James Marsters

Primetime Ratings: ABC Scores Feel-Good Win

Lifetime Movie Network finds highest ratings in 10 years with Green River Killer miniseries. By Anne Becker — Broadcasting & Cable, 3/31/2008 3:50:00 PM ABC’s feel-good Sunday night programming – Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Oprah’s Big Give – helped the network win Sunday night with adults 18-49, with a 3.5 rating in the demo, according to Nielsen Media Research.

But CBS won in total viewers, with 3.6 million to ABC’s 3.5 million, thanks to the tail end of NCAA basketball playoff sat 7 p.m., and former Vice President Al Gore on 60 Minutes after that. CBS took second in the 18-49 demo with a 3.0 rating.

Fox, with its Sunday night animation block of The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Family Guy, took third in the demo with a 2.4 rating (1.9 million viewers), followed by NBC, which averaged a 1.4 rating (2 million viewers)with Dateline and Law & Order reruns, and The CW with a 0.6 (.5 million viewers).

On cable, Lifetime Movie Network pulled its highest ratings in its 10-year history with the premiere of its first original miniseries The Capture of the Green River Killer, which ran at 8 p.m. Sunday. The show, based on the true story of the Washington state officer who found the so-called Green River serial killer, averaged some 2 million total viewers and 577,000 women 18-49. Part two of the mini runs Monday night (March 31) at 8 p.m.