It was another very holiday week on television, with schedules full of repeats and seasonal specials. CBS was the only network that really tried, and it paid big dividends. With all new programming on Monday through Thursday the network won all 12 hours in viewers, and 11 of them in the demo. Of course, just showing new programming didn’t guarantee anything. Scrubs and Better Off Ted both continued to struggle, despite the weakened competition. On cable, the Dexter finale set a record for Showtime.
CBS - The week started slowly, with Cold Case (10.3m/2.1) the only new entry on Sunday. Things picked up Monday as How I Met Your Mother (9.65m/3.7), Accidentally On Purpose (8.82m/3.2), 2 ½ Men (16.37m/5.2), Big Bang Theory (15.58m/5.6), and CSI: Miami (14.18m/4.1) all easily won their time periods. It was more of the same on Tuesday, with NCIS (20.69m/4.3), NCIS:LA (17.5m/3.6), and The Good Wife (14.17m/2.8) all did the same.
The run stopped for an hour on Wednesday, as Old Christine (7.64m/2.3) and Gary Unmarried (7.76m/2.5) were topped in the demo by So You Think You Can Dance. But Criminal Minds (14.68m/3.8) and CSI: NY (13.55m/3.1) got the ball rolling again. With ABC and FOX in repeats on Thursday, Survivor (12.46m/3.9), CSI (15.58m/3.5), and The Mentalist (15.8m/3.5) were all able to win their hours as well. Frosty (7m/2.1 – 6.51m/1.9) even got in on the game on Friday, winning the 8PM hour in both measures.
NBC - Could last week have been a peek at the future of NBC? The network managed to go an entire week with only one hour of scripted television. Sunday Night Football (20.88m/7.8) kicked things off with the usual win for the night. Then Monday (6.89m/2.3), Tuesday 6.86m/2.6), and Wednesday (6.51m/2.1) brought six hours of The Sing-Off, which actually did fairly well. Given the state of the NBC schedule, it was actually an upgrade. Monday’s numbers were better in viewers and demo than the Heroes finale. Tuesday doesn’t measure up to Biggest Loser, but was a reasonable replacement. And Wednesday did manage to top the demo that Mercy has been turning in.
The scriptless shenanigans continued Thursday as the comedy block was replaced by SNL: A Gilly Christmas (7.79m/3.1). As you might guess, that was a huge upgrade over the normal performance of Community and Parks & Rec. The lone scripted hour of the week was a repeat Law & Order on Friday night. Jay Leno had what has become a fairly typical week, averaging 5.2 million viewers and 1.6 in the demo. It is worth noting that the show also beat repeats from Castle, The Forgotten, Private Practice and Numb3rs.
ABC – Extreme Makeover (10.34m/3.1) was expanded an hour to fill in for the missing housewives on Sunday. That was followed by Christmas At The Whitehouse (11.95m/2.9). The holiday fun continued on Monday, with the Jennifer Hudson Christmas Special (5.6m/1.2), and Tuesday with another appearance from Charlie Brown (6.5m/2.3). Charlie was followed by Scrubs (4.22m/1.8) and Better Off Ted (3.18m/1.3). Better Off Ted is the biggest surprise of the season for me. I didn’t expect Big Bang numbers or anything, but I never imagined it could do that bad. The ABC week wrapped early, with Eastwick (3.66m/1.3) burning off another episode on Wednesday.
FOX - The week got off to a rather strange start as The Simpsons (6.97m/3.2), Cleveland (6.53m/3), Family Guy (7.66m/3.8), and American Dad (6.2m/3.1) were all a bit off the pace despite the weaker competition. Monday saw another drop, for Lie To Me (6.64m/2.2), but that one makes a little more sense. The show is dependent on Dr. House. So You Think You Can Dance had the final performance show on Tuesday (6.34m/2.3), and the big finale on Wednesday (7.09m/2.6). I don’t know if those numbers were good enough to bring another fall season next year, but you should certainly count on seeing it again in the summer.
I wouldn’t get too attached to the Gordon Ramsey Cookalong (3.99m/1.7) though. It would seem that FOX has finally found the limit with just how much Gordon Ramsey viewers can take. After taking Thursday off, the week finished up with Dollhouse (2.1m/.7). Despite being the only new scripted programming of the night, the show again landed in fourth place.
CW – Vampire Diaries carried the load all week as the network gave viewers a chance to catch up on the show. My prediction that all ten episodes would have more viewers than the last new Melrose ultimately failed. Only eight of the ten topped Melrose, which still tells you all you need to know about the Melrose future prospects.
CABLE - Compared to some of the networks we regularly follow, it doesn’t seem like a big number, but the finale for Dexter (2.56m/1.3) did very well. Not only is that the most watched original series episode the network has ever had, the last thing that topped it was a Tyson fight in 1999. That also led to a series high for Californication (1.06m/.5). Other cable numbers of note:
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Dec 21, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
