Tuesday's tallies:8 pm/ETIdol (23.97 million total viewers) rebounded from last week's sizable dip by gaining 2.7 mil, and actually was up four percent from last season's Top 3 performance night. NCIS (14.7 mil) added 900 thou. Beauty and the Geek wrapped up its (final?) season with a typical 1.53 mil.9 pmDWTS slipped 1.5 mil yet of course topped the hour (with 16.6 mil). Hell's Kitchen delivered an all-time best 12.4 mil. The truly penultimate episode of Shark did 10.2 mil, while renewed Reaper dropped 470K, to two mil.10 pmSVU's season-ender delivered 11.32 mil, while the Women's Murder Club series finale scored 8.45 mil, down 230 thou week-to-week.
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This Tuesday's tallies:8 pm/ETAmerican Idol averaged 29.33 million total viewers over its two-hour run. That's up 1.1 mil week-to-week and on par with last year's Top 12 performance show. Biggest Loser (doing 7.66 across two hours) was down a million-plus. Beauty and the Geek scored a date with just 1.88 mil, a 44 percent plunge from last season's opener.9 pmBig Brother (5.92 mil) dropped 800K, while One Tree Hill sank 550 thou to hit a season low of 2.45 mil.10 pmTrailing an SVU repeat and ABC's Primetime (7.5 mil), Jericho matched last week's 5.87 mil. Coming next week: My video Q&A with the Skeetster!What's your take? Are we, at long last, all Geek'd out?
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Two of reality TV's more pleasurable guilty pleasures return this week, one in "top" form and the other going too far in an unfortunate new direction.First up is the CW's Beauty and the Geek (Tuesday, 8 pm/ET) making yet another ill-advised change to the "social experiment," one even more damaging potentially than the last cycle's gender switch of adding a male beauty and a female geek to the game. This time around, the show pits the beauties against the geeks, turning what was once a disarmingly and unexpectedly sweet show into yet another tiresome battle of the sexes — largely abandoning the winning formula of putting beauties and geeks together, encouraging teamwork, and building confidence that goes beyond the stereotypes of stammering nerds and brainless bimbos.No one appears overly pleased at this twist. I know I wasn't. But even with the girls pitted against the guys, the contestants can't help but reach out to each other, even though they're no longer officially coachin...
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As yet another season of Beauty and the Geek ensues, another batch of brilliant (wink, wink) women and socially-challenged men embarrass themselves in front of America. But one geek in particular caught our eye. Perhaps it's his tuxedo t-shirt (which clearly says "I want to be formal, but I'm here to party”), or the shifty-eyed delivery of his touching poem. Whatever it is, we definitely are putting our money on that guy! Go to video close-up now!
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The CW's Beauty and the Geek is back March 11 (8 pm/ET), but this time the gorgeous and the brilliant won't be paired up: They'll be pitted against each other. In the all-new season of the Ashton Kutcher-produced series, the nine new beauties will have no brilliance to lean on, nor will the geeks have any in-team help on the fashion front. Adding more challenge to the mix will be competitions where the geeks join uber-guru Dr. Drew on Loveline, as well as attempt to offer style tips for beauty make-unders. The lovely ladies, meanwhile, will be charged with plumbing challenges, and will even join their opposing contestants on an ep of The Young and the Restless.Some of the new geeks to watch for include Tommy, a "sweater-vest enthusiast" from Somerville, Massachusetts, and Jason, a so-called "buff geek" from Brooklyn. These two and their geek compatriots will go up against ladies such as Amber, a Hawaiian Tropic model, and Tara, a Hooters hostess from Florida. Who might win in this b...
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