Here's a list of the top 20 prime-time shows by viewership numbers, compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Dec. 22-28:
1. "Sunday Night Football: Denver at San Diego," NBC, 14.85 million viewers.
2. "60 Minutes," CBS, 14.11 million viewers.
3. "Two And a Half Men," CBS, 11.82 million viewers.
4. "The Mentalist" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), CBS, 10.68 million viewers.
5. "NCIS" (Tuesday, 9 p.m.), CBS, 10.6 million viewers.
6. "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kickoff," NBC, 10.14 million viewers.
7. "Million Dollar Password," CBS, 9.84 million viewers.
8. "Cold Case," CBS, 9.69 million viewers.
9. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 8.54 million viewers.
10. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 8.03 million viewers.
11. "Ghost Whisperer," CBS, 7.8 million viewers.
12. "The OT," Fox, 7.62 million viewers.
13. "Football Night in America," NBC, 7.52 million viewers.
14. "Eleventh Hour," CBS, 7.37 million viewers.
15. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 7.24 million viewers.
16. "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 7.05 million viewers.
17. "CSI: NY," CBS, 6.92 million viewers.
18. "Worst Week," CBS, 6.86 million viewers.
19. "How I Met Your Mother," CBS, 6.84 million viewers.
20. "House," Fox, 6.74 million viewers.
Media giant Viacom Inc. has announced that Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 16 other channels will go dark on Time Warner Cable Inc. at 12:01 a.m. on New Year's Day if a new carriage fee deal isn't reached by then. This means that 13 million subscribers would have to get used to life without "Spongebob Squarepants," "South Park" and so on, according to Alex Dudley, a vice president at Time Warner Cable. The nation's second-largest cable operator and competition-crushing rate hiker primarily serves customers in New York, North and South Carolina, Ohio, Southern California and Texas.
Viacom had initially asked for fee increases of between 22% and 36% per channel, which would obviously increase customers' cable bills.
"The issue is that they have asked for an exorbitant increase in their carriage fees and their network ratings are sagging," Dudley said. "Basically we're trying to hold the line for our customer."'
Before you get all misty for the would-be martyrs over at Time Warner and start picketing outside Viacom's headquarters, let's examine Time Warner's practices for a moment. I'm still reeling from the recent 40% increase in my bill - Time Warner's way of rewarding customer loyalty. I signed on to pay just over a hundred bucks a month for cable and internet, which climbed to $140 once my service hit the one-year mark. Welcome to the wonderful world of "introductory rates."
Viacom said the increases, if implemented, would cost an extra 23 cents a month per subscriber, working out to about $36 million more in total fees It said that Americans spend a fifth of their TV time watching Viacom shows but its fees make up less than 2.5 percent of the Time Warner cable bill.
What a wonderful choice: either your already-ridiculous cable bill goes up yet again, or you'll lose a good chunk of the reason most people even have cable television. What'll it be?
The Ryan Seacrest-produced reality-show-barrel-scraping soulless crap that is "Momma's Boys" was down 20% in total viewers (5 million) from last week, and down 32% in the 18-49 demo. Meanwhile, NBC's prime-time "Today Show" special fared even worse in the same demo, but drew more overall viewers with 6.2 million. CBS' "CSI: Miami" pulled 8.5 million, Fox's "House" hit another 6.2 million and ABC's entirely unnecessary "Shrek the Halls" did alright with 7 million viewers.
Dick Clark is determined to make us all uncomfortable and sad once again this New Year's Eve, as he plans to host his 36th New Year's celebration from Times Square in New York - despite suffering a debilitating stroke four years ago. He'll be joined by fruity douche Ryan Seacrest to watch the ball drop tonight on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2009."
ABC-TV's 4-hour live bash will include performances by Natasha Bedingfield, Fall Out Boy, Jesse McCartney, Ne-Yo, Pussycat Dolls, Solange and Robin Thicke, none of which any of you should give the slightest hint of a shit about. Oh, and to top it off, peepants methface and Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie will host the Hollywood segments.
Clark, who turned 79 last month, has been a TV personality for 61 years.
Lauren Velez, better known as Lt. Maria Laguerta on the highly enjoyable "Dexter," will slip into a nurse's uniform for a multi-episode guest role on " Ugly Betty." Velez will appear in several episodes of the ABC series, where she'll play a nurse. Details are minimal as to how her character will be worked in, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, the secrecy has to do with the circumstances under which Velez's character enters the show. There are rumors that a major character will be killed off.
"Ugly Betty" picks up again on ABC on Thursday, Jan. 8. An airdate for Velez's first episode hasn't been set.
I dare you to care: The "Dancing With the Stars" tour suffered a setback on Saturday as Mark Ballas pulled a groin muscle, grimacing through several numbers and ultimately apologizing to the audience for not being at his best.
Ballas will need to rest for a couple of weeks in order to heal. You may remember Ballas from season six, when he and his partner, Olympic skater Kristi Yamaguchi, won the giant trophy last May. His other celebrity partners have been Cheetah Girl Sabrina Bryan and utterly clumsy reality star Kim Kardashian.
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