Nielsen Ratings

America has football fever and the networks couldn't be happier. The top three programs in last week's Nielsen ratings were all gridiron-related, with the post-game show for the New York Giants' win over the Dallas Cowboys pacing the field with 32.5 million viewers. For the first time in recent memory, the New England Patriots didn't win something -- their victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars took second place, earning just shy of 30 million viewers. Meanwhile, the college football national championship between Ohio State and LSU landed in third place.

Elsewhere in last week's Nielsens:

* We don't know if it's a really good show of if the public is just starved for new programming, but Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles debuted in fourth place with more than 18 million viewers. On the other hand..,

* The premiere of ABC's Cashmere Mafia proved the public may not be all that hungry for new shows. It only scored 6.2 million viewers.

CBS was the top-rated network for the week, followed by Fox, NBC, ABC, Univision, the CW, My Network TV and Telemundo.

Here are the top 10 primetime programs for the week of Monday, January 7th-Sunday, January 13th:

1. Fox NFC Playoff: New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys Post-Game (Sunday), Fox, 32.51 million viewers.

2. AFC Divisional Playoff: Jacksonville Jaguars at New England Patriots, CBS, 30.90 million viewers.

3. Allstate BCS National Championship, Fox, 23.07 million viewers.

4. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fox, 18.36 million viewers.

5. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 18.19 million viewers.

6. Grey's Anatomy (Thursday), ABC, 17.68 million viewers.

7. Comanche Moon 1, CBS, 15.76 million viewers.

8. Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit, 15.15 million viewers.

9. Criminal Minds, CBS, 14.30 million viewers.

10. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sunday), ABC, 14 million viewers.

TV Tonight (1/14)

ABC: Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann (NEW), Notes From the Underbelly (NEW), October Road (NEW)

CBS: How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, CSI: Miami (NEW)

NBC: American Gladiators (NEW), Deal or No Deal (NEW), Medium (NEW)

FOX: Prison Break (NEW), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (NEW)

CW: Everybody Hates Chris, Aliens in America, Girlfriends, The Game

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

Are those Gloden Globes in your pocket....

The Golden Globe Awards were presented with much less fanfare than usual last night in Beverly Hills. Since the ongoing Writers Guild strike forced the cancellation of the annual awards show, the winners were announced by entertainment news personalities at a news conference. The president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which presents the awards, vowed that the glitzy ceremony would return next year.

Cable ruled the top TV awards. AMC's Mad Men was named best drama, while RICKY GERVAIS' HBO series Extras was the winner in the musical/comedy series category.

TELEVISION

Best Drama

Mad Men

Best Actor, Drama

Jon Hamm, Mad Men

Best Actress, Drama

Glenn Close, Damages

Best TV Series, Musical Or Comedy

Extras

Best Actress, Musical Or Comedy

Tina Fey, 30 Rock

Best Actor, Musical Or Comedy

David Duchovny, Californication

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made For TV

Longford

Best Actress In A Mini-Series Or A Movie Made For TV

Queen Latifah, Life Support

Best Actor In A Mini-Series Or A Movie Made For TV

Jim Broadbent, Longford

Best Supporting Actress, TV Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made For TV

Samantha Morton, Longford

Best Supporting Actor, TV Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made For TV

Jeremy Piven, Entourage

TV This Weekend

Friday

ABC: Grey's Anatomy, Cashmere Mafia, 20/20 (NEW)

CBS: Ghost Whisperer (NEW), Moonlight (NEW), Numbers (NEW)

NBC: 1 vs. 100 (NEW), Friday Night Lights (NEW), Las Vegas (NEW)

FOX: Bones, House

CW: WWE Friday Night Smackdown

Saturday

ABC: Pearl Harbor (2001)

CBS: Football: Jacksonville vs. New England

NBC: Dateline (NEW)

FOX: Cops (1hr), America's Most Wanted

Sunday

ABC: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (repeat), Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (NEW), Brothers & Sisters (NEW)

CBS: The Amazing Race 12 (NEW), Comanche Moon (NEW)

NBC: Dateline (NEW), Golden Globe (press conference style), American Gladiators

FOX: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (NEW), Family Guy (NEW), American Dad (NEW)

CW: Life is Wild (NEW), Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

TV Tonight (1/10)

