Jason DeCrow/AP Images for NickelodeonWhat do Vanessa Hudgens and Meryl Streep have in common? Why should Octomom Nadya Suleman be worried? And why might cold-as-ice figure skating be poised for a prime-time comeback? (Brace your kneecaps.)
The answers—and more questions—in this week's TV ratings pop quiz:
1. Hudgens? Streep? Um, what's the similarity? Nielsen-wise, there isn't one. Nick's latest Kids' Choice Awards, featuring a victorious Hudgens, her High School Musical classmates and a teary Miley Cyrus, wasn't just record-big (7.7 million viewers) and cable-big (No. 1 show in the latest weekly rankings). It was awards-show big—bigger, in fact, than last January's Streep-honoring Screen Actors Guild Awards, which was watched by a combined 5.3 million on two networks. Even more striking, three awards-show seasons ago, in 2007, the Golden Globes' audience was more than three times bigger than that of the Kids' Choice. This season, that advantage dwindled to less than half.
2. What's more popular: the Kids' Choice or the People's Choice? The People's Choice Awards, but not by much. Despite the People's Choice's free-TV advantage (it airs on CBS), the latest show outdrew Saturday's Kids' Choice by just 1.7 million viewers.
3. Why are penguins especially fond of the Kids' Choice Awards? Because Nick's new CGI-animated Madagascar spinoff, The Penguins of Madagascar, scored 6.4 million viewers in its Kids' Choice-boosted premiere. The show ruled as cable's top scripted series.
4. What's Octomom's problem…well, one of them? Jon and Kate Gosselin do not appear to be anywhere near ready to give up the title as TV's most popular litter producers. The fourth-season finale of Jon and Kate Plus 8 set a series high (4.6 million) and stood out as the week's No. 6 prime-time cable telecast.
5. Why might it be time to pay attention to figure skating again? At the barely watched World Championships—just 3.7 million watched NBC's prime-time coverage—the U.S. women secured only two spots for the team at next year's Olympics. The last time this happened, Tonya Harding's extra-motivated crew knee-capped Nancy Kerrigan, and the rest is Nielsen history.
6. Why are things suddenly looking up for Gossip Girl? ABC Family Channel's The Secret Life of the American Teenager (4.5 million for its season-one finale) is done kicking free-TV butt on Mondays for a few months.
7. Why won't Hulu save your favorite ratings-starved show this season? According to a new Nielsen-backed study, TV watching on the computer accounts for, on average, just two minutes of our ample daily screen time.
8. Why won't NBC ever be No. 1 again? Because NBC Universal honcho Jeff Zucker said so. Last week, Zucker's broadcast network had only two Top 25 shows (ER and The Biggest Loser). By comparison, Fox had four, ABC had five, and CBS had 14.
9. What were the week's biggest shows (that weren't on NBC, obviously)? Wednesday's American Idol (26 million), Tuesday's Idol (23.1 million), Monday's Dancing With the Stars (20.3 million), NCIS (17.8 million) and The Mentalist (17.6 million) made up the top five. Grey's Anatomy was the top scripted show among adults 18-49. And, to be fair, and to turn Zucker's frown upside down, NBC's very own The Office was the top comedy in the demo.
10. Why should Rebecca Romijn's husband feel pretty proud of himself? Because Jerry O'Connell's Lifetime TV movie, Midnight Bayou, did well in its premiere (3.8 million) without its star pulling a LeAnn Rimes.