Weakest link ‘weakening grip on US ratings’
Anne Robinson’s American version of her hit Weakest Link quiz show has failed to keep its viewers, it was claimed today.
Audience figures for the show’s airing on Monday night, its third week, showed it had fallen to second place and lost 16% of its viewers from the previous week.
The ratings, from Nielsen Media Research, estimated 7.9 million Americans tuned in to watch Robinson humiliate contestants in the US version of the BBC hit.
But that was down from last week and slightly behind a rival drama show, King of Queens, which had 100,000 more viewers.
And there were indications it was not reaching its key market of trendy young people television networks are desperate to pull in, as it fell to fourth place in New York, seen as the barometer of public opinion.
TV chiefs at NBC had been celebrating the success of the quiz after it topped the ratings and got an average audience of 15 million for the three shows screened in its first week.
Last week Robinson got off to a strong start with 14.1 million viewers and a comfortable first place, easily beating the three other networks’ shows.
But bosses at NBC, which has bought the rights to the show, are staying tight-lipped about whether the quiz will take on the ultimate challenge - Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?
The American version of the British-originated show regularly pulls in 19 million viewers for broadcaster ABC, making it the US’s biggest programme.
A showdown between the quizzes had been seen as likely by television industry commentators once the Weakest Link had established itself as hit material.
