Monday's ratings recap:
8 pm/ET
Shrek and the Grinch gave ABC the win for the hour, averaging 11.44 million total viewers. Repeats of Big Bang ("Pants must be worn at all times in the time machine!") and Mother (each drawing over eight mil) placed second.
Chuck claimed third with 7.25 mil, gaining 10 percent on this night of lighter competition, while Sarah Connor truly seized the moment, surging 26 percent to 5.83 mil, its largest audience since Sept. 22. Gossip Girl (3.08 mil) inched up 200K from its Nov. 17 season low.
9 pm
Heroes flirted with eight mil (and won the back half of the hour), gaining 100 thou week-to-week. With her flashy Dancing lead-in now gone, Samantha Who? stumbled to the tune of 43 percent, averaging just 6.8 mil across back-to-back episodes.
Prison Break (5.8 mil) added 550K, while the first of Privileged's Monday "try-outs" delivered 2.2 mil, up 40 percent from its most recent Tuesday outing.
10 pm
Even opposite a CSI: Miami repeat (see news story on Khandi Alexander's return visit), Boston Legal (8.4 mil, -300K) and Worst Enemy (4.03 mil, -220K) each slipped.
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Boston Legal
10:01 pm/ET ABC
Tonight's episode is on drugs. Now that doesn't mean this show's trademark frivolity is chemically induced.
Read on for previews of Shrek the Halls, Chuck, Gossip Girl and Prison Break.
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Here are this Wednesday's numbers. Tuesday's ratings, which I didn't get around to crunching yesterday, can be found in comments:8 pm/ETWelcoming 21.07 million total holiday guests to the swamp, ABC's Shrek the Halls special was far, far and away the night's most-watched program and tops in demos. Lead-out Grinch didn't flinch much, holding onto 18.74 mil of that audience. NBC's Rockefeller tree special did nine mil, followed by Kid Nation (7.3 mil), a pair of 'Til Deaths (six mil) and Top Model (5.03 mil, up 1.4 mil).9 pmCriminal Minds topped the hour with 16.26 mil (up 440 thou), and was No. 1 in demos. Bolstered by the 'toons, Pushing Daisies was up 2.6 mil, to 10.18 mil. Kitchen Nightmares (seven mil) hit an all-time high, while Bionic Woman's season (series?) finale fell just shy of six mil, shedding another 300K. Gossip Girl flirted with three mil, its second-largest audience to date.10 pmCSI:NY dropped 330K but led the pack with 14.03 mil. Dirty Sexy Money (see Cheers & J...
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As entertaining as the big green guy and Donkey are, for this pop of twin 5-year-old boys, it's the ancillary fairy-tale critters who make the Shrek films full of adult-targeted chuckles. On the occasion of ABC's Shrek the Halls special premiering tonight at 8 pm/ET, TVGuide.com chatted with Conrad Vernon, the voice behind Gingy the Gingerbread Man, and the director of Shrek 2 and the much-anticipated Monsters vs. Aliens.
TVGuide.com: When I stopped to think about it, it dawned upon me that Christmastime cannot bode well for the Gingerbread Man.Conrad Vernon: [Laughs] No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t. I haven't seen the whole [ABC special] yet but I've definitely seen my part in it, and it's kind of horrifying — but that’s fine.
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The timing was monstrously perfect. ABC was on the hunt for fresh holiday stories, DreamWorks was looking to expand its fantastically successful Shrek franchise to television, and, when last we saw him, the big green ogre was enjoying proud fatherhood with three adorable ogrelets. What better occasion for a visit than the babies' first Christmas? Thus was born Shrek the Halls (Wednesday, Nov. 28, at 8 pm/ET, ABC), a 30-minute special that, for some fans, just might steal Christmas from that other green, grinchier guy. The new special finds Shrek celebrating the holidays with wife Fiona, their children and lots of unexpected guests — Donkey, Puss in Boots and others from the enormously popular big-screen trilogy. Halls also retains the franchise's movie-quality animation and its original voice cast, including Mike Myers, Eddie Mu
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