New York — Are You Hot? isn't, and there are empty seats at the reception for Married by America.
Both reality series drew audiences of 6.9 million Americans last week, which put them in 71st and 72nd place in Nielsen Media Research's list of most popular programs.
All American Girl did even worse, with 6.7 million viewers tuning in to its premiere last week. Like Are You Hot?, it is produced by ABC. Married by America is Fox's follow-up to the popular Joe Millionaire.
The numbers are a sobering reminder that reality shows, despite their burst of popularity, have winners and losers.
The winners: Survivor: Amazon, Fear Factor and two episodes of American Idol, which ranked among Nielsen's 10 most popular shows last week.
By a margin of nearly 7 million viewers, CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was the week's most popular show. CBS won the week, averaging 12.4 million viewers (8.2 rating, 13 share).
NBC was second with 11.9 million viewers (7.9, 13) and first among the 18-to-49-year-old demographic craved by advertisers. Fox averaged 10 million viewers (6.2, 10), ABC had 7.8 million (4.9, 8).
A ratings point represents 1,067,000 households, or one per cent of the estimated 106.7 million TV homes in the U.S.. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
