Oprah Rises; Moment of Truth Falls

Finally, some good news for poor Frank Cleri: Only 8.5 million people, on average, watched his wife emasculate him on prime-time TV.

Numbers for last week's Moment of Truth were the worst yet for the Fox game show, even as it aired its most notorious episode to date.

The season premiere of Oprah's Big Give, meanwhile, gave ABC a big lift, per the latest Nielsen Media Research rankings.

For The Moment of Truth, the results were decidedly mixed.

On one hand, the show finally delivered the sort of contestant that justified the purchase of its fancy polygraph equipment: Lauren Cleri, a New York woman who admitted to cheating on husband Frank, admitted to loving a man other than husband Frank, and then blew all of her and husband Frank's community-property prize money by lying about whether she thought she was a good person. (She said she thought she was; the polygraph said she thought otherwise.)

On the other hand, the show couldn't really cut it without American Idol.

Airing on a Monday minus its usual Idol lead-in, Moment of Truth got trumped by P. Diddy's Sean Combs self, as seen in the ABC TV-movie A Raisin in the Sun (ninth place, 12.7 million), and fell from the Top 10, dropping all the way to 25th place. Still, it was one of Fox's top shows, and, as best can be determined, the only one of the last week to potentially inspire a divorce proceeding.

Oprah's Big Give, which premiered Sunday, had neither Idol, nor a salacious storyline on its side. Somehow, it managed to do well anyway.

The Oprah Winfrey-fronted reality show with a mission ranked fourth for the week, averaging 15.7 million viewers, a season high for a series debut.

But lest more be made of Oprah's Big Give rise versus The Moment of Truth's fall, it's worth noting that Winfrey's brand of uplift wasn't nearly as big as the show that usually airs in its time slot: Desperate Housewives.  

That's the show that could, but doesn't star Lauren and Frank Cleri.

Here are other ratings highlights from the TV week ended Sunday:

• There's no contest yet between the Idol men and women, possibly because David Archuleta sings on Tuesdays (first place, 28.6 million), and not on Wednesdays (second place, 27.6 million).
• If pirate-clad Robbie Carrico needs references for Long John Silver's, he can always check with the 26.2 million who, on average, witnessed his heave-ho from Thursday's Idol (third place).
• The producers of Fox's Don't Forget the Lyrics (seventh place, 14.4 million) and Back to You (13th place, 12.2 million for Tuesday's episode; 14th place, 11.7 million for Wednesday's episode) might just be the world's biggest Idol fans.
• Speaking of Idol (still), the new Fox comedy Unhitched (61st place, 5.8 million) was wondering if Archuleta could possibly sing something on Sunday nights.    
• The new ABC reality/game show Here Come the Newlyweds (19th place, 10.1 million) has no complaints about being married on Sunday nights to Oprah's Big Give. 
• Lost (eighth place, 12.9 million) isn't about an island; it is an island. The ABC drama was the only scripted series in the Top 10.    
• All is not lost for Lipstick Jungle (64th place, 5.6 million). NBC is still going to the trouble of spinning the show's cable-esque numbers.
• Speaking of cable-esque numbers, the NBC premiere of the MySpace-spawned quarterlife averaged 3.1 million viewers, placed 96th and inspired series cocreator Marshall Herskovitz to say the tween drama never should have been on network television. Lucky for him it won't be anymore.
•  In cable, Ellen DeGeneres dancer Barack Obama and Saturday Night Live cut-up Hillary Clinton ruled with their latest debate, as aired on MSNBC (7.8 million viewers).
• Nick's I Carly (4.5 million) was the top scripted show; Bravo's nearing-Bryant Park Project Runway (4 million) was the top reality show.    
• NCIS is doing for USA what it does for CBS: Deliver viewers. A Saturday night repeat was cable's most-watched drama series (3.9 million).
• Why do soap-opera characters come back from the dead? Because they love crowds, apparently. The latest daytime ratings show ABC's All My Children had its best week in five months when recently revived Jessie (Darnell Williams) returned to the arms of his "widow," Angie (Debbi Morgan).

Overall in the network race, Fox won the week in total viewers (averaging 13.7 million), dominated the week in 18-to-49-year-old viewers, swept the just-concluded February sweeps, and stopped just short of curing cancer when it was decided that might be perceived as showboating.

CBS (8.1 million), ABC (7.9 million), NBC (7.2 million), Univision (3.5 million) and the CW (2.2 million) collectively huddled in a corner, and shivered.

In cable, USA was the top prime-time network (2.8 million), followed by the Disney Channel (2.3 million) and All Wedding Crashers, All the Time, sorry, TBS (2.2 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. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 28.6 million viewers
2. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 27.6 million viewers
3. American Idol (Thursday), Fox, 26.2 million viewers
4. Oprah's Big Give, ABC, 15.7 million viewers
5. Deal or No Deal, NBC, 15.4 million viewers
6. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, ABC, 14.9 million viewers
7. Don't Forget the Lyrics, Fox, 14.4 million viewers
8. Lost, ABC, 12.9 million viewers
9. ABC Premiere Event: A Raisin in the Sun, ABC, 12.7 million viewers
10. Survivor: Micronesia, CBS, 12.5 million viewers