NBC Photo: Paul DrinkwaterMy Own Worst Enemy, indeed.
Christian Slater's new dual-identity series didn't do itself any favors last night, pulling in only 7.3 million, per estimates, or about one viewer per NBC promo aired during the Summer Olympics.
The premiere not only got beat big by CBS' CSI: Miami (13 million), it got beat by Journeyman (9.2 million), Studio 60 (13.4 million) and LAX (13 million), to name three semi-recent failed Monday night NBC series.
Also on Monday, Gossip Girl (3.3 million) and One Tree Hill (3.5 million) furthered CW's cause among young women, while Christina Applegate's Samantha Who? (11.7 million) won its time slot but lost 2 million viewers from last fall's premiere.
Elsewhere, Grey's Anatomy loves TiVo users, or vice versa, and the Disney Channel faithful prefer Selena Gomez (slightly) to Miley Cyrus—plus eight other lessons learned from the weekly Nielsen rankings:
1. TiVo may just add years to the life of ABC's Grey's Anatomy. Grey's premiere-week audience grew by 2.1 million once a week's worth of DVR playback was counted. Among the top broadcast shows, only Fox's House, another flagging medical show, added more viewers (2.2 million).
2. Gomez's Wizards of Waverly Place (4.4 million) edged Cyrus' Hannah Montana (4.36 million) for Disney bragging rights and topped every other series, scripted or reality, on cable, including new episodes of South Park (3.73 million), The Suite Life on Deck (3.7 million) and The Hills (3.2 million).
3. Maybe it was good buzz or slim pickings at Blockbuster. Whatever the reason, Bravo's The Real Housewives of Atlanta played better as a rerun on Saturday night (727,000) than as a premiering show on Tuesday night (656,700).
4. To end the confusion, Project Runway (4.2 million) is the Bravo fashion series that draws big numbers; The Rachel Zoe Project (637,000) is the Bravo fashion series that doesn't.
5. It's helpful that ABC has branded Life on Mars (11.3 million) a "smash hit," as otherwise there really wouldn't be one. In a week where CBS' The Mentalist was preempted, not one freshman series cracked the broadcast Top 10. In the young-adult rankings, not one freshman series, save Life on Mars, cracked the Top 25.
6. If you draw 4 million-ish viewers on the CW, you're a beyond-smash hit. If you do it on the big four networks, you're probably about to get smashed. That means you, NBC's Life (4.98 million), NBC's Lipstick Jungle (4.8 million) and Fox's 'Til Death (4.2 million average for back-to-back episodes).
7. NBC has ordered more scripts for the sluggish Knight Rider (6.9 million) because, well, once Kath & Kim (7.5 million) rates its inevitable cancellation it'll be the network's biggest new smash hit.
8. Earlier the "royal we" reported Chuck (5.8 million) was outdrawing Heroes (8.2 million and counting—the show's another top TiVo hit) on NBC's Mondays. The royal we were wrong and are presently hoping not to be struck down by fire hands.
9. CW's outsourced Sunday lineup was DOA, although two shows you've never heard of, Valentine (1 million) and Easy Money (753,000), are only now going on hiatus.
10. TV is (sort of) free, but even in a financial crisis TV watching isn't booming. Of the big four networks, only Fox was up when compared to last year.
Here's a rundown of the most-watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
- CSI, CBS, 23.5 million viewers
- Dancing With the Stars (Monday), ABC, 18.6 million viewers
- NCIS, CBS, 16.3 million viewers
- Criminal Minds, CBS, 16.2 million viewers
- CSI: NY, CBS, 15.9 million viewers
- Desperate Housewives, ABC, 15.5 million viewers
- Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 15.1 million viewers
- Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 14.8 million viewers
- The OT (football overtime show), Fox, 14.2 million viewers
- Two and a Half Men, CBS, 14.1 million viewers
(Originally published October 14, 2008 at 11 a.m. PT.)