"House of Payne" rocks in debut

In what could be a very good sign for broadcast stations (such as WCIU) who bought the show (and for Lionsgate-owned syndicator Debmar-Mercury), Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne premiered to big numbers last night on TBS – with a 3.2 household Nielsen rating and 5 share, up 94 percent from its Everybody Loves Raymond lead-in (1.6/3). Not only that, the program, which featured two half-hour episodes, grew ratingswise from first episode to second.

The program received tons of promotion during Turner’s telecasts of the NBA playoffs.

And (not) surprisingly, Payne drew more viewers than the Stanley Cup Finals on NBC, which managed only a 2.1/3, and Hidden Palms on the CW, which drew a 1.3/2.

Game 5 of the Cup Finals drew just 2.9 million viewers and a weak 1.2 in adults 18-49.

The renewal of NHL games on NBC next year, as well as that of Trump’s low-rated beauty pageants, is perhaps one of the reasons NBC programming head Kevin Reilly lost his job.

updated 2007-06-07 at 15:40

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