By Don Smith

The Nielsen ratings for the 2002-03 season show why some of the favorites of science fiction, fantasy and horror fans either failed or succeeded over the last 10 months.

None of these genre shows cracked the top 100 but that didn't mean they didn't do well for their respective networks.

The WB scored well with "Smallville" (tied with "7th Heaven" overall at 117th) and "Charmed" (145th overall), both shows appearing in its top-five shows list.

"Enterprise" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" ranked fourth and fifth respectively for UPN's schedule and 152nd and 155th respectively overall. The network also saw a couple of failures, as the cancelled series "The Twilight Zone" (171st overall) and "Haunted" (175th overall) ranked in UPN's bottom five shows.

In contrast, "Firefly" (146th overall) was swallowed before it could get lit because it was on a larger network, Fox. The science fiction show by creator Joss Whedon didn't have much of a chance appearing on the same network with ratings powerhouses like "Joe Millionaire" and "American Idol," which ranked second and third respectively overall.

ABC also saw the quirky, contest-within-a-show "Push, Nevada" (144th overall) and the now-extinct "Dinotopia" (142nd overall) die sudden deaths.

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