Bartlet4America News Archive

NBC: Forget Bush and Gore, We Wanted Bartlet!

E! Online

NBC would've been content with Martin Sheen as its president Wednesday night.

Instead, the Peacock had to settle for two guys and some speech about "reconciliation," as it joined the major networks in preempting normal schedules for Al Gore's concession speech and George W. Bush's victory dance. According to metered-market household numbers, Gore's soliloquy at 9 p.m. ET scored a combined 32.3 rating and 45 share on ABC, CBS and NBC, while Bush's speech at 10 p.m. ET grabbed a 28.5 rating and 40 share.

The timing couldn't have been worse for NBC, which was forced to postpone a Very Special Christmas Episode of its Emmy-winning political drama, The West Wing, as well as its Wednesday-night hit Law & Order, until next week. Both shows are crucial to the network's standings in the weekly ratings race, so NBC probably would've preferred to see Bush and Gore making nice during, say, The Rosie O'Donnell Show.

But hey, you get lemons, make lemonade, right? NBC scored the highest ratings for both speeches--a 13.2/18 for Gore versus ABC's 12.8/18 and CBS' 6.3/9, and a 12.8/18 for Bush, versus ABC's 9.8/14 and CBS' 5.9/8. While the West Wing/Law & Order shuffle freed up NBC for more news coverage, ABC had switched back and forth from its regular comedy lineup, and CBS had Gore and Bush on instead of an airing of The Odd Couple II. (Irony noted.)

So, who really ended up the big winner Wednesday night? Try the Dubya-B.

With viewers surrounded by politics, the more disinterested folks (who think "chad" is that new guy on Friends) turned their attention to the cliffhanger finale of Felicity. Thanks to competing news coverage, the WB series scored a 4.5 rating and 6 share in metered-market households, its strongest showing since October 11, the night of a presidential debate.

The series, starring curly-locked Keri Russell, is taking a long winter break to make room for new episodes of Jack & Jill starting in January. New episodes of Felicity are expected to show up next spring.

As for George? He'll be here in January. And Gore probably will be hanging out with Keri, growing his hair out and waiting for 2004.