Was Sarah Michelle Gellar's new show a dead Ringer? Did perennial bubble shows 90210 and Parenthood blow up (in a good way)?
Yes, while the fall TV season hasn't started, the early-bird premieres have. The key results from Tuesday's ratings race:
GOOD START
• Ringer: Prelim numbers show the thriller scored a CW-solid 2.7 million viewers. That size crowd is up—a lot—from what Life Unexpected premiered to in the same time slot last fall. It's also up—a lot—from what its lead-in got last night.
NOT-SO-GOOD START
• 90210: Speaking of Ringer' s lead-in… The soap's third-season premiere (1.6 million) was down 25 percent from last fall's opener, which, granted, aired on a Monday night, and not opposite the first part of America's Got Talent finale. So, there's that. And then there's this: Next week, 90210 will be up against NCIS and Glee.
EH
• Parenthood: Despite airing after the aforementioned America's Got Talent finale, as it did last fall, the comedy-drama (6.8 million) lost about 1 million viewers from its second-season starter.
WORTH MENTIONING TO POTENTIALLY DISTRESSED PARENTHOOD FANS
• America's Got Talent: Remember the part about Parenthood being down about 1 million viewers? Guess how many viewers its lead-in was down from the same night last fall? Yup. In any case, Talent was the night's No. 1 show (13.2 million).