Last Saturday's debut of the new Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon series helped the Kids' WB score its highest household ratings of the 2007-2008 season and pushed ratings in key demographics to new highs for 2008.  Two episodes of Spectacular Spider-Man were shown back-to-back and ratings for the second episode were actually higher than those for the first. 

According to Nielsen Media Research, ratings for the first half-hour episode were up 20% over the ratings in the same timeslot a year ago and 25% over the previous week.  The second episode scored well with younger kids (up 200% for kids 2-5) as well as with tweens where it scored the WB's highest rankings of the season for both kids 9-14 and boys 9-14.

Both Sony, which is producing the series through its Culver Entertainment division, and Marvel have a lot riding on the success of the Spectacular Spider-Man series, which has already been heavily merchandised (see "More Spectacular Spider-Man Licensing").  For Marvel the new series represents a way to keep some substantial Spider-Man licensing revenue flowing during the years between Spider-Man live action movies -- and with no announced plans for a Spider-Man 4, Marvel could have a considerable wait for another live action jolt to its Spidey licensing revenues.