Raising the Bar Breaks Records
The freshman show drew 7.7 million viewers Monday night.
Steven Bochco's newest creation set a cable record in its premiere Monday night.
Raising the Bar, which costars Mark-Paul Gosselaar (who played Zack on Saved by the Bell), brought in 7.7 million viewers, which beat the 2004 record set by USA's The 4400. That show opened to 7.4 million, which was closely followed by TNT's The Closer's 7 million in 2005.
Bochco's show beat every show on the big networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and the CW) except NBC's Deal or No Deal. The Howie Mandel-hosted show brought in only 11 million in the first episode where it gave away one million bones.
The other shows that opened Labor Day night were Fox's Prison Break, which I will write a piece about later tonight. It brought in 6.5 million.
CW's Gossip Girl attracted 3.4 million viewers, which pleased the heads of the network, who are in desperate need of a ratings bump.
The Bar ratings could have been helped, however, because of the major networks' coverage at 10 p.m. of the Republican National Convention and Hurricane Gustav.
We'll keep you posted next Tuesday.
