Biggest Loser Is Hot; Scrubs Is Warm-ish

Wed., Jan. 7, 2009 11:29 AM PST by Joal Ryan

NBC Mitchell Haaseth; ABC/SCOTT GARFIELD

Tuesday TV's Biggest Nonloser: NBC's The Biggest Loser (11.8 million viewers, per Nielsen estimates). The two-hour premiere edged CBS' NCIS among adults 18-49 at 8 p.m. and walloped CBS' The Mentalist in the demo at 9 p.m.

Why the Win Was Especially Fat: NCIS and The Mentalist did not have off nights. They did what they usually do in the demo. And they killed in total viewers. NCIS (19.1 million) scored its second-highest tally ever, CBS said; The Mentalist (19.6 million) scored its highest ever.

Tuesday TV's Biggest Nonwinners: The CW's 90210 (2.8 million) and Privileged (1.8 million) returned from winter break to find 18- to 34-year-old women cheating on them with The Biggest Loser. 90210 did run second in the demo at 8 p.m., but Privileged fell to a distant fourth at 9 p.m.

Tuesday TV's Biggest Nonevent: The return of Scrubs.

This is not to say the comedy flopped. This is to say that its audience is what it is, no matter when—or where—it airs. Last night Scrubs scored about as many viewers (6.7 million for two back-to-back episodes) in its eighth-season premiere on ABC as it did for its seventh-season premiere on NBC (7 million). From 9-10 p.m. it ran a solid third in the 18-49 demo.

Why ABC Was Ecstatic Anyway: Last year about this time, the network was making do in the hour with, um, According to Jim and, um, Carpoolers.

Let's See Jay Leno Do Better: ABC got perfectly decent results from its two new budget-savers reality shows, Homeland Security (7.8 million) and the high-minded Girls Behaving Badly, Primetime: What Would You Do? (7 million).

Monday TV's Big Winner: Gender stereotypes. Boys preferred Fox's coverage of the Fiesta Bowl (15.8 million viewers from 8-11 p.m.), while girls preferred the latest season premiere of ABC's The Bachelor (8.7 million).

If It's Not One Thing, It's Three Others…: The CW's Gossip Girl (2.6 million) and One Tree Hill (2.6 million) returned from winter break to find their beloveds cheating on them with, well, basically an entire football team. Make that two entire football teams (courtesy of the Fiesta Bowl), The Bachelor and NBC's Superstars of Dance (9.6 million).

Monday TV's Biggest Loser (and No, This Is Not a Play on a Title This Time): With Fox in the game at 10 p.m., NBC's Momma's Boys (5.3 million) sank to a lowly fourth in the demo in its time slot.