Hoops Coverage Steals Slot From ‘Magic’ Johnson Show

No sooner had he reinvented himself last week as a late-night talk host than Earvin “Magic” Johnson was upstaged by the sport at which he once excelled.

The premiere week of “The Magic Hour” was delayed by as much as an hour in more than a dozen key markets due to the NBA championship face-off between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz.

That hurt, but probably not as much as the harsh reviews for Johnson’s debut.

“Incompetence comes to mind when describing the first three episodes of this week’s debut,” commented Howard Rosenberg of The Los Angeles Times.

Agreed Tom Shales of the Washington Post: “We don’t really need another late-night talk show even it were great, which ‘The Magic Hour’ definitely isn’t.”

For now, Johnson’s syndicator has adopted a stoical stance.

Twentieth Television President Rick Jacobson was quick to point out that the ratings achieved for the first week of “The Magic Hour” were “great” despite the NBA pre-emptions and some Monday night delays due to Stanley Cup coverage.

Indeed, “The Magic Hour” has fared better, at least so far, than two late-night brethren that already have bitten the dust: “Vibe” and “The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show.”

Johnson’s first week averaged about 3.5 million viewers. That’s roughly 1 million more viewers than “Vibe” achieved in the same period.

Yet as Jacobson himself points out, “The Magic Hour” is looking to appeal to a broader audience than either “Vibe” or the Wayans show. Both of those canceled shows were looking for a young, “urban” (read: ethnic) demographic that some industry experts believed had been “disenfranchised” from television in late night.

“We are going after a broader demographic, but also we are not going after a specific ethnic audience. We are looking to appeal to a much broader audience,” Jacobson said.