A Runway Rout—and the Top 10 Things to Know About This Week's TV Ratings

Tue., Oct. 21, 2008 3:17 PM PDT by Joal Ryan

Bravo

File under: Why Lifetime Is Making a Federal Case Over Project Runway.

Last week's Leanne-Marshall-blue-gown-graced finale, as aired on Bravo, outdrew everything on Lifetime. And on the CW. Plus, some stragglers on Fox and NBC, and all reality and scripted shows on cable, save a special prime-time SpongeBob SquarePants.

If you added in the show's two finale-night reruns—and Bravo did for press-release purposes—Runway's audience swelled from 4.8 million to 7.2 million.

The just-concluded fifth season went down as the series' highest rated yet, as lawyers for Bravo—and now Lifetime—could probably attest.

Elsewhere, the numbers have gone from not so good to very bad for My Own Worst Enemy, plus nine other tidbits from the latest ratings stats:

1. Last night's My Own Worst Enemy (estimated 5.7 million) was down 22 percent from its first-season premiere, which aired, um, last week.

2. Saturday's Sarah Palin-powered Saturday Night Live (estimated 14 million) was bigger than every single NBC prime-time show.

3. It's actually not so hard to outdraw NBC's prime-time lineup. The network only had two Top 25 shows.

4. NBC's in better shape demographically: Among 18-to-49-year-olds, Heroes (8.8 million overall); The Office (8.3 million overall); and the prime-time SNL (8.8 million) all landed in the Top 10.

5. Demographically, the CW's Gossip Girl (3.3 million overall) was a Top 25 show among women 18-34. So was NBC's ER (9 million). In fact, the terminally ill elder statesman was a bigger hit among women 18-34. Restoring order in the universe, the CW's One Tree Hill (3.5 million) outdrew ER in the demo, placing ninth.

6. Press-release praise watch: ABC had very little to say about Life on Mars (8.2 million); CBS was terse with regards to Gary Unmarried (7.5 million); NBC couldn't come up with much on America's Toughest Jobs (2.4 million). Conversely, ABC is still pushing Pushing Daisies (6.1 million), CBS is still spinning The Ex List (6.3 million), and NBC is still selling Kath & Kim (6.1 million).

7. One reason Knight Rider (7.5 million) got picked up for the rest of the season: It's winning its time slot among young adults who apparently like to watch fast cars, especially when they can't get loans to buy fast cars.

8. Controversy isn't killing TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8 (3.2 million). At least not yet.

9. Bravo's The Real Housewives of Atlanta (1.2 million) is growing; MTV's The Hills (3 million) isn't.

10. Results from the latest round in the battle of the tween shows: Nickelodeon's iCarly (4.4 million) over Disney Channel's Suite Life on Deck (3.7 million) and Wizards of Waverly Place (3.5 million).

Here's a rundown of the most-watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research: