HBO's 'Angels' Draws 4.2 Million Viewers in Bow

HBO's 'Angels' Draws 4.2 Million Viewers in Bow Wed Dec 10, 2:25 AM ET Add Entertainment - Reuters to My Yahoo!

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - The first installment of the HBO miniseries "Angels in America" took 4.2 million viewers under its wings Sunday, making it the premium cable channel's highest-rated movie this year.

The three-hour block, which premiered at 8 p.m., drew an 8.6 household rating/12 share in HBO homes. "Angels" held up well over its running time, dipping only as low as an 8.1 at its lowest point of the evening. However, director Mike Nichols (news)' miniseries, starring Al Pacino (news), Emma Thompson (news) and Meryl Streep (news), did not compete with broadcast fare.

HBO has seen better results from some of its original films, including "Hysterical Blindness" last year, but "Blindness" benefited from having "Sex and the City (news - Y! TV)" as a lead-in.

Another cable miniseries launched strong Monday, with Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" drawing 3.9 million viewers. While second only to Spike TV's "WWE Raw" on basic cable that night, the debut paled in comparison with the first installments of past Sci Fi miniseries, including "Steven Spielberg (news) Presents Taken," which premiered around the same time last year, and "Frank Herbert's Dune."

Elsewhere in cable, no one at Comedy Central was laughing at the ratings for "The Commies," its new awards show franchise honoring top comedians. The Sunday special drew a scant 908,000 total viewers. Spike TV fared better with the start of its own "Video Game Awards" franchise Thursday, which drew 1.2 million viewers -- up 77% for its primetime average the previous four weeks.

Cable original films were a mixed bag Sunday. TNT's Don Johnson (news) thriller "Word of Honor" drew 2.6 million viewers, a disappointment given that its lead-in at 5:30 p.m., a theatrical rebroadcast of "G.I. Jane," lured 2.7 million viewers. Fellow Turner network TBS scored 3.9 million viewers with a rebroadcast of "Exit Wounds." ABC Family's original film "Picking Up and Dropping Off" fared a bit better, drawing 2.8 million.

I searched - and found nothing about this.

I think it is FUNNY that "HBO has seen better results from some of its original films, including "Hysterical Blindness" ..."

This GAYS in America miniseries has been pumped up everywhere for 2 weeks, and it only gets 4.2 million viewers!!!!!! HAHA!

Reruns of reruns of THE SOPRANOS or even ARLI$$ get more viewers than this GAY AGITPROP!

At first I was under the delusion that this was going to be HBOs version of that angel movie with Nick Cage and Meg Ryan, then I read what it was really about...

Needless to say, I WON'T be watching!

What IS with all the gay networks?

Networks (and HBO) are run by gays - or people that are controlled by the Gay Mafia.

I thought it was funny- I just read the following in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and it says: LOW RATINGS! Guess they didn't get the memo fro HBO to keep things positive, so maybe more people will watch this dreck. As I predicted last week, about 8 people saw this crap - but the critics love it to no end!

http://www.postgazette.com/tv/20031211tvnote1211fnp6.asp
'Angels' ratings low

The debut of Part 1 of Tony Kushner's acclaimed two-part epic "Angels in America" had 4.1 million viewers on HBO from 8 to 11 p.m. Sunday.

Though that's not a large number, HBO was quick to point out that viewership remained steady through all three hours of "Millennium Approaches," starring Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson.

"Angels" was the highest-rated original movie on cable this year, according to HBO. Sunday's showing was part of an "aggressive scheduling play" that includes one-hour installments this week.

Part 2, "Perestroika," premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday. (G.S.)

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