NBC's Globes top '24' premiere

By Paul J. Gough

Jan 17, 2007, ET

NEW YORK -- Jack Bauer and "24" returned to its regular Monday spot facing tough competition from NBC's telecast of the Golden Globe Awards, which took the night in viewership and the adults 18-49 demographic with its highest ratings in three years.

The three-hour, five-minute Golden Globes telecast averaged 20 million viewers and a 6.5 rating/15 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research. That represented the best performance in both viewership and adults 18-49 since the 2004 show, and it bettered last year's numbers of 18.8 million viewers and 6.3/15 in adults 18-49 for NBC's highest non-Olympic Monday since a May 2004 "Fear Factor" and the miniseries "10.5."

Monday's two-hour "24" averaged 15.7 million viewers and a 5.9/13 in adults 18-49. That was about even with Sunday night's 15.7 million viewers and 6.1/14 and higher than the night-to-night retention of last year's two-night premiere. It also improved on last year's Monday night premiere, which averaged 14.9 million viewers.

The other networks pretty much stayed away from the battle. CBS had mostly reruns, though "The Class" (7.1 million, 2.7/6) and "The New Adventures of Old Christine" (9.6 million, 3.2/7) were new and lower than average. ABC ran originals of "Wife Swap" (8.4 million, 3.7/9), "Supernanny" (9 million, 3.9/9) -- reaching season-highs in adults 18-49 -- and "What About Brian" (4.7 million, 2.2/5), which was about average.

Nightly averages: ABC (7.4 million, 3.3/8), CBS (9.8 million, 3.2/7), NBC (20 million, 6.5/15), Fox (15.7 million, 5.9/13) and the CW (1.8 million, 0.8/2).

NBC's Globes top '24' premiere

By Paul J. Gough

Jan 17, 2007, ET