Why does Will Ferrell still rule? Why was Bret Michaels not clotheslined in vain? And what solid did Burn Notice do for Jon and Kate Gosselin?
The answers—and more questions—in this week's TV ratings quiz:
1. Is there really an upside to starring in the "first bomb of summer?" No. But Land of the Lost isn't Ferrell's only new vehicle (just the only one that cost a reputed $100 million). The premiere of his Man vs. Wild Arctic special averaged 4 million viewers, more than any other cable reality show last week save Jon & Kate Plus 8.
2. Could the Tonys have been any bigger had Liza Minnelli, and not an anonymous piece of stage scenery, clocked Bret Michaels? Oh, sure. Imagine the YouTube views for that clip. As it was, the buzzed-about, Neil Patrick Harris-hosted Tonys did all right, with the celebration of Broadway's best—and Poison—scoring its biggest audience (7.4 million) since 2006. Among broadcast network shows, the CBS telecast finished 21st.
3. How exactly did Burn Notice give the Gosselins an out? With 6 million viewers, the USA spy series' third-season premiere was cable's most-watched show, eclipsing Jon & Kate, thereby allowing the giganto-family to pretend nobody cares anymore, and perhaps leading them to believe it's time to step away from the cameras.
4. Is it true nobody cares anymore about Jon & Kate? Well, no. A new episode was cable's No. 2 show (5.9 million); another new episode was the No. 4 show (5.5 million). Other prime-time cable standouts: The Burn Notice-boosted debut of the medical show Royal Pains (5.6 million); Law & Order: Criminal Intent (4 million); and the Disney Channel troika of Hannah Montana (4.2 million), Sonny with a Chance (4.02 million) and the time-slot-shifted JONAS (3.6 million), which scored its biggest audience since its premiere.
5. Army Wives vs. Kendra Wilkinson: Who won? Both of them. The third-season premiere of Lifetime's Army Wives did fall short of the drama series' second-season average (3.5 million total viewers versus 3.8 million), but it remained a top cable draw and scored big among women 18-49. Airing opposite Army Wives at 10 p.m., Sunday, Kendra, Wilkinson's new, post-Girls Next Door show, scored 2.6 million, helped lead the second-season opener of Denise Richards: It's Complicated to a series-best 1.5 million, and gave E! its highest rated series debut since the infamous The Anna Nicole Show. (E! Online is a division of E! Entertainment.)
6. Is NBC going to regret going into business with Speidi? Not this week. The lowly network rose to second among adults 18-49 in the latest broadcast standings. Sure, the season finale of Law & Order: SVU helped—it was TV's top scripted show in the demo. But so did Spencer and Heidi Pratt's antics on I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, which placed three of its four week-one episodes in the demo's Top 25.
7. Is NBC going to regret going into business with President Obama? After all those promos he cut for Conan O'Brien? If that weren't enough, Brian Williams' two-night special on the Obama White House delivered two of the week's biggest audiences. Overall, Game 2 of the NBA Finals ruled as TV's most watched show (14.1 million). It was followed by: Game 1 (13 million), Law & Order SVU (11.6 million), repeats of NCIS (11.3 million), The Mentalist (10.9 million) and Two and a Half Men (10 million), and parts one and two of the Obama special (9.2 million and 9 million, respectively).
8. If Jay Leno's Tonight Show farewell were a prime-time show, where would it have ranked? Thanks to its 11.9 million viewers—the seventh-biggest crowd of Leno's 17-year Tonight reign—the show would have placed third among all broadcast network shows for the TV week ended May 31. Now if Leno can put up that kind of performance come the fall…