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Behold, the Mighty, Giant Bouncy Balls

Splash, splat, waaah…

The sounds of summer TV are distinctiveand popular, with solid premieres last week for Wipeout, I Survived a Japanese Game Show and The Baby Borrowers, per Nielsen Media Research stats.

ABC’s Wipeout, a slippery, sloppy obstacle course fit for American gladiators, but tackled by American Joes and Janes, was the most watched show among TV’s prized, but ever-dwindling pool of 18-to-49-year-olds.

Overall, it averaged 10 million viewers, posted its network’s biggest summer premiere in three years, and ranked second behind NBC’s veteran summer show, America’s Got Talent (11.7 million).

I Survived a Japanese Game Show, an ABC offering fit for a Survivor-chosen island, but set on, yes, a pads-and-helmets-required Japanese game show, pulled in at 10th place (8 million).

NBC’s Baby Borrowers finished 11th, and averaged 7.9 million people who wondered what sort of people would let teens play parents to their children.

Add in 60 Minutes (third place, 9.4 million), So You Think You Can Dance (sixth place, 8.8 million for Thursday’s show; eighth place, 8.3 million for Wednesday’s show), Million Dollar Password (seventh place, 8.5 million for Sunday’s show) and NBC’s all-new Celebrity Family Feud (fifth place, 8.8 million), and there was little room in the Top 10 for any show that didn’t involve hot seats, buzzers or judges.

If the summer ratings stay strong, can giant bouncy balls be far behind for the fall?

Sure would keep Desperate Housewives hopping.

Other ratings highlights from the TV week ended Sunday:

• With all the premieres, Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen (14th place, 7.8 million) got a bit lost, though not by young adults. In the 18-to-49 demo, the cooking competition heated up to second place.
• NBC’s Last Comic Standing (44th place, 5.3 million), likewise, looked bigger in the demo standings, where it ranked 16th.
• ABC’s Hopkins is billed as a documentary, not reality, serieshence, no giant bouncy balls, and, hence, no eye-popping ratings (34th place, 5.9 million). Still, it won the most eclectic time slot of the season, opposite CBS’ Swingtown (36th place, 5.6 million) and NBC’s Fear Itself (56th place, 4.5 million).
• Swingtown did top Hopkins among younger, more open-minded viewers, finishing 25th in the 18-to-49 demo.
• Ratings-wise, ABC’s Dance Machine (73rd place, 3.6 million) is a throwback to The Ex-Wives Club and other reality-show bombs of last summer.
• In cable, pro wrestling on USA ruled (6.2 million).
• The BET Awards took second, with 5.8 million viewers, but also suffered a 9 percent drop from last year’s telecast.
• Lifetime got a solid premiere out of its new movie, The Tenth Circle (3.1 million). Disney Channel got an even-more solid rerun out of Camp Rock (4.2 million).
• USA’s In Plain Sight (4.5 million) was the most watched new scripted series, followed by USA’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent (4 million) and Lifetime’s Army Wives (3.8 million).
• Michelle Obama’s June 18 appearance on The View helped the ABC daytime show to its biggest week in three months. Among all the White House-aspiring Obamas and McCains who have appeared on The View since March, Michelle Obama drew the biggest crowd (4.5 million), followed by husband Barack Obama (4.1 million), John McCain (3.9 million) and wife Cindy McCain (3.5 million).

Looking at the overall network numbers, ratings continued to do the oddest thinggo up.

ABC and NBC had especially big weeks, thanks to their new summer shows, up 11 percent and 9 percent, respectively, over a year ago. Still, CBS finished on top in total viewers, averaging 6.6 million. Fox won the demo crown.

In cable, USA was the top prime-time network (3.1 million), followed by Disney Channel (2.4 million) and TNT (2.1 million).

Here’s a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:1. America’s Got Talent, NBC, 11.7 million viewers

1. America’s Got Talent, NBC, 11.7 million viewers
2. Wipeout, ABC, 10 million viewers
3. 60 Minutes, 9.4 million viewers
4. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 9.2 million viewers
5. Celebrity Family Feud, NBC, 8.8 million viewers
6. So You Think You Can Dance (Thursday), Fox, 8.6 million viewers
7. Million Dollar Password (Sunday), CBS, 8.5 million viewers
8. So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesday), Fox, 8.3 million viewers
9. CSI: Miami, CBS, 8.2 million viewers
10. I Survived a Japanese Game Show, 8 million viewers

High School Marathon

Camp Rock premiered big and repeated well. Now it only has to keep it up for another, oh, two and a half years.

Like High School Musical.

Giving the Jonas Brothers’ vehicle something to shoot for, the original HSM kept on keeping on last week, scoring nearly as many viewers for its 33rdyes, 33rdairing as a two-day-old rerun of Camp Rock.

A Thursday night High School Musical broadcast averaged 3.1 million viewers for the Disney Channel, according to Nielsen Media Research. That’s not far off from the 3.7 million who caught Sunday’s Camp Rock outing on Disney’s sister network, ABC Family Channel.

Overall, the numbers for Camp Rock were strong. As previously reported, Friday’s cable-topping premiere averaged 8.9 million viewers, more than HSM’s own debut, and more than anything else on TV on Friday night.

Its two weekend repeats, on ABC and ABC Family channel, averaged a combined 7.2 million. In all, Disney said 21 million people spent at least part of their weekend at Camp Rock22.4 million, if you count people in Canadaand ordered up a sequel.

A cable phenomenon, however, is not made in one weekend.

In 2006, for example, the Disney Channel movie The Cheetah Girls 2 also outdrew HSM’s premiere, 7.8 million to 7.7 million viewers. But while the Cheetah Girls franchise has proved a keeper, its TV movies have not consistently topped the cable ratings like HSM (or old Lindsay Lohan movies, for that matter).

More than a year and a half after its January 2006 debut, HSM could still draw 5 million viewers, more than most new cable shows. At its two-year anniversary, it attracted 4.5 million.

Zac Efron’s showering habits may be in question, but not his franchise’s ability to draw consistent ratings.

Other ratings highlights for the week ended Sunday:

• Lohan’s Freaky Friday has aired on Disney Channel about, rough estimate, a million times. Judging by the solid ratings3.1 million viewers for a Tuesday night repeat, and 3 million for a Sunday afternoon broadcastit’ll probably be asked back a million more times.
• Among cable shows that didn’t star dreamy tween sensations, USA’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent (4.7 million) and In Plain Sight (4.67 million) were tops.
• But enough about old people, back to the tweens: Disney’s The Wizards of Waverly Place (4.2 million) was cable’s top comedy series draw.
• Other cable highlights: Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood (667,000) was Oxygen’s top season opener ever; and the fourth-season debut of Weeds (1.3 million, per the Hollywood Reporter) was Showtime’s most watched anything ever.
• House flipping is out; house flipping while being absolutely impossible to work for is in. The second-season premiere of Bravo’s Flipping Out (672,000) was up 43 percent from its first-season opener, the network said.
• Broadcast TV aired stuff, too, last week. Of the stuff that aired, nothing was bigger than the Boston Celtics’ series-clinching win over the Los Angeles Lakers in game six of the NBA Finals (16.9 million).
• The Celtics should blow out the Lakers more often. According to ABC, viewewship of the NBA Finals overall was up 61 percent over last year’s series.
• NBC enjoyed a strong season premiere from America’s Got Talent (second place, 12.8 million).
• Other top summer series: Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance (fifth place, 8.87 million for Thursday’s episode; sixth place, 8.86 million for Wednesday’s episode); NBC’s Deal or No Deal (seventh place, 8.7 million for Tuesday’s episode; ninth place, 8.3 million for Wednesday’s episode); and, Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen (10th place, 8.25 million).
• CBS’ Million Dollar Password (12th place, 8.2 million) fell out of the top 10, but picked up a network order for six more episodes.
• CBS’ Swingtown (28th place, 6 million) won its time slot in adults, though, fortunately, not tweens.
• The Daytime Emmys have something in common with the Oscars: record-low ratings. Friday’s ABC broadcast was a new low for the show (43rd place, 5.4 million), down 35 percent from last year.
• The Univision telenovela Al Diablo Con Guapos (To Hell with the Handsome, if Wikipedia’s Spanish is good) is muy hotthree of its five weeknight installments landed in the top 25 among young adult viewers.

Thanks to America’s Got Talent, NBC emerged from the basement and won the week in total viewers, averaging 6.5 million.

Fox restored TV order by registering its usual victory among 18- to 49-year-olds.

In cable, USA, which didn’t air Camp Rock or HSM even once, was the top prime-time network (3 million). Disney (2.8 million) and TNT (2.2 million) trailed.

Here’s a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. NBA Finals Game Six (Boston vs. Los Angeles), ABC, 16.9 million viewers
2. America’s Got Talent, NBC, 12.8 million viewers
3. 60 Minutes, 9.1 million viewers
4. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 8.9 million viewers
5. So You Think You Can Dance (Thursday), Fox, 8.87 million viewers
6. So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesday), Fox, 8.86 million viewers
7. Deal or No Deal (Tuesday), NBC, 8.7 million viewers
8. House, Fox, 8.6 million viewers
9. Deal or No Deal (Wednesday), NBC, 8.3 million viewers
10. Hell’s Kitchen, Fox, 8.25 million viewers

Time Comes for Groundhog Day, Others, on Latest AFI Top 10 List

If you’ve been waiting for Groundhog Day to get its due, your wait, like Bill Murray’s at the end of that film, is finally over.

