Hollywood Reporter Second Ratings Note

The following appeared in the Hollywood Reporter on October 11, 1996. The citation is Hettrick, Scott (1996-10-02). Primetime is Nickelodeon's time of Nite. The Hollywood Reporter.

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In its first two nights of venturing into primetime programming, Nickelodeon dominated all broadcast and cable networks in the category of kids age 2-11 and 6-11 and drew a significantly higher number of viewers than Nick at Nite had been drawing in the 8 p.m.-8:30 p.m. time period. Nickelodeon president Herb Scannell said the success could lead to further expansion of kids programming into primetime. We have the tools to keep on driving Nickelodeon, he said.

The Nickelodeon programming in the 8 p.m. half-hour Monday had ratings in Nickelodeon homes that were 55% higher than Nick at Nite programming last month and 64% higher than the same week last year. The Tuesday rating in Nickelodeon homes of 4.12 was a 90% increase over last month and last year, according to Nielsen ratings provided by Nickelodeon. But for now, Scannell, speaking from London, said the network wants to be sure to hold the strong start it has enjoyed in the 8 p.m. period. Scannell said he did not expect the new schedule with Hey Arnold! at 8 p.m. Monday and Alex Mack at 8 p.m. Tuesday, to perform as well as they did. It was a surprise for me, he said. It was a big gamble for us and I would have been happy with beating one network. Clearly it did much better than that for us.

On Monday night, Nickelodeon had a national household rating of 2.4 and a rating in the kids 6-11 category of 6.37. WB's family-oriented 7th Heaven had ratings of 1.9 and 1.1, respectively. None of the programs on the other networks targeted kids specifically. But Scannell noted that even though CBS' Cosby had a much wider audience overall with a 12.4 rating, the program had only the half the number of kids 6-11 watching, with a rating of 3.1. Fox's movie, Another Stakeout, had the highest rating among kids 6-11 of all the other networks with its movie Another Stakeout. Scannell said the numbers are a validation of Nickelodeon's theory that broadcast networks have abandoned kids during early primetime and that kids will flock to programming targeted at them at that hour. It was an opportunity, so we seized it, he said.

On Tuesday, the numbers improved even more for Nickelodeon with a 2.9 national household rating and a 9.06 rating for kids 6-11. With no programming on WB on Tuesday, ABC's Roseanne drew the next highest rating in that category with a 4.7. Another episode of Hey Arnold! did not fare as well Wednesday night against WB's Sister, Sister, the latter drew a 3.8 household rating compared with a 2.2 for Hey Arnold! Ratings were not available for the 6-11 category for Wednesday.

Among competing family and children's cable networks, the Cartoon Network's new Jonny Quest series drew a .54 rating in the 6-11 category Monday night and the Disney Channel's Tuesday night special on the 25th anniversary of Walt Disney World drew a .82 rating among kids 6-11

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