America's Next Top Model
Wednesday's ratings roundup:
8 pm/ET
An audience of 22.5 million total viewers tuned in for American Idol, marking a 9 percent increase over last week's results show. (But really, Tatiana? Oh, the pain had best end tonight.) Knight Rider's series finale managed a distant second with 5.76 million viewers, representing a 21-percent drop-off from the show's debut.
Trailing repeats of CBS sitcoms and Lost, the season premiere of America's Next Top Model averaged 3.89 million viewers over its two-hour run, up 11 percent from its previous opener. Plus, to paraphrase Dr. Johnny Fever, you should see what it's doing with teenage girls!
9 pm
Opposite a Criminal Minds repeat, Lost won the hour and the demos with 10.61 million viewers, a gain of 800K from last week's Idol-ized outing. In third, Fox's Lie to Me (10.2 mil) was down 9 percent.
10 pm
Even with CSI: NY and Law & Order serving leftovers, the freshly canceled Life on Mars (5.67 mil) managed just a 100K gain.
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Heroes, Knight Rider
Some of this TV season's "bubble shows" are starting to pop, while others continue to ride the fence — or even safely hop off.
Case in point: Despite sagging ratings and amid backstage upheavals, Heroes will fight another day. The Peacock's onetime pride and joy is likely to return in the fall for 18 to 20 episodes, NBC entertainment president Angela Bromstad told the Hollywood Reporter, though an actual pick-up order has yet to be placed.
One thing playing in Heroes' favor is ...
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Smith Cho and Justin Bruening, Knight Rider
Knight Rider is changing gears for the back half of the season.
Recently granted a full season by NBC, the drama is now out to finish its freshman year on a high by undergoing a major reboot. Rider is set to ...
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Sarah Shahi and Damian Lewis, Life
In this tough, low-rated TV season, NBC is the first network to reshuffle its lineup. What's the Peacock's solution? Crime night!
According to the Hollywood Reporter, starting Wednesday Nov. 5, NBC will present a block of crime dramas: Knight Rider at 8 pm/ET, Life at 9 pm (moving in from Fridays at 10), and the return of longtime staple Law & Order at 10 pm.
Details on the other programming tweaks after the jump.
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Justin Bruening, Knight Rider
A couple weeks ago, NBC ordered more scripts for Knight Rider. Now, the Peacock has ordered the back nine episodes, making Rider the third freshman show to receive a full-season pickup this year behind Fringe and 90210.
The order also marks NBC's first ...
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Justin Bruening, Lena Headey
On the heels of CBS' The Mentalist, which thus far is the TV season's biggest freshman hit, getting an order for a half-dozen additional scripts, two other new-ish series have received perhaps-significant votes of confidence.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, technically a second-year show but one still anxiously awaiting a back-nine order, has been given the go-ahead for two more scripts — this in the wake of increasing ratings in its fifth week.
Knight Rider, meanwhile, has been given the green light for four more scripts. Of note, the NBC reboot has been trumping critical darling Pushing Daisies, one of its Wednesdays-at-8 rivals, in the Nielsens.
To date, the freshman series Fringe and 90210 have received full-season pick-ups.
Crave scoop? E-mail Matt and Mickey at mega_scoop@tvguide.com.
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Gary Sinise in CSI: NY by Eric Liebowitz/CBS
Wednesday's ratings rundown:8 pm/ETDancing with the Stars' second results show of the week delivered 15.7 million total viewers, topping the hour in demos as well. Bones dipped only a bit, placing second with 9.6 million. Knight Rider (7.3 million) slowed down from its TV-movie try-put, shedding 42 percent of that February audience.The New Adventures of Old Christine faced a new problem — its Wednesday time slot — drawing 6.7 million, a far cry from the 12 million or so it got on Mondays. (Lead-out Gary Unmarried debuted to 6.84 million, showing 102 percent retention.)9 pmCriminal Minds returned to 15.1 million viewers, a 19 percent surge from its previous premiere. America's Got Talent dropped nearly 2 million to place second with 10.2 million. Back-to-back 'Til Deaths averaged 4.08 million (down another million week-to-week), trailing ABC's David Blaine thing.10 pmCSI: NY dominated with an audience of 15.55 million, a 22 percent leap from its year-ago opener. Though it f...
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Alex Witt courtesy MSNBC
Jeers to MSNBC for taking time out of its 24-hour news cycle to provide a blatant plug for sister network NBC's crappy Knight Rider remake. We're in the midst of an economic crisis - not to mention a presidential election - yet "The Place for Politics" stops the proverbial presses so that anchor Alex Witt can grill star Justin Bruening about whether he had to take driving lessons before getting behind KITT's wheel. Makes you wonder who's really in the driver's seat at MSNBC. Is that you, Ben Silverman?
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As the Knight Rider reboot rolls onto the airwaves Young Hollywood and TVGuidecom got a sneak peek at the fancy new set sleek revamped KITT and more Justin Bruening Mike Traceur aka Michael Knight explained how he prepped for the part starting with racing school 0053 where he got comfy driving at high speeds and stunt class which gave him skills that would make a Drivers Ed teacher blush 0100 Plus smokin Deanna Russo Sarah Graiman Mikes bestie-slash-love-interest-from-the-past teases whats between her character and the new Knight 0120 Knight Rider gets revving Wednesday September 24 NBC 8 PMET
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Justin Bruening and Deanna Russo in Knight Rider by Mitchell Haaseth/NBC Photo
Here we are at "hump night" of the first week of the official TV season. Or, given that NBC is giving us a line-up of the atrocious Knight Rider, the dishonestly monikered America's Got Talent and the turgid Lipstick Jungle, maybe we should rechristen Wednesdays "lump night."
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