One show ended with a bang and the other — not the one you’d expect — featured a knife fight before the opening credits finished rolling. It was the first television duel between “The Sopranos” and “Desperate Housewives.”
Which one did you watch?
Odds are it was “Desperate Housewives.” ABC’s prime-time soap was seen by 22.2 million viewers on Sunday, or 900,000 shy of its season average, according to Nielsen Media Research. “The Sopranos” audience was certain to be smaller, although complete figures would not be available until Tuesday.
No new episodes of the HBO mob drama had aired since June 2004, and since then the Sunday-night television landscape changed dramatically with the introduction of “Desperate Housewives” in the same time slot.
That was evident in a hair salon in East Rutherford, N.J., the heart of “Sopranos” country. The choice was easy for 20-year-old Jessica Cicero, who said she’s more interested in “Desperate Housewives.”
“‘The Sopranos’ just reminds me of people I already know,” said Cicero, as she watched her mother have her nails done. “I like the drama of ‘Desperate Housewives.’ It’s a girly show.”
There was a much different perspective at the nearby Park Tavern in East Rutherford, N.J., a working class bar about five miles from the Satin Dolls strip club, where the fictitious “Bada Bing” club on “The Sopranos” is set.
“I wouldn’t watch ‘Desperate Housewives’ if you put an Uzi to my head,” said Clyde Dotson of Wood Ridge, N.J. “When you’ve been married four times like me, the last thing you want to watch is a bunch of women cheating.”
HBO tried to lure viewers with a shocking season opener where Tony Soprano was shot in the stomach by the increasingly demented Uncle Junior, who seemingly confused Tony with someone else. The last scene faded with the New Jersey mob boss passing out after struggling to dial 911.
Producers wouldn’t kill off their lead character with 19 episodes left until the series end, would they? Tune in next week.
“My doorman, especially, was shocked,” actor Dominic Chianese, who plays Uncle Junior, said on Monday. Chianese was keeping his hat pulled down in an attempt to avoid attention on Monday, to only mixed success.
The scene had been filmed 11 months ago, and Chianese and his co-stars had kept it a secret ever since.
Although it is especially big in the New York area — where the New York Daily News ran three pictures of a grimacing, wounded Tony Soprano on page three Monday — “The Sopranos” gets a smaller audience than broadcast hits because HBO is a subscription service available in less than a third of the nation’s TV homes. The most recent season opener in March 2004 had 12.1 million viewers, Nielsen said.
Preliminary ratings issued Monday showed “The Sopranos” up 39 percent from the previous season finale in New York, where much of the show is filmed. But in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia, those ratings were down 22 percent, Nielsen said.
In what may have been a clever nod to its violent competition, “Desperate Housewives” opened up with a scene where Paul Young — whose late wife is the show’s narrator — is ambushed by a man with a knife in a police van. Young turned up bruised and bloodied later in the episode.
ABC was concerned enough about the competition that segments featuring actors from “The Sopranos” on “Good Morning America” and “Nightline” were scrapped in the days leading up to the debut. The “GMA” segment was rescheduled for this week.
The slight “Desperate Housewives” ratings dip showed “The Sopranos” had “a minimal impact,” said Brad Adgate, a television analyst for Horizon Media.
“It could have been a lot worse,” he said. “I just think they’re different types of viewers.”
Sometimes the twain does meet.
Fred Alta, who was waiting in line at a New York restaurant during a break from his job at Citigroup Monday, said he watched both shows the night before. “I watched ‘Desperate Housewives’ because my girlfriend watches it,” he said.