FOX
NO. 4 IN TOTAL VIEWERS; NO. 2 IN 18-TO-49
WHAT THEY SAID We've got a McG bling-bling actioner, a David E. Kelley chick-lawyer drama, and a new Joss Whedon sci-fi show. There -- that oughta save our tail!
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED ''Fastlane,'' ''girls club,'' and ''Firefly'' fell flat. But reality soared.
PEAK PERFORMERS After a crummy fall, Fox welcomed the deluxe bucks of No. 2 ''Joe Millionaire'' (Fox's most-watched series ever, with 22.9 million viewers) and the musical high notes of ''American Idol,'' Fox's second-most-watched series ever (its two nights: Nos. 4 and 6). ''Clearly, given where we started this year, they jump-started the network,'' says Fox programming vice president Preston Beckman. ''It allowed other shows to get bigger audiences.'' ''Idol'' worshipers included sitcoms ''Wanda at Large'' (No. 31), ''That '70s Show'' (No. 49), ''Bernie Mac'' (No. 57), and spy-thriller ''24'' (No. 34), which recruited 3 million more folks with a Middle East war plot that eerily mirrored the news. ''I was actually getting a little nervous that we might see some downward trend,'' says Beckman of ''24,'' ''but we trusted viewers could distinguish between fiction and the real world.'' In the cartoon world, No. 23 ''The Simpsons'' picked up more viewers as it passed the 300th-episode milestone.
BLEAK PERFORMERS As popular as ''Millionaire'' and ''Idol'' were, the next two reality attempts were painful. Audiences divorced ''Married by America'' (No. 94), while ''Mr. Personality'' couldn't mask its No. 84 ranking. ''I won't say we weren't disappointed,'' says Beckman of ''Married,'' ''but we didn't expect anywhere near the kind of numbers we got for 'Joe Millionaire.''' They also couldn't have been pleased with the scripted series ''John Doe,'' which nearly vanished (No. 113), and the aptly titled ''The Pitts'' (No. 92).
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