"Sopranos" has weakest debut since 2000

from mediaweek

Desperate Housewives Whacks The Sopranos
by Marc Berman

Despite the hype, and the 21-month wait, the sixth-season premiere of
HBO's The Sopranos was no match for the women of Wisteria Lane on ABC.

Quiet Desperation...

Could have been an advertising issue. I know a couple fans who were not
aware it started Sunday.

nfitz...

How heavily did HBO advertise? In Canda TMN seemed to go all out, with lots
of TV ads (on regular high-rated shows on other networks), fliers in the
cable bill, and some very prominent billboards. And that's just what I
caught, I tend to not be aware of most of it ...

karl...

Not only that. In the past two weeks the promo breaks between pay shows it
was almost wall to wall Sopranos AND they pretty much re-ran the entire
series in the run up to the season premiere.

Another thing I notices is the continued invasion of popup advertising at
the beginning of the show. It's bad enough they do this on broadcast TV but
now on pay channels as well?

Arthur Lipscomb...

I didn't know it was premiering until I saw an article in the newspaper a
day or two before.

Nationally, and based on Nielsen Media Research data, The Sopranos on
Sunday kicked-off with a disappointing 5.3/ 8 in households, 9.46
million viewers and a 4.5 rating/10 share among adults 18-49 at 9 p.m.