ABC: Ugly Betty (NEW), Grey's Anatomy (NEW), Big Shots (NEW)

CBS: CSI: NY, CSI (NEW), Without a Trace (NEW)

NBC: My Name is Earl (NEW), 30 Rock (NEW), The Celebrity Apprentice (NEW), ER (NEW)

FOX: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (NEW), Don't Forget the Lyrics (NEW)

CW: Smallville, Supernatural

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

TV Boogoloo

Spike TV has ordered six hour-long episodes of DEA, a reality series that will take viewers inside the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. The show will follow agents in Detroit as they track down street dealers and international drug traffickers. The series premieres this spring and is being produced by NBC Today show weatherman AL ROKER through his production company...

People magazine reports that American Gladiators co-host LAILA ALI will serve as a contributing correspondent on CBS' The Early Show, starting tomorrow. Ali is a former Dancing with the Stars contestant...

NBC's freshman comedy Chuck will return on January 24th. The Celebrity Apprentice will air in-between two new episodes of the ZACHARY LEVI series, which were the last episodes completed before the start of the writers' strike...

Those are some Gloden Globes ya got there...

NBC's Golden Globes coverage this Sunday night will still have some star power, even though the ceremony itself was cancelled because of the writers' strike. Today show co-anchor MATT LAUER will host a two-hour edition of Dateline at 7 p.m. Eastern time, featuring interviews with Juno actress ELLEN PAGE, The Closer star KYRA SEDGWICK and other nominees. The program will also offer commentary from KATHY GRIFFIN and predictions from the network's Football Night in America team.

The Dateline special will precede the news conference at which the Golden Globes winners will be announced. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which presents the Globes, was left with no choice but to revamp the format this year, with stars threatening to skip the event in support of the striking writers. The 65th Annual Golden Globe Award Announcement, as NBC calls it, will take place at 9 p.m. Eastern time. An episode of American Gladiators will follow. **How the mighty have fallen**

The Golden Globes could suffer a huge drop in ratings without its usual glitz and glamour, if this week's broadcast of the People's Choice Awards was any indication. Only six million viewers tuned into CBS Tuesday night for the event -- a nearly 50-percent drop from last year's numbers. The People's Choice Awards also shook up its format by pre-taping the winners' acceptance speeches, again because of the writers' strike.

Some celebrities aren't too upset by the cancellation of the Globes ceremony. While promoting Sweeney Todd in Japan yesterday, JOHNNY DEPP sarcastically said he was disappointed, while director TIM BURTON was relieved that he didn't have to make the trip from his home in the UK to Los Angeles for the event.

TV Tonight (1/9)

ABC: Wife Swap (NEW), Supernanny (NEW), Cashmere Mafia (NEW)

CBS: Power of 10 (NEW), Criminal Minds (NEW), CSI: NY (NEW)

NBC: Deal or No Deal (NEW), Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order (NEW)

FOX: Back to You, Back to You, 'Til Death

CW: Crowned: The Mother of all Pageants (NEW), Gossip Girl (NEW)

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

Hey...Rate This!

NBC scored a ratings victory last week with its Saturday coverage of the NFL playoffs. The most-watched primetime broadcast of the week was the Jacksonville Jaguars' opening-round win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, with 25.74 million viewers.

ABC's Desperate Housewives was the only non-sports program to enter the Nielsen's top five. Nearly 20 million people watched the follow-up to the show's tornado cliffhanger, which for now stands as the final episode of the season, unless the writers' strike is resolved in the near future.

NBC had a solid week of premieres, led by the return of Law & Order last Wednesday night. The first episode of the drama's 18th season was seen by 13.46 million viewers. Twelve million people toughed out the Sunday-night debut of American Gladiators, while DONALD TRUMP's Celebrity Apprentice welcomed 11 million viewers into the boardroom last Thursday.

NBC won the primetime ratings race for the week, followed by CBS, Fox, ABC, the CW, MyNetworkTV, and ION Television.

Here are the top 10 primetime programs for the week of December 31st-January 6th, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. NFL Playoff Game 2: Jacksonville at Pittsburgh, NBC, 25.74 million viewers.

2. NFL Playoff Pre-Kick, NBC, 23.87 million viewers.

3. NFL Playoff Bridge, NBC, 23.48 million viewers.

4. AFC Wildcard Post Game, CBS, 21.37 million viewers.

5. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 19.78 million viewers.

