Eliza Dushku, Dollhouse
Sigh. Here is how Friday's fare fared:
8 pm/ET
A repeat of Ghost Whisperer's season opener topped the hour with 8.35 million total viewers. Trailing both a warmed-over Wife Swap (4.09 mil) and Howie Do It (3.89 mil), Sarah Connor Chronicles came in fourth with 3.84 million viewers, up four percent from its Friday time-slot premiere.
9 pm
Dollhouse came in third behind a Flashpoint repeat (8.06 million viewers) and Supernanny (5.25 mil), dipping 10 percent from its premiere to 4.22 mil. That said, Dollhouse actually gained viewers over the hour. Friday Night Lights surged 14 percent to just under four mil.
10 pm
A Numbers repeat was No. 1 with 7.99 million viewers, followed by 20/20 (7.27 mil) and Dateline (5.57 mil).
Late Night
Conan O'Brien's final Late Night drew the talker's best numbers since Dec. 8, 2006, representing a 44 percent increase on his average for this season.
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Traylor Howard and Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Monk
9 pm/ET USA
The seventh season wraps up tonight with a case that has special significance to Monk. He's investigating the disappearance of a city official who was lobbying to preserve a parking garage. But what's so personal about that? Well, it's the garage where Monk's wife was killed by a car bomb that he believes was intended for him. The series is scheduled to return for its eighth and final season this summer.
Read on for previews of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Psych, Real Time with Bill Maher and Battlestar Galactica.
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Artie Lange with Conan O'Brien
Cheers to Artie Lange for giving Cheers & Jeers a shout-out on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Read, discuss and vote on this complete Cheer after the jump.
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Cheers to Julia Louis-Drefyus for proving she's not a sore loser. The New Adventures of Old Christine star, who lost the best comedy actress Emmy to Tina Fey, participated in an hysterical bit on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in which she broke into the 30 Rocker's dressing room and stole the statuette. Fey suddenly showed up and told Louis-Dreyfus to keep the award, but demanded Conan return what he'd swiped: a pair of Tina's panties. As Elaine Benes might've said: Get out! Watch it here!
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Russell Brand and Conan O'Brien by Dana Edelson/NBC Photo
Cheers to Russell Brand for an instant-classic appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The bad-boy British stand-up, best known in this country for his outlandish role as rocker Aldous Snow in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, opened his hyperkinetic segment by comparing coifs with the carrot-topped host: "We could build an arch of hair across the Atlantic uniting our two countries...We'd make a mockery of Lindbergh's achievements!" His verbal torrent continued with uproarious anecdotes about meeting the Queen ("a little part of me was thinking, 'Grab her boobs!'") and feuding with Rod Stewart ("a man who in his prime wore leopard-skin tights on a daily basis"). Conan concluded by calling Brand "the funniest person I've talked to in a long time" — and if you don't believe it, type "Russell Brand" and "Conan" into YouTube and laugh for yourself. • Share your own raves and rants about other shows on the Reader Cheers & Jeers discussion board.• We may feature your Chee...
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Jimmy Fallon by Chris Haston/NBC Universal Photo
This fall — some six months before his Late Night talker hits the airwaves — Jimmy Fallon will attempt a "soft launch" of the show, performing five- to 10-minute routines on an NBC online portal TBA. This unorthodox "dry run" is intended to let Fallon find his voice and rhythm and thus avoid the sort of pitfalls that plagued Conan O'Brien when he himself entered the late-night realm.As for Conan, he is expected to cease production on his Late Night in February, then head west to prepare his take on The Tonight Show, which will premiere sometime in June — and from a brand-new stage now in production. Fallon's Late Night is slated to hit NBC proper "sometime in the spring," giving him Leno as a lead-in for a brief stretch. — Matt Mitovich
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Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart by NBC Photo
Cheers to Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Conan O'Brien for welcoming back their writers in style. During the strike, the hip late-night triumverate trumped up a sidesplitting feud as a way to kill time without scripts. But with the WGA work stoppage resolved, Comedy Central's Stewart changed the temporarily retitled A Daily Show back to The Daily Show, and Colbert presented a new pencil to each of his scribes, including surprise guests Tiki Barber, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Kevin Bacon and Mr. Met. Over on NBC's Late Night, O'Brien revived his opening monologue, observing that during the past few months, "Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both declared their support for the writers' strike. Meanwhile, President Bush announced he's in favor of a readers' strike." It's official: Our long, national TV nightmare is over.• Read and react to Bruce's opinions on CBS' Welcome to the Captain, Jericho and more!• Share your own raves and rants about other shows on the Reader Cheers &...
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Uh-oh! Looks like Conan O’Brien and Stephen Colbert’s tiff over who’s really responsible for Huckabee’s fame has reached a new level—we’re talking the ass-kicking kind! Last night, both Colbert and John Stewart appeared on Conan’s show to duke it out like men. Oh, and it was ugly too—bats were swinging, trash cans were flying and they even busted out a blow torch. It was no holds barred, we tell you!
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Conan O'Brien by Dana Edelson/NBC
Posted by “Inkfrog in Chicago”... Cheers to Conan O’Brien for his limitless talent. The WGA strike has given us even more reasons to love Conan. From his zip-line feats to his Tom Brokaw maze, Conan clearly knows how to pass the time without his writers. But it was his drop-dead rendition of “Blue Moon of Kentucky” that truly put me over the moon. Here’s hoping he takes his guitar on the road... to Chicago!• Read and react to Bruce Fretts' opinions on Lost, House The Sopranos' SAG Awards wins and more!• Share your own raves and rants about other shows on the Reader Cheers & Jeers discussion board.• We may feature your Cheer or Jeer on TVGuide.com or in TV Guide magazine!
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Jay Leno with guest, Mike Huckabee, on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno by Paul Drinkwater/NBC Photo
Should the Writers Guild of America take this personally? According to Nielsen's overnight ratings in 55 markets, NBC's writer-less Tonight Show with Jay Leno was the audience favorite with a 5.3 rating and a 12 share on Wednesday night. That topped CBS' Late Show with David Letterman, which returned with its writers after Letterman's production company worked out its own deal with the WGA. It scored a 4.3/10. Viewers were clearly happy to see both shows return after a strike-imposed two-month hiatus, as both hit season highs. The same goes for NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien, which averaged a 2.5/8 in its return. That topped the 1.9/6 delivered by Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, which actually saw a ratings spike in November while the leading shows were in repeats, scored a 1.4/4. — Stephen BattaglioRelated:• TVGuide.com Asks... Which Late-night Host Had the Write Stuff?• Matt Roush grades Letterman, Leno and the restIn TVGuide.com's ...
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