NBC - THE WAR STARTS WITH A BOOM

THE WAR STARTS WITH A BOOM

Ken Burns's latest PBS documentary series The War got off to a solid start Sunday night, but it did not attract as many viewers who generally tune in to the opening of a Burns series. The premiere attracted 7.3 million viewers. Nielsen Research said that it averaged a 5.0 household rating and a 7 share, down from Burns's last documentary opener, Lewis & Clark, which averaged a 6.1 rating. It was well below Burns's critically hailed series about the Civil War, which averaged a 9.0 for the series opener in 1990. However, PBS pointed out that the telecast went up against Sunday Night Football on NBC and the opening of several new series on the other networks. Meanwhile, PBS said Monday that it plans to air censored versions only of the series on weekends. (Stations were originally given the option of airing either the original version, with some four-letter words uttered by soldiers appearing in it, or a version with the words bleeped or removed.) Asked by Broadcast & Cable why it would only air the censored version on weekends, PBS spokeswoman Lea Sloan replied, "Because conceivably, a four-year-old could watch it ... and it would be going right into the teeth of the FCC."

25/09/2007