THE first-ever televised “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show” resulted in skimpy-ratings for ABC on one of TV’s most competitive nights.
The show, filmed Tuesday under a circus-sized tent in Manhattan’s Bryant Park, is considered the Super Bowl for super-models and featured a slew of the leggy, lingerie-wearing ladies nearly nude in primetime.
But despite the show’s blatant sex-appeal, it drew only about 12.3 million viewers (still 16 percent better than the network’s dismal average in the time period) in a brutal head-to-head competition with TV’s most popular drama, “C.S.I.”
In the 9 p.m. time-slot, the CBS crime show was seen by more than 25.2 million viewers – more than doubling “Victoria’s Secret.”
Despite the smaller audience, thanks to ABC’s national distribution, more people saw the annual underwear fashion show than ever before. For the last two years, the Victoria’s Secret show was only available to viewers on the Internet.
But each time it took place, computers all over the world crashed when more than 1.5 million users logged on and tried to watch.
This year’s show featured some of the world’s most famous models including Tyra Banks, Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum, Rhea Durham, Bridget Hall, Daniela Pestova, Molly Sims, Karolina Kurkova, Eva Herzigova, Adriana Lima and New York’s own, Maggie Rizer.
At one point Klum was seen in a diamond-encrusted bra worth more than $12 million, and when she and the others appeared in the more risqué see-though outfits, ABC censors digitally-blurred some of the models’ most private parts.
But the show still sparked hundreds of consumer complaints from some viewers who felt the material was inappropriate for network TV, FCC officials said yesterday.
ABC refused to apologize for the telecast. “As with any other program, viewers have a choice to tune in or not,” the network said in a prepared statement.
“A network television show is a different audience for us,” Victoria’s Secret’s Monica Mitro said earlier this week.
The show was hosted by Rupert Everett (“My Best Friend’s Wedding”) and featured a “making of” documentary segment, behind-the-scenes “meet the models” clips and live songs from opera singer Andrea Bocelli and pop-star Mary J. Blige.