A huge audience embraces ‘Joe’

Fox’s record-setting performance with Monday’s “Joe Millionaire” finale has again demonstrated just how quickly prime-time fortunes can shift thanks to staged reality programs with the potential to attract explosive ratings.

After a weak fourth-place finish during the most recent rating sweeps in November, Fox, buoyed by “Joe Millionaire” and “American Idol,” appears destined to win the February survey within the key demographics sought by media buyers.

With its mendacious twist on dating shows enticing young adults, “Millionaire” averaged a spectacular 35 million viewers Monday based on Nielsen Media Research estimates, becoming the most-watched entertainment telecast both in Fox’s history and on any network -- excluding sports -- since last year’s Academy Awards. In terms of regularly scheduled series, it was the biggest audience since the post-Super Bowl premiere of CBS’ “Survivor” more than two years ago.

Not surprisingly, viewing peaked in the last half-hour, when “Millionaire” attracted almost 43 million viewers to surpass ABC, CBS and NBC combined. Those results overshadowed dueling specials about singer Michael Jackson on NBC and ABC, although NBC’s “Dateline” report was clearly the big beneficiary once “Millionaire” ended, as viewing surged from less than 12 million to more than 17 million.

Taken together, in fact, NBC and ABC’s Jackson specials (the latter a repeat) still averaged 24 million viewers from 9 to 11 p.m., with NBC reeling in the lion’s share of that audience.

Beyond this month’s bizarre one-upmanship over Jackson, the current sweeps (a period TV stations use to negotiate ad rates) are notable as a month in which so-called reality virtually swallowed television, with networks preempting sitcoms and dramas in an effort to boost ratings. This week, for example, alternative programs will account for 60% of Fox’s prime-time lineup, including its own contribution to Jackson-mania with a two-hour special Thursday.

Similarly, ABC won’t televise another conventional scripted series during the remainder of this week, with a two-hour “The Bachelorette” finale, the sweeps stunt “I’m a Celebrity: Get Me Outta Here” and programs such as “America’s Funniest Home Videos” being expanded to fill out its lineup, at the expense of sitcoms starring George Lopez and Drew Carey.

As a result, media buyers will be left to sort out how representative the latest sweeps data truly are. Although networks have historically pulled out the stops to boost ratings in November and February, there had been a recent emphasis on sticking with regular programming as much as possible so as not to disrupt viewing habits.

With the sweeps ending next Wednesday, Fox will milk the “Joe Millionaire” phenomenon one more time by airing a prime-time interview with Evan Marriott -- the construction worker-model who masqueraded as a millionaire -- and the woman he selected, Zora Andrich, this Monday.

Monday night’s other big ratings winner, meanwhile, was CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman,” which broke a nearly three-year losing streak to “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and delivered its biggest audience since Letterman’s first post-Sept. 11 show in 2001. Letterman’s guest was Dr. Phil McGraw, whose popular daytime program has become an object of ridicule by Letterman.

The overall percentage of TV sets in use Monday rose 5% compared with the previous week, an increase likely due in part to inclement weather in the East.