Original trilogy beats King Kong in ratings

Another Jackson vs. Lucas contest this weekend, and the results came out pretty much the same. TNT was running Peter Jackson’s King Kong, and Spike’s broadcasting of the original trilogy came out on top by a pretty hefty margin: A New Hope pulled 2.5 million, Empire Strikes Back had 3.5 million and Return of the Jedi got 4.12 million viewers (just short of Revenge of the Sith’s 4.25 million) while King Kong‘s multiple airings only brought in 2 million at best. Poor Kong: It’s not a horrible movie, but it simply doesn’t have the rewatch potential of SW and LOTR.

Spike will continue to air one Star Wars film every Sunday through May 25th.

So a farmboy, a Jedi, and a Cylon walk into a bar…

IMAGE: Episode IV

It’s Friday, April 11th, and that means one thing: A New Hope is airing on Spike tonight at 8/7C. (Okay, two things: a new episode of Battlestar Galactica at 10/9C.)

Gamers will also want to tune back in to Spike at midnight for GameTrailers TV, which will be showing another The Force Unleashed preview (“the world premiere of the duel mode in the Wii”) and SoulCalibur IV game footage of Yoda and Vader. (You can also catch all that at GameTrailers.com later.)

And don’t forget to vote in our poll on if you’re watching the movies on Spike! It expires Sunday night.

The saga starts on Spike tonight!

IMAGE: TPM duel

The Phantom Menace will kick off the saga on Spike tonight at 8pm (or maybe 7pm – check your local listings.) It runs for three hours, but you can at least watch most of it before Battlestar Galactica starts at 10pm. (TPM will also rerun tomorrow at 5pm, just before Attack of Clones.)