• CBS, NBC blast Fox's reality-driven sweeps ratings

  February 24, 2003
  Sore loser #1, meet sore loser #2. In separate articles, Reuters/Variety reports that both NBC president Jeff Zucker and CBS president Les Moonves blasted the reality-show genre for distorting the February sweeps -- apparently because the biggest ratings successes of the month, Joe Millionaire and American Idol, ran on Fox.

• Second 'Survivor: The Amazon' episode wins timeslot with 20.34 million viewers

  February 23, 2003
  According to final National Nielsen ratings for Thursday, February 20th, the second episode of CBS "Survivor: The Amazon" was the ratings winner in viewers and households in an extraordinarily competitive night which included a two-hour Michael Jackson special, more from "The Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" and a double dose of "Friends," .

• ABC's Bachelor 'Aaron and Helene Tell All' special draws 13.5mil viewers, pulls viewers from CBS' 'Survivor'

  February 23, 2003
  A follow-up special to the most recent edition of "The Bachelor" was a big draw for ABC from 8:00-9:00 p.m. "The Bachelor: Aaron and Helene Tell All" generated ABC's strongest viewer and young adult delivery in over 2 years with entertainment programming in the hour (13.5 million viewers & 5.8/14 in Adults 18-49) - since 12/7/00 and 11/16/00, respectively.

• Second episode of 'I'm a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here' up over debut -- even when facing 'E.R.' and 'Without A Trace'

  February 21, 2003
  Despite airing in a much more competitive Thursday 10PM timeslot versus original episodes of NBC's "ER" and CBS' "Without A Trace," the second installment of "I'm a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here!" continued to improve its time periods for ABC among young adult viewers. "I'm a Celebrity" bettered the Network's averages in the hour with non-sports programming this season by 24% in Adults 18-49 (3.6/9 vs. 2.9/7) and by 67% in Adults 18-34 (3.5/10 vs. 2.1/6).

• Production begins on The WB's 'The Surreal Life'

  October 23, 2002
  The WB brings a diverse group of some of America's best-remembered pop culture figures back to television audiences in a half-hour comedy/reality series, THE SURREAL LIFE. From the producers of "Blind Date," the celebrity cast includes actors from past hit series, a former child star, two musical stars, and a beauty queen, and one star of the hit series "Survivor II." This unlikely group of housemates moved in together on Monday, October 21 and will share a fun and funky house in the Hollywood Hills for ten days.

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