The 1993 comedy about a weatherman’s very, very long day was one of 100 films honored by the American Film Institute with its latest best-of list.

AFI’s 10 Top 10, a list of lists, actually, covering genres from animation to Western, was revealed in a CBS special Tuesday.

The three-hour program was the least-watched show of the night on the big four networks, averaging an estimated 5.5 million viewers, per Nielsen Media Research.

Game 6 of the NBA Finals and the premiere of America’s Got Talent might have proved bigger draws, but Marty McFly wasn’t complaining.

Like Groundhog Day, 1985’s Back to the Future was an AFI first-timer, coming in at 10th on the list of Hollywood’s 10 best sci-fi movies of all time. (Groundhog Day was honored in the fantasy category, where it ranked eighth.)

Other newbies: The Lion King (4th, animation); Shrek (eighth, animation); Cinderella (ninth, animation); Finding Nemo (10th, animation); the 1924 silent version of The Thief of Bagdad (ninth, fantasy); Red River (fifth, Western); McCabe & Mrs. Miller (eighth, Western); and The Hustler (sixth, sports).

The courtroom drama category featured the most newcomers to an AFI list: sixKramer vs. Kramer (third), Witness for the Prosecution (sixth), Anatomy of a Murder (seventh), In Cold Blood (eighth), A Cry in the Dark (ninth) and Judgment at Nuremberg (10th).

The romantic comedy, mystery, gangster and epic genres did not welcome rookies. Every film honored in those categories was on at least one previous AFI list, if not several others. The Wizard of Oz, for example, made the cut on 10 other AFI lists, more than any other film honored as a 10 Top 10 film.

In all, the AFI has now issued 13 best-of lists since 1998, when it unveiled its picks for the 100 top U.S. movies of the 20th century.

Here’s a rundown of the top 10 genre categories:

ANIMATION

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937
2. Pinocchio, 1940
3. Bambi, 1942
4. The Lion King, 1994
5. Fantasia, 1940
6. Toy Story, 1995
7. Beauty and the Beast, 1991
8. Shrek, 2001
9. Cinderella, 1950
10. Finding Nemo, 2003

FANTASY

1. The Wizard of Oz, 1939
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001
3. It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946
4. King Kong, 1933
5. Miracle on 34th Street, 1947
6. Field of Dreams, 1989
7. Harvey, 1950
8. Groundhog Day, 1993
9. The Thief of Bagdad, 1924
10. Big, 1988

GANGSTER

1. The Godfather, 1972
2. Goodfellas, 1990
3. The Godfather Part II, 1974
4. White Heat, 1949
5. Bonnie and Clyde, 1967
6. Scarface: The Shame of a Nation, 1932
7. Pulp Fiction, 1994
8. The Public Enemy, 1931
9. Little Caesar, 1930
10. Scarface, 1983

SCIENCE FICTION

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968
2. Star Wars: Episode IVA New Hope, 1977
3. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982
4. A Clockwork Orange, 1971
5. The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951
6. Blade Runner, 1982
7. Alien, 1979
8. Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1991
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956
10. Back to the Future, 1985

WESTERN

1. The Searchers, 1956
2. High Noon, 1952
3. Shane, 1953
4. Unforgiven, 1992
5. Red River, 1948
6. The Wild Bunch, 1969
7. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969
8. McCabe & Mrs. Miller, 1971
9. Stagecoach, 1939
10. Cat Ballou, 1965

SPORTS

1. Raging Bull, 1980
2. Rocky, 1976
3. The Pride of the Yankees, 1942
4. Hoosiers, 1986
5. Bull Durham, 1988
6. The Hustler, 1961
7. Caddyshack, 1980
8. Breaking Away, 1979
9. National Velvet, 1944
10. Jerry Maguire, 1996

MYSTERY

1. Vertigo, 1958
2. Chinatown, 1974
3. Rear Window, 1954
4. Laura, 1944
5. The Third Man, 1949
6. The Maltese Falcon, 1941
7. North By Northwest, 1959
8. Blue Velvet, 1986
9. Dial M for Murder, 1954
10. The Usual Suspects, 1995

ROMANTIC COMEDY

1. City Lights, 1931
2. Annie Hall, 1977
3. It Happened One Night, 1934
4. Roman Holiday, 1953
5. The Philadelphia Story, 1940
6. When Harry Met Sally…, 1989
7. Adam’s Rib, 1949
8. Moonstruck, 1987
9. Harold and Maude, 1971
10. Sleepless in Seattle, 1993

COURTROOM DRAMA

1. To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962
2. 12 Angry Men, 1957
3. Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979
4. The Verdict, 1982
5. A Few Good Men, 1992
6. Witness for the Prosecution, 1957
7. Anatomy of a Murder, 1959
8. In Cold Blood, 1967
9. A Cry in the Dark, 1988
10. Judgment at Nuremberg, 1961

EPIC

1. Lawrence of Arabia, 1962
2. Ben-Hur, 1959
3. Schindler’s List, 1993
4. Gone With the Wind, 1939
5. Spartacus, 1960
6. Titanic, 1997
7. All Quiet on the Western Front, 1930
8. Saving Private Ryan, 1998
9. Reds, 1981
10. The Ten Commandments, 1956

Can’t Beat "Beat L.A."