6. 60 Minutes, CBS, 18.25 million viewers.

7. Law & Order, NBC, 13.46 million viewers.

8. Deal or No Deal (Thursday), NBC, 13.41 million viewers.

9. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 13.25 million viewers.

10. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, ABC, 12.6 million viewers

Silence Ain't so Golden...

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization behind the Golden Globe awards, has to return the five million dollars NBC paid it for the rights to the now canceled presentation ceremony. But that dollar amount is just the tip of the financial iceberg.

Due to the ongoing writers strike, NBC will be airing a one-hour awards press conference in place of the traditional Golden Globes ceremony, but the network will lose millions in ad revenue. Variety reports the three-hour awards event usually generates 15 to 20 million dollars in ad revenue for NBC, but advertisers will be paying greatly-reduced rates for spots in the press conference broadcast.

Also, the HFPA and Dick Clark Productions, the company hired to produce the awards event, have already spent between one and two million dollars on sets, lighting, music, crews, red carpet and security. The trade paper says that's money they won't be getting back. Several post-award parties have now been canceled, but many of those organizers have already shelled out money for catering fees and other non-refundable services. Industry insiders say those parties carry price tags as high as 750 thousand dollars.

So, what's the total damage done by the canceled Golden Globes? The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation estimates it could cost the local L.A. economy as much as 80 million dollars. That loss will affect hotels, restaurants, limo companies, stylists, photographers and messengers.

In other Golden Globe news, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced Tuesday it will postpone the presentation of the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award to STEVEN SPIELBERG until 2009. The honor usually includes film clips and tributes from fellow filmmakers, and the organization decided a scaled-down press conference isn't the proper setting for such an honor.

TV Tonight (1/8)

ABC: Just for Laughs (NEW) (1hr), According to Jim (NEW), Carpoolers (NEW), Cashmere Mafia

CBS: NCIS, People's Choice Awards (NEW)

NBC: The Biggest Loser: Couples (NEW), Law & Order (NEW)

FOX: Bones, House

CW: One Tree Hill (NEW), One Tree Hill (NEW)

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

Nice Globes!, part trace!

There won't be any Golden Globes ceremony on NBC this year. After last-ditch talks with the striking Writers Guild of America union fell through, organizers of the awards event announced the glitzy ceremony would be replaced with an hour-long press conference broadcast live by NBC News.

Look for that at 9 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, January 13th.The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is responsible for the Golden Globes, was forced to alter the event after all 72 of this year's nominated actors expressed solidarity with the striking writers through the actors' union, the Screen Actors Guild, and announced they wouldn't cross the picket line.

In announcing the switch to a bare-bones press conference to hand out awards in 25 categories, Hollywood Foreign Press Association president JORGE CAMARA said, quote, "We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars celebrating 2007's outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television."

By using a press conference format and billing it as an hour-long NBC News report, award organizers and NBC had hoped some nominees would reconsider participating. Writers in NBC's news division are not represented by the Writers Guild of America, so technically, participating stars wouldn't be crossing the WGA picket line.

Nice Globes!, part duex!

The biggest loser at next Sunday's Golden Globe Awards could be NBC. With the event less than a week away, plans for the ceremony are still up in the air because of the writers' strike. An announcement from Golden Globe organizers, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, could come by midday today. The actors' union has already said its members likely will not cross picket lines to either present or receive awards at the Globes.

One possible resolution, according to Variety, could be to turn the Globes into a non-televised event, which would likely garner the approval of the striking Writers Guild of America. But that obviously would not be the best-case scenario for NBC, which declared last week that it still planned to air the show on January 13th. NBC, the network home of the ceremony since 1996, brings in millions in ad revenue with the annual telecast.

Dick Clark Productions, which produces the Globes, criticized the WGA on Friday for allegedly treating it differently than DAVID LETTERMAN's production company, whose Late Show on CBS is back on the air under an interim agreement with the Writers Guild.

TV This Weekend

FRIDAY

ABC: Grey's Anatomy, Women's Murder Club (NEW), 20/20 (NEW)

CBS: Ghost Whisperer, Moonlight, Numbers

NBC: 1 vs. 100 (NEW), Friday Night Lights (NEW), Las Vegas (NEW)

FOX: Bones, House CW: WWE Friday Night Smackdown!

