Ratings: Scandal Grows on Low Night


Two families, both of whom have never met, have agreed that the Wives will swap homes, children and husbands for two weeks to see what they can learn from their own lives.
Two families, both of whom have never met, have agreed that the Wives will swap homes, children and husbands for two weeks to see what they can learn from their own lives.
Scandal was the sole show to improve Thursday on what was a down night overall.The drama returned to 7.8 million viewers and a 2.8 in the adults 18-to-49 demographic, up two tenths ...

Hannibal held steady Thursday, while Glee rose for its controversial school shooting episode.Airing against repeats, Hannibal drew 4.3 million viewers and a ...

American Idol fell to an all-time low Thursday.The one-hour results show drew 11 million viewers and a 2.7 in the adults 18-to-49 demographic to post the series' lowest demo ever in 12 seasons.Lead-out Raising Hope averaged ...

Grey's Anatomy topped Thursday after hitting a series low last week.The drama drew 9.1 million viewers and 2.9 in the adults 18-to-49 demographic, up three-tenths from last week. Along with the season premiere of Wife Swap (5 million, 1.7) and Scandal (8.6 million, 2.7), which was even with its last new episode a month ago, ABC tied Fox for No. 1 in the ...

TV history, and cable's History channel, will tell you: Never bet against the Bible. While History's greatest-hits approach to The Bible (airing Sundays through Easter) continues to reap blockbuster ratings, GSN launches a second season of The American Bible Challenge (9/8c), its highest-rated game show, which could just as easily be called Are You Smarter Than a Divinity Student?

Audiences apparently had zero love for Zero Hour. The network has canceled the struggling Anthony Edwards-starring series after airing just three...

ABC is moving Revenge to Sunday's coveted 9/8c timeslot, previously occupied by Desperate Housewives. It will serve as a lead-in to new drama 666 Park Avenue.

Ah-mah-zing! ABC has renewed cult-hit comedy Happy Endings for a 22-episode third season, TVGuide.com has confirmed. The little comedy that could debuted its second season to 7.25 million viewers, but dropped sharply to 3.67 million viewers by its season finale.

The Wilson Phillips cameo at the end of producer Judd Apatow's comedy Bridesmaids was perfect timing for the band, who is now attempting a comeback with a new album and a reality show for TV Guide Network, Wilson Phillips: Still Holding On, which premieres on Sunday, April 8 at 9/8c. "We got a random phone call from Judd Apatow's people," bandmate Chynna Phillips told reporters at the network's winter previews on Saturday. "We just thought it was a real honor, and we love Judd Apatow's movies and thought he was hysterical, so we wanted to be a part of it. But we had absolutely no idea the impact our one baby cameo was going to have in this film. We were pretty taken aback and excited that it gave our careers the boost, the shot in the arm that we needed."

Cougar Town's third season has been cut from 22 episodes to 15, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Ted Haggard, the Evangelical pastor who gained national attention after it was revealed he had taken drugs and slept with a male prostitute in 2006, will appear on Celebrity Wife Swap, The Colorado Springs Gazette reports. Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, will trade spouses with...

Flavor Flav will swap wives with Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider on ABC's Celebrity Wife Swap, Entertainment Weekly reports. ABC orders Celebrity Wife Swap The celebrity version of ABC's Wife Swap features stars trading spouses and lifestyles for a week. In May, the network ordered...

Stars now have an alternative to divorce: Celebrity Wife Swap. ABC has ordered six episodes of the reality series, which features celebrities trading lifestyles and partners for a week, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Check out more of today's news

Miami Medical10/9c CBS A top-notch cast is the main reason to give this Jerry Bruckheimer-produced medical drama, which takes place in a Miami trauma unit, a look. Jeremy Northam stars as a former military surgeon newly arrived in Miami from Baltimore. He's thrown into action in the intense pilot when the unit's chief (Andre Braugher) inexplicably walks off the job during an operation. Rounding out the superb cast are Mike Vogel, Lana Parrilla, Elisabeth Harnois and Omar Gooding. While the series doesn't break any new ground, its compelling, likable characters should provide viewers with sufficient reasons to return to this lively unit.Read on for previews of Merlin, Smallville, Wife Swap and Live from Abbey Road.

Sheree Silver, the woman who lived with the Heene family on Wife Swap, said Richard Heene, the father of balloon boy Falcon, "had the mind of a mad scientist" and a short temper."He wasn't very nice to me," Silver told People. "But ... I don't think he would ...

The sheriff investigating the Balloon Boy incident said Sunday it was a "hoax" and a "publicity stunt" the boy's parents hoped to parlay into a reality TV show, and promised that charges would be presented to the local district attorney's office.

This week TV made us feel things. Trauma panicked us with a disgruntled employee shooting at his co-workers. Modern Family made us squirm and laugh with an off-color wedding toast. The contestants of The Amazing Race made us feel smart. And the idea of a little boy in a balloon crashing to his death made us all hold our breath and pray for his safety... and then puke. Welcome to this week's Top Moments: Funny Feelings Edition.

The 6-year-old boy involved in the helium balloon debacle that transfixed the nation vomited in two separate interviews Friday during questions about whether the incident was a publicity stunt and what the boy meant when he said "we did this for a show." Balloon drama deflates amid intense coverage During a live interview on CNN Thursday night, Falcon Heene said he heard his family calling his name while millions of people wondered about his whereabouts, but didn't come out of his hiding place because his father "had said that we did this for a show." Falcon was ...

