Hope you like American Gladiators.
After all of two top-20 finishes, the pumped-up competition show has been renewed for a second season, booked for a nationwide tour and slated for a cartoon series.
The taut firm of Venom, Siren, Stealth, et al., ranked in exactly 20th place for the week ended Sunday, averaging 10.9 million viewers, per the latest Nielsen Media Research rankings.
NBC extended the renewal on Monday, the same day MGM, the studio behind the franchise, announced its "full promotional campaign," and all the live shows and cartoon episodes that will entail.
An update of the rock-'em, sock-'em series that was produced for syndication in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the new American Gladiators debuted Jan. 6 with hosts Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali. Despite the buzz, the series isn't exactly a red-hot hit.
Last week, ABC's Dancing with the Stars knockoff, Dance War: Bruno & Carrie Ann (19th place, 11 million), beat out Gladiators as Monday's most watched show, despite being beset with prime-time's goofiest title this side of Fuse's Pants-Off Dance-Off.
Nevertheless, it's January, the writers' strike is going on three months old, Grey's Anatomy is out of new episodes and CBS is planning a reality show called America's Top Dog.
Add it all up, and NBC's new math says the strike-proof Gladiators is a "high-octane hit."
Somewhere, Mayhem is smiling.
Here, meanwhile, are other ratings highlights from the TV week:
- Was it the last stand of the scripted show? Its under-siege kind stood up to American Extreme Amazing Deal or No Dance War and outnumbered unscripted shows, six to four, in the top 10.
- The Sunday premiere of Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (fourth place, 18.4 million) was first among the scripteds.
- Airing on Monday in its regular time slot, and without the benefit of an NFL lead-in, Sarah Connor came back to Earth, with an estimated 10.1 million viewers, barely outdrawing CBS' comedy reruns, and losing to NBC's Deal or No Deal. (Monday's numbers will be reflected in next week's rankings.)
- An all-new CSI (fifth place, 18.2 million) topped an all-new Grey's Anatomy (sixth place, 17.7 million)—maybe for the last time this season (and next?).
- NBC loves it some reality, but the drama Law & Order: SVU (eighth place, 15.2 million) brought it the most viewers.
- Then again, NBC got little reward for airing the (maybe) last new 2007-08 episodes of My Name Is Earl (42nd place, 7.7 million) and 30 Rock (59th place, 6 million), and it got only a time-slot victory out of the season premiere of Medium (30th place, 9.6 million).
- Likewise, ABC got more love for waging Dance War than for presenting the first new Ugly Betty (27th place, 9.9 million) in approximately forever.
- Writers, schmiters! Apparently we're all good, so long as the scales on NBC's The Biggest Loser (25th place, 10.1 million) don't give out.
- In the week's biggest blow to the scripteds, on ABC, an all-new Carpoolers (95th place, 3.4 million) couldn't hold on to its sexy reality lead-in: a news special about the New Hampshire primary (75th place, 4.2 million).
- Did we finally get sick of reality by Thursday night, or did we just get sick of Donald Trump? NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice (40th place, 8.2 million) was down nearly 3 million viewers from its premiere.
- The scripted (and all-new) One Tree Hill (88th place, 3.6 million) distinguished itself. Its season premiere was on par with last year's and was bigger than anything else on the CW other than Friday Night Smackdown (65th place, 4.8 million), which, of course, is scripted, too—just not by union scripters.
- NBC said its special, The 65th Annual Golden Globe Announcement, "delivered" 6 million viewers (58th place). It didn't say if it sent the delivery back.
- The numbers were smaller (they usually are on cable), but the love was there. Cable's top two shows were scripted: USA's Monk (5.6 million) and Psych (4.7 million).
- With Nick's Zoey 101 on maternity leave (no more new episodes until February), Disney Channel's Hannah Montana (4.2 million) was back on top as TV's most watched show among kids and tweens.
- A toast to Lindsay Lohan: Her Herbie Fully Loaded was cable's most watched movie, combining to average 7.4 million in two weekend showings on the Disney Channel.
- Bravo can advertise Make Me a Supermodel all it wants during Project Runway, but it can't make Make Me a Supermodel (1.1 million) a Project Runway-size hit (3.2 million).
- Just-released late-night ratings for the New Year's Eve countdown shows show Dick Clark's still rocks. His New Year's Rockin' Eve averaged 18.1 million for ABC. NBC's and Fox's shows didn't draw that many viewers, combined, as ABC helpfully pointed out.
Overall, CBS aired an NFL playoff game (second place, 31 million), and won the week in total viewers, while Fox aired an NFL playoff game (first place, 32.5 million), and won the week in 18- to 49-year-olds, despite a college football "championship" game (third place, 23.1 million) that was 5 million viewers lighter than last year.
NBC (8 million), which didn't air any football, finished third in both races. ABC (7.6 million), which also didn't air any football, pulled a pair of fourths. The CW (2.4 million), which aired wrestling, was way up from last week.
In cable, USA (2.9 million) was the top prime-time network, followed by Disney (2.6 million) and TNT (2.1 million).
Here's a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
1. NFC Playoff Game (NY Giants vs. Dallas), Fox, 32.5 million viewers
2. AFC Playoff Game (Jacksonville vs. New England), CBS, 30.9 million viewers
3. BCS National Championship Game (LSU vs. Ohio State), Fox, 23.1 million viewers
4. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fox, 18.4 million viewers
5. CSI, CBS, 18.2 million viewers
6. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 17.7 million viewers
7. Comanche Moon (Part 1), CBS, 15.8 million viewers
8. Law & Order: SVU, NBC, 15.2 million viewers
9. Criminal Minds, CBS, 14.3 million viewers
10. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, ABC, 14 million viewers