On Wed, Jun 23, 1999 at 10:30:24AM -0700, Tim Byars wrote:
> The world television premiere of Turner Network Television's (TNT)
> "Pirates of Silicon Valley," starring Noah Wyle "ER" as Steve Jobs and
> Anthony Michael Hall ("Saturday Night Live" ) as Bill Gates, delivered
> an outstanding 7.3 cable rating/11.4 share in the 46 metered markets.
>
> "Pirates" also posted a strong 5.3 rating/ 5,141,000 households in TNT
> homes, making it the top movie on basic cable of the week and the
> second highest-rated movie of the year, behind TNT's own "Purgatory"
> (6.6 rating, January 10).
Not in its first airing it didn't:
Excerpt from the TV Column in today's Washington Post
<http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-06/23/148l-062399-idx.html>
"Pirates of Silicon Valley." TNT will tell you its mega-hyped
"Pirates"--"seen for the first time anywhere" Sunday from 8 to 10
p.m.--averaged 5.9 million viewers. Not only is that 1.6 million shy
of the debut of TNT's less-hyped record holder, "Purgatory," it wasn't
even the real debut of "Pirates." "Pirates of Silicon Valley" debuted
with an audience of 218,000 viewers, from 2 to 4 a.m. on May 23. The
cable network sneaked it on the schedule that night to make the cutoff
date for this year's Primetime Emmy competition. Only problem is, the
Emmy rulebook says that to be eligible, a show must have aired between
6 p.m. and 2 a.m.
-- Manoj Kasichainula - manojk at io dot com - http://www.io.com/~manojk/ "By 'standie,' I mean those life-sized cardboard figures that stand up. By 'pirate,' I mean 'Arrrrr!'" -- Steve Jackson