The balloon drama that transfixed the nation — and left viewers terrified at the grim possibilities — ended happily and a bit absurdly Thursday with the discovery that the young boy once thought to have been carried across the Colorado sky had never taken to the air.Cable news channels followed a helium-filled balloon thought to carry the 6-year-old boy, whose family was featured last year on ABC's Wife Swap, and the coverage continued for hours. The balloon landed softly, with the aptly but bizarrely named Falcon Heene not inside. That led to endless vamping and filler as reporters and experts tried to guess where he was, whether he was alive and whether it might have been a hoax.At one point CNN broke ...

>Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles8 pm/ET FOXThe good news for the Connor clan is that they no longer have to figure out what to do with Riley — Jesse was kind enough to fatally shoot her in the last episode. The bad news is that they now have to figure out what to do with Cameron since they think she whacked Riley. Between dealing with the murder of his girlfriend and weighing the fate of his killing-machine roommate, it looks like John's going to suffer some growing pains.Read on for previews of Wife Swap, Jockeys, Numbers and Battlestar Galactica.

Stars better keep those Dancing shoes shined, and wives better be wary: ABC announced its renewal of five unscripted shows, including Dancing with the Stars. Along with DWTS, the net said Thursday that it's bringing back Wife Swap, Supernanny, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and America's Funniest Home Videos — for its 19th season (!). Conspicuously absent from the list was that Dancing-like newbie Dance Wars, which never quite got moving. Don't worry about the mate-seekers being left out — following the upcoming season of the Bachelor (with that smokin' British leading man), the show will be swapped out next season with a new version of The Bachelorette.ABC's roster of five confirms the renewal of its veteran unscripteds, and repeats a similar move last year, when it beat its competitors to the renewal-announcement punch. — Anna Dimond

Although Wednesday's Fiesta Bowl was a blowout, a blowout is exactly what Fox execs threw over the Nielsens for the game: a 4.3 rating in adults 18-49. ABC came in second for the night with the return of Wife Swap and back-to-back episodes of Supernanny. NBC was third, with the season premiere of (the sorta-new and definitely improved) Law & Order improving on its Deal or No Deal lead-in. Also of note, CBS' second-season run of Power of 10 looked weak with an 18-49 rating of only 1.7, and as much fun as it is, the CW's Crowned only mustered a 0.9. Got something against sequins and pasted-on smiles, do ya? Well, do ya?! — Ben Katner
USA Network has grabbed basic-cable dibs on the big-screen hit The Game Plan, to air in October 2009.... Lifetime has picked up rerun rights to ABC's Wife Swap, to start unspooling October '08.... Aaron McGruder has inked a deal with the comedy site Super Deluxe to create The Super Rumble Mixshow, a live-action series chockablock with the Boondocks creator's racially charged humor.... WE TV on Jan. 4 premieres Ugliest House on the Block, a six-episode home makeover series... about my neighbor? Seriously, those blue shingles are ghastly.... PETA invites you to give the Olsen twins a shake. (Fun stuff, frankly.)

Scheduled to debut next season are four new comedy entries — Carpoolers, Cavemen, Miss/Guided and Sam I Am; along with seven new drama series — Big Shots, Cashmere Mafia, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies and Women's Murder Club. Oprah's Big Give is also slated to debut.In addition to the new series, ABC previously announced season renewals for Brothers & Sisters, Men in Trees, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Boston Legal, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Dancing with the Stars, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, The Bachelor, Supernanny, America's Funniest Home Videos and Wife Swap. October Road and Notes from the Underbelly will also return for second seasons.As previously announced, Saturday Night College Football will return for a second season on Saturday, September 1 (8:00 pm, ET).ABC's fall prime-time schedule is as follows (all times listed are Eastern, with new shows in bold):MONDAY: 8 pm Dancing with the Stars9:30 pm Sam I ...
ABC has granted early pickups to not one or two but three reality series: America's Funniest Home Videos, which will return for an 18th season of dogs sniffing crotches, and Supernanny and Wife Swap, both of which are currently in their third cycles.
Question: Any scoop on the third season of Rescue Me? Answer: The season's central conflict will mimic a certain ABC reality show — only Rescue Me's version will be a lot nastier.
Rural New Jersey isn't that far from New York City, but for Wife Swap mom Lynn Bradley, they're worlds apart. On tonight's episode of the new reality series (10 pm/ET on ABC), the Garden State homemaker switches places with a Manhattan mother who lives in an empire state of opulence, complete with three nannies and a housekeeper. Here, Bradley tells TV Guide Online how she went from wood-chopping to shoe-shopping, as she adapted the not-so-simple life of a socialite. TV Guide Online: How does it feel to be the wife who's depicted in a more positive light? You come across much better than your counterpart, Jodi Spolansky.Lynn Bradley: Oh yeah? I'm surprised. I don't really look at it that way. I thought I came across as a wimp because I couldn't stand up to [Steven, Jodi's husband]. He belittles you too quickly. You just want to crawl into a corner. TVGO: How was it when the cameras were off? Was he more sociable toward you?Br
ABC is mired in fourth place in the ratings, its executive ranks are in constant disarray and it hasn't had a major hit since Laverne & Shirley schlemieled onto the scene in 1976. Okay, I exaggerated a teensy bit with that last one, but you get the point. Despite all the doom and gloom, the Mickey Mouse network had reason to be upbeat as it kicked off its portion of the TCA press tour on Monday. Simply put: Of all the networks, ABC's got the best crop of new fall shows. Standouts include J.J. Abrams' island spooker Lost, the dark suburban soap Desperate Housewives and the hilarious family sitcom Complete Savages. It even has the most promising new reality show in Wife Swap. What more could a struggling network ask for? A minute-by-minute recap of yesterday's highlights, you say? Coming right up!EXECUTIVE SESSION9:10 am During her opening remarks, newly installed network president Anne Sweeney is upstaged