“SpongeBob’s House Party” Scores 6.7 Million Total Viewers
via Nickelodeon press release:
Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite Takes Basic Cable’s Top Spots, Wins Week in Prime and Total Day
SpongeBob SquarePants’ Prime-Time Special Delivers More HH and Total Viewers than The WB and UPN
SpongeBob SquarePants and Nick at Nite’s The Cosby Show
Push Network to Number One Across Key Measures
New York, NY — May 21, 2002 — Nickelodeon swept basic cable the week of May 13-19 with a two-front ratings win across prime time and total day, powered by Friday night’s SpongeBob House Party special—basic cable’s top-rated program for the week with households, total viewers and kids 2-11—and the continued success of Nick at Nite’s The Cosby Show.
In prime time, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite won the week (tied with LifeTime Television) with a 2.0/1.7 million HH—up a strong +43% in rating over last year. With total viewers, the network averaged 2.5 million persons 2+, up +67% over last year. This marks the network’s first weekly prime-time win since July 16 last year, when the record-breaking Rugrats: All Growed Up special aired.
In total day, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite was number one with a 1.6/1.4 million HH, up +23% in rating over last year. With the key kids 2-11 demo, the network was number one with a 3.1 rating and delivery of 996,000 kids 2-11, up +19% in rating over last year’s like time period.
Powering the network’s performance was the 30-minute SpongeBob SquarePants House Party special (Friday, May 17, 9:30 p.m.)—basic cable’s number-one program for the week with HH, total viewers and kids 2-11. The program also scored more households (3.9 million HH) and total viewers (6.7 million P2+) than The WB (2.4 million HH; 4.1 million total viewers) and UPN (1.8 million HH; 2.6 million total viewers) in the 9:30 p.m. (ET/PT) time slot. This episode of SpongeBob SquarePants also stands as the series’ highest-rated program to date.
Among households, SpongeBob SquarePants House Party scored a 4.5/3.9 million HH, up +200% in rating over like time period last year; the program also averaged 6.7 million total viewers, up +319% over last year’s time period. With kids 2-11, the special averaged a 13.0/44 rating and share (4.2 million average kid viewers), up +242% over last year’s time period. Adults 18-49 also tuned in with a 1.4 rating and 1.4 million adult 18-49 viewers, up +411% over last year.
Nick at Nite’s prime-time plays of The Cosby Show (Sun-Thu from 9-10 p.m.; Fri/Sat from 10-11 p.m. ET/PT) also continued to perform strongly for the network, averaging for the week a 1.9/1.6 million HH, up +46% in rating over last year.
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