After four seasons, is the bloom starting to come off ABC's The Bachelor? In addition to having to deal with airing against an apparent resurgent The West Wing from NBC, it looks like ABC's The Bachelor is going to also have to deal with a second tough timeslot competitor -- CBS's relocated The King Of Queens series.
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According to the overnight ratings, while the second episode of the fourth edition of The Bachelor drew an average audience of 9.9 million viewers and earned a 4.6/11 among Adults 18-49, the show still finished third in its timeslot in the overall ratings, just ahead of the season finale of FOX's Paradise Hotel (which might also have contributed to the third place finish, we'll find out next week.)
In the good news department, the program did win its time period among Women 18-49 with a 6.6/15 rating/share. And despite intense competition in the hour from the season finale of Paradise Hotel, the one-hour season premieres of King of Queens and Angel and West Wing, The Bachelor did gain in Total Viewers (9.5 million to 10.3 million) and Adults 18-49 (4.4/11 to 4.7/11) from its first half-hour to its second half-hour.
According to Mediaweek, the episode was off 10 percent from the series' year ago overnight delivery -- whether this was a one-time abnormality or a sign of things to come should become clearer in the next several weeks. Stay tuned.