`Providence' smiles on `Homicide'

PASADENA -- In a Sun interview last week, Tom Fontana asked us to think of Friday's episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street" as the first day of the rest of the season for the NBC drama.

He said he thought "Shades of Gray" was one of the best episodes of the year, and viewers seemed to agree with the executive producer. The audience of 18- to 49-year-olds, NBC's key demographic, was up 36 percent from the average audience of young adults for the show.

"Homicide" was undoubtedly helped by the blockbuster debut of the family drama "Providence," which drew the largest audience of any new drama on network television this year. "Providence" attracted more 18- to 49-year-olds to the time period than any NBC show since the network's telecast of "Peter Pan" is 1989.

Pub Date: 1/13/99