Zac Efron Heats Up the Valley
Zac Efron Heats Up the Valley
Wearing a pair of celebrity shades and a “Rock and or Roll” t-shirt, Zac Efron was spotted out and about in the Valley on Wednesday morning (July 2).
The “High School Musical” hunk checked out the floor plans mounted on the wall while readjusting his sunglasses before quickly moving along about his business.
Meanwhile, Zac’s HSM co-star girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens has been busily promoting her new album in New York City.
Hoping to find success with Identified, Hudgens dropped by “Good Morning America” and “Live with Regis & Kelly” for press duties earlier today.
High School Marathon
Camp Rock premiered big and repeated well. Now it only has to keep it up for another, oh, two and a half years.
Like High School Musical.
Giving the Jonas Brothers’ vehicle something to shoot for, the original HSM kept on keeping on last week, scoring nearly as many viewers for its 33rdyes, 33rdairing as a two-day-old rerun of Camp Rock.
A Thursday night High School Musical broadcast averaged 3.1 million viewers for the Disney Channel, according to Nielsen Media Research. That’s not far off from the 3.7 million who caught Sunday’s Camp Rock outing on Disney’s sister network, ABC Family Channel.
Overall, the numbers for Camp Rock were strong. As previously reported, Friday’s cable-topping premiere averaged 8.9 million viewers, more than HSM’s own debut, and more than anything else on TV on Friday night.
Its two weekend repeats, on ABC and ABC Family channel, averaged a combined 7.2 million. In all, Disney said 21 million people spent at least part of their weekend at Camp Rock22.4 million, if you count people in Canadaand ordered up a sequel.
A cable phenomenon, however, is not made in one weekend.
In 2006, for example, the Disney Channel movie The Cheetah Girls 2 also outdrew HSM’s premiere, 7.8 million to 7.7 million viewers. But while the Cheetah Girls franchise has proved a keeper, its TV movies have not consistently topped the cable ratings like HSM (or old Lindsay Lohan movies, for that matter).
More than a year and a half after its January 2006 debut, HSM could still draw 5 million viewers, more than most new cable shows. At its two-year anniversary, it attracted 4.5 million.
Zac Efron’s showering habits may be in question, but not his franchise’s ability to draw consistent ratings.
Other ratings highlights for the week ended Sunday:
- Lohan’s Freaky Friday has aired on Disney Channel about, rough estimate, a million times. Judging by the solid ratings3.1 million viewers for a Tuesday night repeat, and 3 million for a Sunday afternoon broadcastit’ll probably be asked back a million more times.
- Among cable shows that didn’t star dreamy tween sensations, USA’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent (4.7 million) and In Plain Sight (4.67 million) were tops.
- But enough about old people, back to the tweens: Disney’s The Wizards of Waverly Place (4.2 million) was cable’s top comedy series draw.
- Other cable highlights: Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood (667,000) was Oxygen’s top season opener ever; and the fourth-season debut of Weeds (1.3 million, per the Hollywood Reporter) was Showtime’s most watched anything ever.
- House flipping is out; house flipping while being absolutely impossible to work for is in. The second-season premiere of Bravo’s Flipping Out (672,000) was up 43 percent from its first-season opener, the network said.
- Broadcast TV aired stuff, too, last week. Of the stuff that aired, nothing was bigger than the Boston Celtics’ series-clinching win over the Los Angeles Lakers in game six of the NBA Finals (16.9 million).
- The Celtics should blow out the Lakers more often. According to ABC, viewewship of the NBA Finals overall was up 61 percent over last year’s series.
- NBC enjoyed a strong season premiere from America’s Got Talent (second place, 12.8 million).
- Other top summer series: Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance (fifth place, 8.87 million for Thursday’s episode; sixth place, 8.86 million for Wednesday’s episode); NBC’s Deal or No Deal (seventh place, 8.7 million for Tuesday’s episode; ninth place, 8.3 million for Wednesday’s episode); and, Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen (10th place, 8.25 million).
- CBS’ Million Dollar Password (12th place, 8.2 million) fell out of the top 10, but picked up a network order for six more episodes.
- CBS’ Swingtown (28th place, 6 million) won its time slot in adults, though, fortunately, not tweens.
- The Daytime Emmys have something in common with the Oscars: record-low ratings. Friday’s ABC broadcast was a new low for the show (43rd place, 5.4 million), down 35 percent from last year.
- The Univision telenovela Al Diablo Con Guapos (To Hell with the Handsome, if Wikipedia’s Spanish is good) is muy hotthree of its five weeknight installments landed in the top 25 among young adult viewers.
Thanks to America’s Got Talent, NBC emerged from the basement and won the week in total viewers, averaging 6.5 million.
Fox restored TV order by registering its usual victory among 18- to 49-year-olds.
In cable, USA, which didn’t air Camp Rock or HSM even once, was the top prime-time network (3 million). Disney (2.8 million) and TNT (2.2 million) trailed.
Here’s a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
- NBA Finals Game Six (Boston vs. Los Angeles), ABC, 16.9 million viewers
- America’s Got Talent, NBC, 12.8 million viewers
- 60 Minutes, 9.1 million viewers
- Two and a Half Men, CBS, 8.9 million viewers
- So You Think You Can Dance (Thursday), Fox, 8.87 million viewers
- So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesday), Fox, 8.86 million viewers
- Deal or No Deal (Tuesday), NBC, 8.7 million viewers
- House, Fox, 8.6 million viewers
- Deal or No Deal (Wednesday), NBC, 8.3 million viewers
- Hell’s Kitchen, Fox, 8.25 million viewers
Disney Rolls to Rock Sequel
Camp Rock, well, rocked. And now Disney is ready to roll on a sequel.
Just days after the Jonas Brothers-starring TV movie debuted on the kid-friendly cable net, Disney has gone to work crafting a follow-up for the camera-friendly musical trio.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, production on the second small-screen installment will kick off in late spring or summer of 2009 with all three tween heartthrobsJoe, Kevin and Nick Jonasset to return.
The TV movie, made in the same mold as the High School Musicals, averaged 8.9 million viewers Friday night, besting the ratings received by the original HSM to become the most-watched nonsequel film the channel’s ever aired. (The unqualified title holder is HSM 2, which pulled in 17.2 million viewers in its first airing.)
Better start looking over your shoulder, Troy boy.
Disney’s Camp Rock takes down High School Musical … well, kind of
I know you’ve all been wondering if the Jonas Brothers squash the machine that is Zac Efron. Well, they can … kind of. Camp Rock averaged 8.9 million viewers on Friday night. That’s more viewers than High School Musical, which had 7.8 million for its debut. However, 8.9 million pales in comparison to last summer’s 17.2 million (ZOMG!) viewers for High School Musical 2. And it proves that the Efron is unstoppable and more bankable. In fact, High School Musical 2 is the most watched non-sports program on cable.
Joal Ryan of E! Online points out that Camp Rock could still beat High School Musical overall, “The Jonas Brothers are far bigger stars than Efron or any of his costars were in January 2006, when the first HSM premiered.” He goes to say that the real test of Camp Rock will be if it has the ability to rule the ratings in the inevitable many, many reruns.