SATURDAY

ABC: Presidential Debate

CBS: High Crimes (2002), 48 Hrs Mystery (NEW)

NBC: NFL: Jacksonville vs Pittsburgh

FOX: Cops (1hr), America's Most Wanted

SUNDAY

ABC: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (NEW), Desperate Housewives (NEW), Cashmere Mafia (NEW-Pilot)

CBS: 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race (NEW), Cold Case (NEW), Shark (NEW)

NBC: Deal or No Deal (NEW), American Gladiators (NEW)

FOX: The Simpsons (NEW), King of the Hill (NEW), Family Guy, American Dad (NEW)

CW: Life is Wild (NEW), crowned: The Mother of all Pageants

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

and thanks Dave for the Pics!

Get your local listings HERE

TV Boogoloo

There's yet another edition of Law & Order on the way, but U.S. audiences may not get the chance to see it. NBC Universal is in talks to create a version of Law & Order for British audiences, which would be called Law & Order: London...

Meet the newest stars of NBC: Crush, Fury, Venom, Mayhem, and Wolf. They're among the 12 men and women who will do battle with contestants on American Gladiators, an updated remake of the pseudo-athletic competition premiering this Sunday night. Some of the more familiar games from the original show, which aired from 1989-1997, are back, including the Joust and the Wall. There are also some new twists to liven up the series, such as special effects. HULK HOGAN and boxer and former Dancing with the Stars contestant LAILA ALI host American Gladiators, airing this Sunday on NBC at 9 p.m. Eastern time...

On ABC, LUCY LIU stars in a new dramedy titled Cashmere Mafia. The show revolves around four career women and their personal and professional lives in New York City. Plot sound familiar? It should come as no surprise that Sex and the City creator DARREN STAR is an executive producer for Cashmere Mafia, which premieres on ABC this Sunday night at 10 p.m. Eastern time. It moves to Wednesday nights later in the week.

Nielsen Ratings

No writers? No problem for JAY LENO, at least on Wednesday night, when several major late-night TV shows ended an eight-week hiatus brought on by the writers' strike. Seven-point-two million viewers watched Leno on NBC's Tonight Show, which secured a comfortable victory over DAVID LETTERMAN and CBS' Late Show, despite Letterman's returning writing staff, thanks to a separate agreement with the Writers Guild of America.

The newly-bearded Letterman was seen by 5.5 million viewers. NBC's CONAN O'BRIEN was more popular with viewers than CBS' CRAIG FERGUSON later in the night, even though he also was without his writers. O'Brien and Late Night attracted 2.8 million viewers, while 2.2 million people watched Ferguson and Late Late Show. Ferguson went back on the air with his writers under the same agreement made by Letterman's production company.

The country was certainly curious to see how these hosts would respond to the ongoing strike. Leno, Letterman, O'Brien and Ferguson all saw a spike in ratings in comparison to their pre-strike averages, with The Tonight Show enjoying a 43-percent increase.

In other Nielsens news, the NFL regular season ended with a bang last weekend. Most notably, the New England Patriots' victory over the New York Giants Saturday night was seen by 34.5 million people. The NFL Network's telecast of the game, in which the Patriots became the first team in 35 years to finish a regular season undefeated, was simulcast on NBC and CBS.

CBS won the primetime ratings race last week, followed by NBC, Fox, ABC, the CW, MyNetworkTV and ION Television.

Here are the top 10 primetime programs for the week of December 24th-30th, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. NBC Sunday Night Football: Tennessee at Indianapolis, NBC, 15.8 million viewers.

2. NFL Football: New England at N.Y. Giants, CBS, 15.68 million viewers.

3. NFL Football: New England at N.Y. Giants, NBC, 13.23 million viewers.

4. 60 Minutes, CBS, 12.39 million viewers.

5. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 10.69 million viewers.

6. Without a Trace, CBS, 10.54 million viewers.

7. Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick, NBC, 10.38 million viewers.

