The Morning After

Sunday night ratings. Check it out on Daily Variety.

Bottom line: In total viewers: ABC, 18.9 million; CBS, 16.5 million; NBC, 9.5 million (The Poseidon Adventure); Fox, 8.1 million; WB, 3.0 million.

Here's a different POV on those numbers, that contrasts movies and television. Harry Potter made 101-million dollars this same weekend, a stupendous number. At 10-bucks a ticket that would mean about ten million people saw the #1 movie in the country this weekend. The Poseidon Adventure was the #3 show on television on Sunday night alone and it had the same number of eyeballs on it.

When we call TV a mass market, we mean it.