"Simpsons" Keeps Going (and Going...) - Sep 13, 2005 - E! Online News

"Simpsons" Keeps Going (and Going...) - Sep 13, 2005 - E! Online News

Few in Hollywood age more gracefully than Homer Simpson.

The fat, bald patriarch of Fox's The Simpsons turned 17 seasons old Sunday night. Ancient by TV standards or no, Homer's vital stats remain strong. His season opener drew 11.1 million viewers, ranking ninth for the TV week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research.

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With 357 Simpsons episodes now having aired, the animated comedy ties Dallas for eighth among the longest-running entertainment programs of all-time, according to the Website Longest Running TV Shows.

By the end of this season, The Simpsons should have passed Alfred Hitchcock Presents (361 episodes) and My Three Sons (369), and moved within striking distance of fifth place and Death Valley Days (381).

The Simpsons hasn't just persevered, it has prospered. Last season, it averaged 9.6 million viewers, up from the 8.6 million it entertained a decade earlier.

The O.C., by comparison, might be the anti-Simpsons, slowly but surely regressing as it ages.

The Fox soap's third season premiere and cliffhanger tier-upper attracted 7.5 million diehards (31st place), down about 13 percent from its season-two opener and a ways away from its heady first days on the beach in Summer 2003.

Given that The O.C.'s premiere came against the National Football League's opening night match-up on ABC (first place, 18 million), a truer test for the show will come this week. That's when it'll go up against something arguably more fearsome than the Oakland Raiders: The new cast of CBS' Survivor: Guatemala.

Elsewhere:

* In addition to The Simpsons, Fox used Sunday to roll out the season premieres of Family Guy (15th place, 9.1 million) and American Dad (28th place, 7.8 million), and the series premiere of the sitcom The War at Home (16th place, 8.7 million). All were top 10 hits among 18-to-49-year-old viewers.
* With a modest 37th place debut (6.6 million), Fox's murder-mystery-minded Reunion wasn't quite a blow-out bash.
* After a fast start, Fox's Prison Break (19th place, 8.5 million) slowed, but made headway with youngish penal-colony buffs (10th place in the 18-49 demo).
* With Survivor still on summer vacation, the Tuesday edition of CBS' Big Brother 6 (24th place, 8.1 million) took honors as the week's most watched reality show.
* A rerun of Desperate Housewives' first-season finale (40th place, 6.5 million) rang up the ABC show's biggest numbers since the episode originally aired in May.
* NBC's Tommy Lee Goes to College (74th place, 4 million) has all but flunked out.
* Tommy Hilfiger declared design student Chris Cortez to be "in style" in the season-finale of CBS' out-of-fashion The Cut (75th place, 3.9 million).
* ESPN, the future home of Monday Night Football, happily made due with Sunday night football last weekend, scoring a cable-high 11.2 million for its Indianapolis Colts-Baltimore Ravens contest.
* Rome hasn't won a lot of viewers (2.6 million), but it has won a second-season pickup from HBO.
* In the eternal battle of the Bradys versus the Partridges, the premiere of My Fair Brady (1.2 million), chronicling the May-October romance of model Adrianne Curry and Brady Bunch alum Christopher Knight, outdid the premiere of Breaking Bonaduce (just under 1 million), chronicling the attempted suicide of Partridge Family alum Danny Bonaduce, VH1 said.
* The Discovery Channel had a hit with its made-for-TV movie The Flight That Fought Back (7 million), about the passengers and crew of the lone hijacked 9-11 airplane that didn't take out a target.
* A combined 22.2 million watched Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast on 27 broadcast and cable networks Friday night. Three years ago, America: A Tribute to Heroes, a similar all-star telethon organized in the wake of 9-11, drew 59.3 million. Unlike Tribute to Heroes, Shelter from the Storm didn't have the market cornered on donation pleas. It was just one of three telethons held last weekend. MTV, VH1 and CMT drew a combined 12 million for its Hurricane Katrina benefit, ReAct Now: Music & Relief. BET's S.O.S. (Saving Ourselves drew 1.2 million.

Overall, football, both pro and college, powered ABC to wins in total viewers (8.3 million) and the 18-49 demo.

CBS' reruns edged Fox's new shows for second place in viewers (7.5 million to 7.4 million). NBC (6.3 million) was a distant fourth. The WB (2.16 million) closed the gap with UPN (2.19 million), but couldn't overtake its rival.

Here's a look of the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. NFL Football Special Opener (Oakland Raiders vs. New England Patriots), ABC, 18 million viewers
2. 2005 NFL Showcase, ABC, 16 million viewers
3. CSI, CBS, 12.9 million viewers
4. 60 Minutes, CBS, 11.7 million viewers
5. Prime-time spillover of regional NFL football coverage, Fox, 11.5 million viewers
6. CSI: Miami, CBS, 11.3 million viewers
7. Without a Trace, CBS, 11.219 million viewers
8. Two and a Half Men (9:30 p.m., Monday), CBS, 11.216 million viewers
9. The Simpsons, Fox, 11.1 million viewers
10. Two and a Half Men (9 p.m., Monday), CBS, 10.5 million viewers