Kate Gosselin Is a Gift to Dancing!

Oafy moves or no, reality mom helps lift ABC series to most-watched season premiere ever

By Joal Ryan Mar 23, 2010 7:32 PMTags
Kate Gosselin, DWTSABC/CRAIG SJODIN

Why was Kate Gosselin great for Dancing With the Stars? Who got the last laugh in David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel versus Jay Leno? And did you dump The Office over its funky-looking dump?

The answers—and more questions about Hot Tub Time Machine, yes, Hot Tub Time Machine—in the latest TV ratings quiz:

1. True or false: Gosselin is bad for Dancing? In fact, the reality mom is great for the ABC show, which just scored its most-watched season premiere. Last night's two-hour opener averaged nearly 24 million, per estimates. Viewership broke 25.5 million in the final half-hour when Pamela Anderson cha-cha'd and, yup, Gosselin, um, well, let's just say tried really hard to look like she was waltzing.

2. Who had more fun than Kimmel and Letterman on Late Show? Just maybe Leno, whose Tonight Show beat Letterman's Late Show every night last week, including the night Letterman and guest Kimmel dished about their rival.

3. The Office's allegedly green-screened and universally dumped-on Scranton dump: enough to make you tune out? Not according to Nielsen. Last week's eye-catching episode was up from the previous week to an NBC-solid 7.7 million.

4. If Hot Tub Time Machine doesn't open until Friday, how did Liz Lemon see it on last week's 30 Rock? Hot tub time machines work in mysterious ways, plus it's just fun to say "Hot Tub Time Machine," which is presumably why the comedy was name-checked by Tina Fey. 30 Rock, in turn, put up some of its best numbers of the season with 6.8 million viewers.

5. What's up with Undercover Boss? Its ratings, which are still climbing. The CBS reality show rose to fifth place in Nielsen's latest weekly rankings with 15.5 million viewers.

6. What's up with America? Scientists are still trying to determine how a nature show—a nature show!—displaced pro wrestling as the most-watched anything in all of cable last week. One theory is centering on Oprah Winfrey, who narrated top draw Life.

Here's a look at the top 10 broadcast network shows for the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research:

  1. American Idol (Tuesday), 22.9 million
  2. American Idol (Wednesday), 20.5 million
  3. NCIS, 18 million
  4. NCIS: Los Angeles, 15.1 million
  5. Undercover Boss, 14.5 million
  6. The Good Wife, 13.4 million
  7. 60 Minutes, 13.3 million
  8. Two and a Half Men (rerun), 12.7 million
  9. The Amazing Race, 12 million
  10.  The Big Bang Theory (rerun), 11.7 million

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Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Shannen Doherty could argue they helped boost DWTS' ratings, too. Check out all of the show's new hoofers in our Dancing With the Stars: Season 10 gallery.