Ali Goldstein/NBCHow's Celebrity Apprentice doing without Bret Michaels? How's Dancing With the Stars doing without Kate Gosselin? And how are some of the bubbliest bubble shows doing in crunch time?
The answers—and more questions about Madonna and Glee--in the latest TV ratings quiz:
1. Did Celebrity Apprentice viewers respect or disrespect the ailing Michaels? Respect. Sunday's episode, the first since the Poison rocker fell critically ill with a brain hemorrhage, drew the show's largest audience since its season premiere: 7.9 million viewers.
2. Who wishes Gosselin were still on DWTS? Besides Gosselin? DWTS. Last night's show was down 1 million viewers (to a still-huge 20.2 million, per prelim ratings) from last week's American Idol-toppling, Breakfast Club-butchering must-see TV.
3. What do Chuck, FlashForward and One Tree Hill have in common? They're bubble shows doing what they can to not get popped. Last night, Chuck (estimated 6 million) and One Tree Hill (estimated 2.1 million) were both on the upswing; in its last outing, the especially endangered FlashForward hit a four-week high (5.5 million).
4. If you want to engage a young lady, should you strike up a conversation about One Tree Hill or the NFL draft? The Nielsens say go with the Tim Tebow talk. ESPN's record-setting coverage of the draft's opening night (cable-best 7.3 million) scored with more women, aged 18-34, than last night's no-slouch One Tree Hill (or Gossip Girl, for that matter).
5. Was the Madonna episode the biggest Glee thing ever? Actually, no. To be sure, the Material Girl-tuned hour was a top 10 hit (13 million), but it was slightly down from the previous week's so-called "spring semester" opener.
6. What's the good news, bad news, good news about Idol Gives Back? The good: The combined Idol Gives Back results episode delivered 1 million more viewers than 2008's Idol Gives Back-only special. The bad: Donations fell from $60 million in 2008 to $45 million. The good: $45 million is still a lot of money.
7. What's going on with cable? It's gone crazy for old junk. So many people are watching Pawn Stars, the season finale of Project Runway ended up as cable's fourth most watched reality series of the week, with 3.8 million viewers, finishing behind three episodes of you-know-what.
Here's a look at the top 10 broadcast network shows for the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research:
- Dancing With the Stars (Monday), 21.1 million
- American Idol (Tuesday), 20 million
- American Idol (Wednesday), 18.8 million
- The Mentalist, 15 million
- Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), 13.6 million
- CSI, 13.4 million
- Glee, 13 million
- Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, 11.9 million
- The Big Bang Theory (rerun), 11.664 million
- CSI: Miami, 11.661 million