NOTHING like a good, juicy scandal to goose the ratings.
Last Friday’s season-ending episode of “Zoey 101,” starring pregnant, 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears, averaged 7.3 million viewers – a huge audience for cable and more-than-double the Nickelodeon show’s season average.
The hourlong episode, “Goodbye Zoey,” aired just two weeks after Jamie Lynn, the younger sister of troubled pop star Britney Spears, disclosed that she’s pregnant – setting off a tabloid frenzy.
The father of her baby is her 18-year-old boyfriend, Casey Aldridge, according to Spears – who sold her pregnancy story to OK! magazine.
“Goodbye Zoey” was the show’s third-season finale. Spears has already filmed a fourth and final season – and Nickelodeon officials say they’ll air that season, as planned, beginning next month.
In last Friday’s two-part episode, Zoey had to decide whether to stay at the Pacific Coast Academy with her best buds or relocate to London with her parents.
In the end, she chose London – but then discovered that her best friend, Chase, is in love with her.
“Zoey 101” is Jamie Lynn’s first starring series role. She first garnered some attention as a cast member on Nickelodeon’s “All That.”