11, "Grown Up" drew 3.2 million viewers -- outperforming the previous best debut in that demographic, "Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius," last year.

"Grown Up" also was the highest-rated nonsports program in primetime on basic cable in November. ESPN beat out other networks for the month, with NFL coverage helping it to a nightly average of nearly 3 million viewers.

Elsewhere in cable, USA scored Sunday with the original film "Stealing Christmas," which drew nearly 4 million total viewers. It was the highest-rated nonsports program among viewers 18-49 in November, grabbing 1.8 million in that demographic.

Also Sunday, VH1 saw a marked improvement for its "Big in 2003 Awards," which bested last year's edition by 114%, reaching 1.9 million viewers.

Bravo saw a respectable bow for the series premiere of "Celebrity Poker Showdown," which drew 1.6 million viewers Tuesday. It certainly didn't hurt lead-out "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," which saw a 20% boost in its 18-49 numbers.