Fueled by the resurgent NBA Finals, TV ratings are going where TV ratings rarely go: up.

Through the first three full weeks of the summer season, the big four broadcast networks have combined to average 6.4 million viewers, up from 6.2 million for the same period last year.

The gain is modest3 percentbut it’s a gain. Unlike the 10 percent decline the big four networks collectively suffered during the just-completed regular season.

The summer, and especially ABC, have benefited from basketball’s renewed Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers rivalry.

Viewership for the first five games of the finals are up 57 percent over last year, ABC said. Game six airs tonight. If the Lakers are good, and ABC is lucky, the series-deciding game seven will air Thursday night.

Still, it’s not just basketball that’s priming prime time.

NBC got a boost from hockey’s resurgent Stanley Cup Finals. ABC got a late-airing season finale from Lost, not to mention from Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty. CBS found a new top 10 show in the Regis Philbin-hosted Million Dollar Password. Fox, the only network to add viewers last season, held steady with So You Think You Can Dance and its other reality shows.

The way things are going, the Celtics and Lakers might just get a fall spinoff.

Here’s a look at the individual ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday, per Nielsen Media Research stats:

• Make no mistake about basketball’s impact on the numbersthe NBA Finals ran the show last week. Take away games three-five, and the most watched anything on TV was a repeat of CBS’ Two and a Half Men (fourth place, 10.7 million).
• Per usual, Million Dollar Password (seventh place, 9.36 million) led So You Think You Can Dance (10th place, 8.9 million for Wednesday’s episode; 17th place, 8 million for Thursday’s) as the most watched summer series.
• Per usual, So You Think You Can Dance (fifth place in the 18-49 demo for Wednesday’s episode; seventh place in the demo for Thursday’s) outdid Million Dollar Password (24th place in the demo) among viewers who can still aspire to agility.
• CBS’ Swingtown (21st place, 7 million) isn’t striking outexcept with crime-drama fans. The new show about swingers lost nearly 30 percent of its lead-in from an old CSI (sixth place, 9.4 million).
• NBC got decent performances from Nashville Star (23rd place, 6.7 million) and Celebrity Circus (24th place, 6.5 millionand an even stronger 12th place showing in the 18-to-49 demographic), which is more than can be said of ABC’s The Mole (70th place, 3.9 million), or even NBC’s Last Comic Standing (66th place, 4 million).
• CBS’ Tony Awards telecast (29th place, 6.3 million) was up a smidgen from last year’s all-time low.
• As small a niche as the Tonys seems to serve, Sondheim fans should be pleased to know NBC’s American Gladiators (37th place, 5.6 million) serves an even smaller one.
• ABC’s Men in Trees (54th place, 4.6 million for its series finale) went out with a whimper.
• Nick’s iCarly (4.5 million) celebrated its new soundtrack album à la Hannah Montana, as the most watched comedy or drama series in all of cable.
• Other top-rated cable shows: Lifetime’s Army Wives (4.2 million); USA’s In Plain Sight (4.1 million); and, the season finale of Bravo’s Top Chef (3.5 million).
• Disney Channel eked one more prime-time broadcast, for now, out of High School Musical 2 (3 million) before devoting itself to the Jonas Brothers’ Camp Rock, premiering Friday.

Led by Regis and reruns, CBS was the most watched network, averaging 7.2 million viewers of all ages. Led by extremely tall men, ABC was the most watched network among young adults, averaging 3.3 million 18-to-49-year-olds.

In cable, USA (2.7 million) was the top prime-time network, followed by Disney (2.2 million) and TBS (2 million).

Here’s a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. NBA Finals Game Five (Boston vs. Los Angeles), ABC, 17.4 million viewers
2. NBA Finals Game Three (Boston vs. Los Angeles), ABC, 14.5 million viewers
3. NBA Finals Game Four (Boston vs. Los Angeles), ABC, 13.8 million viewers
4. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 10.7 million viewers
5. NCIS, CBS, 10.2 million viewers
6. CSI, CBS, 9.4 million viewers
7. Million Dollar Password, CBS, 9.36 million viewers
8. 48 Hours Mystery (Tuesday), CBS, 9.2 million viewers
9. CSI: NY, CBS, 9.18 million viewers
10. So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesday), Fox, 8.9 million viewers

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