[lancer1993]

Thanks for that Nika

More Ratings info and other stuff - washingtonpost.com

Looks like "Gilmore Girls" creator Amy Sherman-Palladino may get the last laugh. The show's seventh-season debut copped an audience of 4.5 million on the new CW network Tuesday night -- down nearly 2 million viewers compared with last fall. Sherman-Palladino, you'll recall, took a hike at the end of the show's sixth season when Time Warner division Warner Bros., which produces the show, would not agree to give her and her husband, "Gilmore Girls" exec producer Mr. Amy Sherman-Palladino, a multiyear contract. The CW noted yesterday that in addition to premiering against tough competition, "Gilmore Girls" had switched local stations in nearly a third of the country because of its move to the CW network. Which is great, except that the CW's reality series "America's Next Top Model" managed to equal its best debut audience ever when it premiered last week, although, because it's a former UPN series, it had moved to new local stations in nearly two-thirds of the country. "Gilmore Girls," about a really cool single mom who had her daughter when she was soooooo young that they're really more like best friends, or sisters, with exactly the same cultural references, was among the aging WB series with which Time Warner and CBS Inc. planned to launch the new CW network this fall. At the time of their departure, the Sherman-Palladinos said in a statement: "Despite our best efforts to return and ensure the future of 'Gilmore Girls' for years to come, we were unable to reach an agreement with the studio and are therefore leaving when our contracts expire at the end of this season." But not before tossing some of the show's main characters down some pretty funky story-line rabbit holes as a parting gift, and giving the show's devoted fans the vapors. (Lorelai, engaged to Luke, who's keeping his newly discovered daughter, April, from her, winds up in bed with Christopher, the father of her daughter/best friend Rory -- gak!) These devoted fans -- who bear a more than passing resemblance to the Scary Sci-Fi People -- forecast doom for the show without Amy Sherman-Palladino's staccato pop-culture-laden chirpy girlspeak. In Tuesday's unveiling, the show seems to have lost viewers in all age brackets. The smallest crowd was among young men, which is no surprise, given that men have never really liked the show, and who can blame them. Only 279,000 men between the ages of 18 and 34 caught the opening episode, compared with 1.16 million women in that age group, though that number was down from last year's 1.5 million. But while the "Top Model" debut won its time slot among young women, beating all the other broadcast networks, "Gilmore Girls" got whomped among young women -- by Hugh Laurie in Fox's "House." It also came in behind ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" reality series in the 8 p.m. hour. Good news for the CW: While "Gilmore Girls" is stuck competing against "Dancing" for the duration, this week's "House" was its last episode before Fox's schedule gets all messed up with baseball broadcasts. When "House" comes back, it will be at 9 p.m. Amy Sherman-Palladino, meanwhile, has moved on with her life. Not long after bailing on "Gilmore Girls," she set up a pilot at Fox. As described by one pop culture Web site, it's about two sisters who talk quickly about pop culture while one goes to college and the second has convoluted romances and carries the other's baby. Sounds like a great "Gilmore Girls" script.