Semi-number-palooza

It's been a while since I did a true number-palooza on ratings info. I write the weekly ratings posts but don't really dig as much as I used to. On the GSN board, though, I got a little number-crunchy about GSN and other networks...

Other poster: Now if we could have special marathons, that could attract Game Show fans, as well as casual viewers. Wheel of Fortune for example is long due for another marathon, and should actually be on the schedule.

As a subsequent poster pointed out, GSN occasionally does specials for the hardcores, like the Match Game marathon and the Christmas What's My Line/I've Got a Secret run. And I'm sure GSN would love to get recent eps of Wheel of Fortune. Please persuade the network's overseers at Sony.

But GSN is doing fine in the numbers with its current schedule, despite constant calls on this board for more old stuff. The latest week, February 18-24, averaged 360K/287K viewers prime time/total day, very good by the network's historical standards.

I've got a feeling that Family Trade will hurt the numbers, but I don't expect the show to last long. And the new season of American Bible Challenge should help.

Another poster: Karn and O'Hurley might eventually fade away, but for now they're still doing solid enough numbers in the afternoon and on Monday nights.

As I already commented, Karn and O'Hurley averaged 349K viewers for all their showings in the latest week. That's a lot better than "solid enough" by GSN standards. Of course, I don't expect Harvey, Karn and O'Hurley to have many fans around here. But they've got lots of fans in GSN's actual audience.

Yet another poster: Hallmark brought back I Love Lucy over night, and they are one of the highest rated Cable Networks. (Though I prefer the old Hallmark, the Insp channel fills in that void where Hallmark left off).

In case you're wondering, Hallmark averaged 563K/423K viewers prime time/total day for the month of February. That ranked 32nd/30th in the windows among cable nets. It's really a stretch to call Hallmark one of the "highest rated" cable networks. It's a mid-sized network much like GSN. (USA, the truly highest-rated network, averaged 2.8 million viewers in prime time, dwarfing both Hallmark and GSN.)

The INSP network you mentioned averaged 331K/142K, 42nd and 58th in the windows. By an odd coincidence, the prime time number was close to GSN's, but the total day number was much lower. Their schedule shows that INSP runs a great deal of religious programming outside of prime time. This may be part of the network's mission, but the religious programs don't seem to be drawing many viewers, resulting in the low total day number.