"I'm rolling with Deelishis, New York."
A network-record 7.5 million bore witness to Sunday's heart-rending gold-teeth presentation on the season finale of VH1's Flavor of Love 2.
The show was the most watched non-sports cable show of the TV week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research. Additionally, VH1 said it was its highest rated telecast ever.
Among youngish African-American viewers, the finale was a near communal experience--one out of every three African-Americans, age 18-49, who was watching TV Sunday night watched Flavor of Love 2, VH1 said.
Flavor of Love 2 is the sequel to Flavor of Love, the reality show chronicling clock collector Flavor Flav's quest for companionship.
On Sunday, Flav, down to the final two contenders for his heart, opted for Deelishis, a 28-year-old single mother from Detroit, over New York, a 24-year-old "actress/real-estate consultant" from, well, New York.
Although Flav sounded taken by the contestant known in the real world as Tiffany Patterson ("For real, New York, I love you"), the Public Enemy star advised his spurned lady friend that she had "jealous ways."
Judging by her use of largely censored language, the decision did not sit well with New York, now a two-time reject after losing to Hoopz, the "hardworking model and actress," in the first-season finale of Flavor of Love. That episode was watched by 5.9 million last March. Flavor of Love 2 opened in August before 3.3 million, a VH1 record for a series premiere. Elsewhere, in ratings news for shows not graced by the likes of Spunkeey, Buckeey and Krazy:
- Swimming in the bigger pool that is broadcast TV, The Bachelor: Rome looked like a shrimp next to cable kingfish Flavor of Love 2, even though the ABC show actually attracted more viewers (60th place, 7.9 million).
- On cable now or no, Monday Night Football was once again the king. The ESPN prime-time game scored 12.5 million viewers last week, topping every show on cable, and, more key, topping Sunday Night Football (27th place, 12.3 million) on NBC.
- For those keeping score at home, give another Thursday-night round to ABC's Grey's Anatomy (first place, 22.9 million) over CBS' CSI (21.9 million).
- Even before the Sara Evans scandal broke, Dancing with the Stars (fourth place, 20.1 million for Tuesday's episode; fifth place, 18.2 million for Wednesday's results show) was a pretty hot topic.
- After years of looking like the runt of the CSI litter, CSI: NY (sixth place, 17.97 million) can lord it over elder sibling CSI: Miami (eighth place, 17.6 million).
- Lost (10th place, 16.9 million) is still a Top 10 hit. Unfortunately for the ABC show, its chief Wednesday competition, CBS' Criminal Minds (11th place, 16.7 million), is now almost a Top 10 hit.
- NBC's Heroes (23rd place, 13.3 million) was the only new show to crack the Top 10 among 18-to-49-year-old viewers.
- CBS' Shark (19th place, 14.2 million) was the only new show to crack the Top 20, period.
- NBC's Friday Night Lights (71st place, 5.9 million) was the only new show to crack the Bottom 141.
- ABC's What About Brian? (68th place, 7 million) premiered. Barely.
- The title of NBC's Twenty Good Years (67th place, 7.1 million) is looking fairly optimistic.
- In the battle of NBC's underwhelming Saturday Night Live-inspired series, Studio 60 (51st place, 8.66 million) won more viewers than the premiering 30 Rock (58th place, 8.1 million), but 30 Rock likely won more points with the network. Studio 60 is squandering a Monday time slot once held down nicely by Medium; 30 Rock is filling a hole once dug by The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.
- Ugly Betty (21st place, 13.9 million) lost viewers for the third straight week--and won a full-season pickup from ABC. While Ugly Betty isn't what it used to be, ABC's glad it's not what it used to be: a non-player on Thursday nights.
- Brothers & Sisters (28th place, 12.1 million) also got a full-season order from ABC--an apparent reward for being less of a viewer-deterrent than The Nine (57th place, 8.3 million) and Six Degrees (50th place, 8.69 million).
- The new NBC game show 1 vs 100 (26th place, 12.8 million) got off to a solid start, presumably to the relief of the child predators usually exposed in the Friday time slot.
- Right about now, the CW's 7th Heaven (92nd place, 3.2 million) might be wondering why it didn't just stay canceled.
- The CW's Runaway now has 300 million Americans at its disposal. Unfortunately for star Donnie Wahlberg, the series can only convince 1.8 million of them to tune in (113th place).
- Viewership for Katie Couric's CBS Evening News (7.3 million) was finally up. But it wasn't up enough to move the show of last place.
With the season now a month old, the early trends have held: CBS, on average, draws the most viewers; ABC, on average, draws the most 18-to-49-year-old viewers; NBC draws a lot more of everybody since it added football; and Fox draws next-to-nothing with baseball--and without American Idol.
As for the CW, it isn't quite as "big" as either UPN or the WB was, but it is about as "big" as either was among 18-to-34-year-olds. In other words, nothing's changed, except that the CW doesn't have to worry about coming in sixth place. Unless Univision is factored in. In which case, it has to worry about coming in sixth place.
In the latest leg of the battle for viewers, CBS averaged 13.4 million, leading ABC (11.5 million), NBC (10.3 million) and Fox (8.2 million). The CW represented with 3.5 million.
Here's a look at the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
1. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 22.9 million viewers
2. CSI, CBS, 21.9 million viewers
3. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 20.6 million viewers
4. Dancing with the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 20.1 million viewers
5. Dancing with the Stars (Wednesday), ABC, 18.2 million viewers
6. CSI: NY, CBS, 17.97 million viewers
7. CBS NFL National Postgame, CBS, 17.96 million viewers
8. CSI: Miami, CBS, 17.6 million viewers
9. 60 Minutes, CBS, 17.3 million viewers
10. Lost, ABC, 16.9 million viewers