Few watch NBC's Globes coverage

This is what happens when stars don't come to pick up their awards.

Sunday's Golden Globes "announcement" telecast, a one-hour version of the annual ceremony that was severely truncated and celebrity-free due to the Writers Guild of America strike, delivered the show's lowest ratings in 13 years. NBC's 9 p.m. telecast hosted by "Access Hollywood's" Billy Bush and Nancy O'Dell averaged 5.8 million total viewers for a distant fourth-place finish in the time period and a 71% dive from last year's Globes, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research. It was the least-watched Globes since 1995, when 3.6 million watched the show on TBS. A pre-Globes "Dateline" special likewise performed poorly (5.2 million).

Clearly, viewers migrated elsewhere for the evening. Thanks in part to a healthy lead-in from the Giants and Cowboys divisional playoff game, Fox's sci-fi drama "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" was the most-watched series premiere this season (18.3 million total viewers), although the show shed 13% of its audience during the hour. On CBS, the first of three parts of the western miniseries "Comanche Moon" averaged 15.8 million viewers, the best numbers for any made-for-network movie in more than two years.

More news on the strike

-- Scott Collins

ng

Comments

[Martin]

People who initially tuned into the show tuned off and surfed other channels for one good reason. The show was wierd. creepy and depressing. With all of the bad news out there -- Iraq, the real estate market turmoil and the talk of recession -- who needed one more "downer?"

Before the show aired Pacific time, news of the Golden Globe winners was all over the Internet. I first decided I would not read those articles and watch the press conference/awards, er, show instead. After 10 minutes I had enough and walked over to my computer to see the total list of winners. Then I cheered myself up by watching "The Sound of Music" for the umpteenth time.

Good luck writers! We're with you!!!