8. Deal Or No Deal, (Tuesday) NBC, 9.78 million viewers.

9. Amazing Race 12, CBS, 9.69 million viewers.

10. CSI: NY, (Thursday) CBS, 9.49 million viewers.

Jay Jay the Jet Plane

JAY LENO says he supports the striking writers, but the feeling ain't mutual. The Writers Guild of America said yesterday that The Tonight Show host broke its rules by writing and telling jokes when his late night program returned Wednesday night for its first all-new show since the strike began nearly two months ago. The Guild didn't specify what, if anything, it plans to do in response to Leno's infraction.

The issue appears to be that Leno is a WGA member, which means when he wrote and performed his own jokes Wednesday night, he broke the rule prohibiting members from, quote, "performing any writing services during a strike for any and all struck companies."

Leno didn't address the budding controversy on last night's episode of The Tonight Show, but NBC spoke out on his behalf. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the network defended Leno by saying, quote, "The WGA agreement permits Jay Leno to write his own monologues for The Tonight Show. The WGA is not permitted to implement rules that conflict with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the studios and the WGA."

Leno hasn't been shy about expressing his support for striking writers, handing out doughnuts on the picket line and mentioning on Wednesday's show that he's on their side. When asked to comment on the alleged infraction, a publicist for Leno said the comedian was, quote, "busying himself with the show."

And now....Jay Scab-eoo!!

NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was one of five late night shows to resume broadcasting yesterday, but it did so without reaching a deal with the striking writers, which seemed to throw off Leno's first guest, Republican presidential candidate MIKE HUCKABEE.

The former Arkansas governor created a stir before he appeared on the program when it was pointed out to him on the Iowa stump that he would be crossing a picket line to appear. Huckabee responded that he thought the writers had come to an agreement to keep all late night shows on the air. In fact, that deal was only reached with The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. The Tonight Show did not use any writers on last night's show.

Huckabee elected to keep his commitment to appear on the show, but his campaign released a statement prior to the broadcast that read, in part:

"The Governor would only agree to join Jay, an active member of the Writers Guild, for the taping after he was assured that no replacement writers were being used in the show's production. Governor Huckabee believes that the writers deserve to be fairly compensated for the sale of their work. Governor Huckabee is glad that Jay Leno was able to put his 160 employees back to work and he strongly encourages both sides of the current labor dispute to work diligently toward an equitable solution for all parties involved."

Several protesters picketed outside The Tonight Show studio yesterday in Burbank, California, one of whom carried a sign saying, quote, "Huckabee is a scab." WGA chief negotiator JOHN BOWMAN said of Huckabee's professed ignorance, quote, "Huckabee claims he didn't know. I don't know what that means in terms of trusting him as a future president."

The Writers Guild of America released a statement about Huckabee's decision to sit down with Leno. It said it was, quote, "disappointed" in the politician and recommended he, quote, "respect our picket lines in the future and urge the media conglomerates to return to the bargaining table..."

"I'll put you under my arm like a Don is supposed to"

DONALD TRUMP will have the pleasure of putting several celebrities out of work on the latest edition of The Apprentice, premiering tonight on NBC. The seventh season of the reality series, now titled The Celebrity Apprentice, will feature 14 celebrities in New York City raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for their favorite charities. As usual, the contestants will have to complete various tasks and face Trump and his kids in the boardroom. The winner will receive an extra 250 thousand dollars for their charity of choice.

The Celebrity Apprentice begins tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern time. The cast includes country music star TRACE ADKINS, actress-model CAROL ALT, actor STEPHEN BALDWIN, Olympians NADIA COMANECI and JENNIE FINCH, former Taxi actress MARILU HENNER, retired boxer LENNOX LEWIS, KISS frontman GENE SIMMONS, America's Got Talent judge PIERS MORGAN, original Apprentice contestant OMAROSA, The Sopranos actor VINCENT PASTORE, 2005 Playboy Playmate of the Year TIFFANY FALLON, UFC competitor TITO ORTIZ, and The Swan executive producer and former Telemundo executive NELY GALAN.

TV Tonight (1/2)

ABC: Wife Swap (NEW), Supernanny (NEW), Supernanny (NEW)

CBS: Power of 10 (NEW), Criminal Minds, CSI: NY

NBC: Deal or no Deal (NEW), Law & Order (RETURN)

FOX: Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs. W. Virginia

CW: Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants (NEW), Gossip Girl (NEW)

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE