Cable's Shot at Ratings Dominance

"Dexter" finale earns largest rating for a Showtime series, "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila" intoxicates

By Natalie Finn Dec 28, 2007 12:46 AMTags

In what promises to be a strike-tainted spring, viewers might have no choice but to venture up the dial. But it appears as if your friendly neighborhood cable providers will be up to the challenge…as long as there are still plenty of young singles willing to roll around in chocolate, that is.

The Dec. 17 finale of A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila on MTV attracted 6.2 million bicurious viewers, making it one of the most-watched cable telecasts of the week, second only to perennial winner Monday Night Football, and giving the reality-happy network its largest series audience ever.

Whether or not fans were mildly disappointed when MySpace queen Tila Tequila ended up just picking a dude (aka, nice guy Bobby) remains to be seen, but MTV was encouraged enough by the reaction so far to award accented also-ran Domenico Nesci his own spinoff, That's Amore!

In the vein of VH1's I Love New York, That's Amore! will star Nesci as he holds a bevy of ladies up to the exacting standards befitting the willing participants of a romantic elimination series.

Speaking of which, the finale of I Love New York 2 wooed 5.4 million viewers, good enough for third place in the cable realm, according to figures released by Nielsen Media Research. The Shot at Love: The Hangover special also drew a nifty 3.9 million (14th place).  

Meanwhile, at least 1.4 million people didn't mind forking over the extra bucks for Showtime this month, considering that's how many people enjoyed the season-two finale of Dexter, giving the Golden Globe-nominated drama its biggest audience to date.

Venturing back into broadcast territory, where first-run episodes of scripted series are dropping like flies, already hard-up NBC isn't ready to be declared the biggest loser just yet.

In fact, Sunday Night Football (14.1 million, first place) was tops for the week that ended Sunday, Dec. 23, and The Biggest Loser 4 finale cannon-balled right into the middle of what otherwise would have been a CBS-dominated top 10.

The at-times inspirational reality show pulled in 11.4 million viewers, including 6.1 million 18-to-49-year-olds, good enough for sixth place in total viewership and second place in the coveted vibrant-adults-with-spending-power demographic.

And since the next installment of the fat-fighting series is already set to premiere Jan. 1, NBC doesn't have to be too concerned that audiences are apparently more into losing weight than finding a voice.

The four-night Clash of the Choirs special, which resulted in a win for Nick Lachey's Cincinnati kids (and adults), topped out at 8.3 million viewers last Wednesday, while averaging 8.1 million overall.

Here are some other ratings highlights from the week ended Dec. 23:

  • CBS passed out its own version of gold, frankincense and myrrh—three whole new episodes of CSI: Miami (14 million, second place), The Unit (10.7 million, 10th place) and Cane (7.1 million, 29th place). Once again, myrrh got the shaft.
  • Tim Allen improved ABC's holiday season like it was 1995, as a Wonderful World of Disney airing of The Santa Clause 2 became the network's most-watched broadcast of the week (8.7 million, 16th place). A new episode of Boston Legal was second (7.6 million, 23rd place).
  • The Duel, also on ABC, didn't put up much of a fight, with the week-long special culminating in a Sunday finale watched by only 6.2 million people (39th place).
  • Nearly three times as many viewers tuned into a repeat of Two and a Half Men (11.1 million, ninth place) than checked out a new ep of NBC's Journeyman (4.2 million, 65th place) last Monday. But really, no fair—that's two and a half to one.
  • ESPN could only scrounge up 3.4 million people on Saturday to watch UCLA get their helmets handed to them in a bowl game, yet again, this time by Brigham Young University.

Crime continues to pay for CBS, even when it's déjà vu all over again. The network was tops in total viewers for the week with 8.6 million, followed by NBC (7.5 million), ABC (5.9 million), Fox (5.6 million), Univision (3.1 million) and, last and least (Friday Night Smackdown was its only offering to crack the top 100), the CW (2 million).

Here's a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. Sunday Night Football, NBC,14.1 million
2. CSI: Miami, CBS, 14 million
3. 60 Minutes, CBS, 13.5 million
4. NCIS, CBS, 13 million
5. Criminal Minds, CBS, 11.7 million
6. Biggest Loser 4, NBC, 11.4 million
7. Two and a Half Men (9:30), CBS, 11.3 million
8. CSI: NY, CBS, 11.2 million
9. Two and a Half Men (9:00), CBS, 11.1 million
10. The Unit, CBS, 10.7 million