Viewers Say Average Joes Better than a Millionaire Joe

Apparently, the public likes an “average Joe” better than a pretend “Joe Millionaire” any day. Or at least Monday.

While The Next Joe Millionaire has been sliding in the ratings (and it didn’t start out well to begin with!) to the point that Fox pulled the Tuesday showing (JM fans should consider themselves lucky – Fox completely pulled Skin, another series that was doing horribly in the ratings). Some have wondered – as they always do when ratings for a reality show are poor – if this meant the end of the reality genre. The answer? Of course not.

To prove it, we have the premiere of NBC’s Average Joe, another reality dating series. While Joe Millionaire has done so poorly that it has routinely lost in the ratings battle to The WB, Average Joe was up against strong competition in Monday Night Football and CSI: Miami, and it still did well!

CSI won the hour with a season high 19.5 million viewers. Monday Night Football came in second and Average Joe came in a close third with 11.2 million viewers.

While third place might not seem like a huge success, the number of viewers is almost double what Joe Millionaire got earlier in the night and represents NBC’s best regular program at that timeslot since May of last year! It was a 45% increase in ratings over Third Watch, which had previously occupied that timeslot. Plus, the show actually had increased viewership in the second half hour compared to the first – so new people were tuning in and those already watching were not changing the channel – and it also increased as compared to the show before it on NBC, Las Vegas. In addition, Average Joe’s ratings apparently are the best in the young adult age group for any new hourlong show this season.

Will viewers return again next week to watch the beautiful Melana as she picks from among the less-than-beautiful average Joes? The storyline of Average Joe already seems more compelling of that for Next Joe Millionaire. We have a clearly-defined villain, some heroes, and the chance to see how Melana reacts as she actually starts dating all the guys. Time and the Nielsens will tell.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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