Why should Battlestar Galactica consider cranking up the Radio Disney? Why might Grey's Anatomy wish it had never been TiVo'd? And where in the world is George W. Bush still a draw?
The answers—and more questions—in this week's TV ratings pop quiz:
1. What's Wrong With Galactica? Nothing. It's just that cable is ruled by tween girls. And, all right, yes, wrestling fans and NCIS completists, but mostly tween girls.
Last week's No. 1 cable show (nonwrestling division, natch)? The ABC Family Channel Selena Gomez TV movie Another Cinderella Story (5.3 million viewers, Nielsen stats showed). Last week's No. 1 cable series? Nick's iCarly (5.1 million).
2. But What's Wrong With Galactica? Again, nothing. Sci Fi was pleased with Friday's so-called "season 4.5" premiere.
The show averaged 2.1 million viewers, up over its average in the first half of the season, and won its cable time slot among men who don't care for the Lindsay Lohan Freaky Friday, thankyouverymuch.
It's just that, well, Disney Channel's gazillionth rebroadcast of the Lohan Friday actually scored more overall viewers than Galactica on Friday night (2.8 million), and would it kill the battleship to draft Selena Gomez as a lieutenant or something in order to ensure as many viewers as possible for its impending farewell? Er, probably.
3. Why Is It Bad to Be a Big-Time TiVo Show, à la Grey's Anatomy? The more popular a TV show is among TiVo subscribers, a new TiVo study found, the more likely its commercials are to be zapped—and the more its commercials are zapped, the more likely sponsors are going to ask why they're paying so much for ads that aren't seen.
4. What Sponsor Should Grey's Think About Shamelessly Courting With a Drinking-Game Tie-In? According to the TiVo survey, from January-November 2008, ads for Budweiser were the least fast-forwarded.
5. Does Absence Make the Heart Grow Fonder for Big Love? Uh, no. Sunday's third-season premiere on HBO averaged 1.2 million viewers, down from the nearly 3 million who watched its August 2007 second-season finale.
6. If HBO Scored Big With Its Sunday-Afternoon Obama Concert, Why Didn't Its Sunday-Night Shows Score Bigger Numbers? It's true We Are One was a hit, with HBO notching 4.1 million subscriber viewers for three Sunday airings. Its prime-time shows, including Flight of the Conchords (561,000), probably suffered for the same reason ABC's Sunday-night hit Desperate Housewives fell out of the Top 10 in the latest weekly rankings: Football. CBS' prime-time Sunday playoff game decimated the competition, with 40.6 million viewers, tops for the week.
7. In This World of Change, What Can You Count On? That Fox's American Idol is still TV's top entertainment show (it ranked second and third overall), and that Fox News viewers still like George W. Bush. The network's coverage of the then president's farewell address was cable's sixth-most watched show (4.86 million). Other cable hits: USA's Monk (4.9 million), VH1's Real Chance of Love (4.2 million), Disney's Suite Life on Deck (4.1 million), USA's Psych (3.6 million) and ABC Family's Gossip Girl-beating The Secret Life of the American Teenager (3.1 million).