Philbin on ‘Millionaire’ helps save ABC from an embarrassing week in the prime-time ratings
By APTuesday, August 11, 2009
Philbin helps save ABC from record low ratings
NEW YORK — Regis Philbin has saved ABC again — this time from embarrassment.
On Sunday night, 7 million people watched the first night of a two-week run of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” The show is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
That audience can’t compare with the summer of 1999, when the show had audiences as big as 22 million.
Yet it had twice the number of viewers than ABC averaged in prime time last week. Without “Millionaire,” ABC would undoubtedly have set a record for its smallest audience ever for a week. Last August’s record of 3.46 million viewers was 2,000 fewer than what ABC had last week.
Philbin was credited by some for “saving” ABC with the original “Millionaire” when the network was in a ratings trough.
