Clearly, Tuesday is still all about CBS: The Mentalist grabbed a season high 19.6 million viewers and, should overnight numbers hold, also nabbed the title of Night’s Top Program away from its lead-in, NCIS (19.1 million). But figuratively, at least, all eyes were on ABC’s eighth season premiere of the NBC castoff Scrubs. Back-to-back episodes, featuring guest star Courteney Cox (pictured), were seen by 6.8 and 6.6 million people, respectively. That’s shy of its season 7 premiere on ABC (7 million), but above its 7th season average (5.8 million). Though fans are no doubt questioning the comedy’s compatibility with its lead-in, Homeland Security USA (7.8 million), and lead-out, What Would You Do? (7 million), they can take heart in knowing that Scrubs did hit the 18-49 demo rating that creator Bill Lawrence told EW’s Michael Ausiello he believed would keep the network happy. We’ve also received a press release from ABC noting that Scrubs was Tuesday’s No. 1 show among "hard-to-reach men 18-34," and, best of all, our TV critic, Ken Tucker, liked what he saw.
NBC also has reason to smile this morning: The two-hour season premiere of The Biggest Loser: Couples averaged 11.8 million viewers, which matches the December finale of the Families edition (and betters that season’s premiere by nearly four million). Below, the overnight numbers for Tuesday.
| Time | Show | Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 p.m. | NCIS (CBS) The Biggest Loser: Couples (NBC) Homeland Security USA (ABC) House (Fox) 90210 (The CW) |
19.1 11.8 7.8 5.6 (repeat) 2.8 |
| 9:00 | The Mentalist (CBS) Scrubs (ABC) Fringe (Fox) Privileged (The CW) |
19.6 6.8 3.7 (repeat) 1.7 |
| 9:30 | Scrubs (ABC) | 6.6 |
| 10:00 | Without a Trace (CBS) Law & Order: SVU (NBC) What Would You Do? (ABC) |
13.2 10.6 7.0 |
For those interested in Monday’s numbers, which were delayed by Nielsen until this morning, the two-hour premiere of The Bachelor averaged 8.7 million viewers. That bests the premieres of the previous Bachelor with Brit Matt Grant (8.6 million) and The Bachelorette with DeAnna Pappas (8.1 million). As for the premiere of ABC’s Ashton Kutcher-Tyra Banks’ produced reality show True Beauty, it held on to 88 percent of its Bachelor lead-in with 7.6 million viewers.
More TV news:
Ken Tucker’s watching Scrubs
Ausiello Exclusive: Scrubs boss (sorta) spoils series finale
Amy Wilkinson recaps The Biggest Loser: Couples premiere
NCIS: Okay, now I get it
Kristen Baldwin recaps The Bachelor premiere
Bachelor host Chris Harrison blogs the premiere
Comments (1-12) of 12 Add your comment
I rarely watch Dateline NBC or 20/20 type shows, but last night I watched “What Would You Do?” and it was pretty interesting and uncomfortable. They had actors playing
Hispanic construction workers and another actor playing a racist coffee shop waiter, and they wanted to see how other people would react. It was pretty disturbing!
I caught 5 minutes of “What Would You Do?”. I despise shows like this. I think that the reactions I saw were probably some of the worst but people are being set up here. I am sure if it was not provoked by the actors, some of the people would have just minded their own business and walked away (note that none of those were shown). Like most media, sensationalism sells. Shame on ABC.
Go Scrubs! Hopefully it will continue to perform well; at least better than Kath & Kim and show NBC what they are missing!
scrubs=crap
i did watch nip/tuck..fabulous..gory..sexy..fun.. go fx!!!!!
Um NCIS was 19.3 actually not that it matters…
Wasn’t scrub’s season 7 premiere on NBC?
“That’s shy of its season 7 premiere on ABC.” You mean NBC, right?
“what would you do” was the best show on television last night! it’s original, and not some carbon copy crime show that cbs always seems to be showing. go abc! it is a great social expierment.
What I liked about the Homeland Security program was seeing how all of these agencies, some of which I did not know existed ( like the cryptology and the SRI agents)worked so diligently to protect America. While revealing the things many lowlifes do to smuggle drugs and other blights on mankind into the country, we saw how technology and our canine friends help us in the fight against criminals attempting to infiltrate our country. On a lighter note, the sadder but still funny 2nd part of Scrubs was my favorite last night and that What Would You Do show was very informative about the bias of everyday American people and people outside of America. Sometimes the truth is hard to swallow. Still, I loved the experiment they did with the fat, obnoxious, and loud Americans in Paris. That was a hoot!
Welcome back Scrubs. I really liked the two new episodes, not as silly as last year, but still funny. But the shows around it? Not something I’d watch.
As a premier I think my favourite so far has to be the second seasons. Nevertheless, the first episode was great whilst Courtney was a welcome hot addition to the cast. As much as I liked her, I dont think we should rid of Kelso or the Janitor just yet. They have been part of family brewing great comedy as they go along, although it will be interesting to see how the Janitor makes his way back into the hospital. That just sets you up nicely for a whole new set of comedy situations.
The Webepisdoes add to the story with great interns but I want to see more of Howey, I reckon he will be a great part of the spin off that is to come.
On a side note, where is the Todd??
Anyways on the back of that, I say well done, and welcome back JD and co….