Damages
10 pm/ET FX
Patty Hewes has a new client (William Hurt) as Glenn Close's chilly and shadowy legal thriller begins its second season.
Read on for previews of People's Choice Awards, 13 — Fear is Real, Barbara Walters Special and The Real World.
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What if they gave an awards show and nobody came? That heretofore rhetorical question has been answered twice in the last week, with unspeakably unwatchable results.First came CBS’ comically corny and pitifully rated People’s Choice Awards last Tuesday. With its ceremonial and traditionally well-attended all-star party scrapped by the writers’ strike, this new and unimproved version (with winners accepting in awkward taped segments) was emceed by poor Queen Latifah from what looked like a drag queen's bunker. I only made it through the first commercial break of that sad excuse for a show before bailing.But I had no choice but to slog through all of NBC’s historic (for all the wrong reasons) telecast Sunday of what the network called “The Golden Globes Winners Special.” Though only an hour long, it felt much longer than the usual three-hour glamourfest as Billy Bush and Nancy O’Dell struggled to vamp their way through what can only be thought of as ...
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Tuesday's ratings recap:• The future-shocked One Tree Hill averaged 3.47 million total viewers over its two-hour premiere, a negligible dip from its Sept. '06 season-opener, and giving the CW its largest Tuesday audience since May 15, 2007.• The Biggest Loser drew 8.9 mil in its first hour and 11.47 mil from 9 to 10, putting it at No. 2 in total viewers (behind NCIS and House repeats), but No. 1 in key demos.• The people's choice was not to watch the People's Choice Awards (six mil), which barely managed half of last year's audience.• Opposite the PCAs and a Mafia rerun, SVU (15.16 mil) was up 23 percent from last week.
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Maybe the Globes are onto something by sucking it up and going with a simple hour-long press conference? Similarly struck by the strike, Tuesday night's extremely strange and borderline unwatchable People's Choice Awards — in which host Queen Latifah had the unenviable task of reading the winner from what looked like a Franklin Planner, then throwing it to a pre-taped acceptance speech — gave props to a trio of Grey's Anatomy stars (Patrick Dempsey, Katherine Heigl and Chandra Wilson), House (named favorite TV drama) and Two and a Half Men (fave comedy). Other winners on the TV front included talk host Ellen DeGeneres, Dancing with the Stars (reality show), Deal or No Deal (game show), Stargate Atlantis (sci-fi fare) and The Simpsons (non-human programming).
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Cheers to ABC for devoting a half-hour of prime time to coverage of the New Hampshire primary. After the Alphabet scored surprisingly strong ratings Saturday night with the candidates' debates, the 'net happily bumped an episode of Just for Laughs to make room for Charlie Gibson and Co. CBS and NBC, on the other hand, stuck with the People's Choice Awards and The Biggest Loser. ABC offered its own versions, with John McCain as the People's Choice and Mitt Romney as the Biggest Loser on the Republican side, and the Democrats too close to call. Of course, ABC's civic good deed probably wouldn't have happened if not for the writers' strike, but at least something positive has come out of that stalemate.• Read and react to Bruce's opinions on Jon Stewart, Desperate Housewives 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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