TV Ratings: Highlights (Dec.16-19)

The week has been filled with repeats, so here's just a quick look at some of the shows making headlines in the Nielsens this week. How well did ABC's and NBC's competing game shows do? What about the season finales of "Survivor" and "The Biggest Loser"? Was The CW better off saving the holiday edition of "Gossip Girl" for January? And which show went out with a whimper? Come in and find out.

The 2-hour finale of "Survivor: China" scored over 15.1 million viewers on Sunday night, followed by a "Survivor" special which posted an equally healthy 12.2 million viewers.

The battle of the network game shows began on Monday night with ABC's "Duel" kicking things off with 7.79 million viewers, while NBC's "Clash of the Choirs" posted a slightly more disappointing 7.15 million. Obviously those ratings are nothing to write home about.

On Tuesday however, ABC's "Duel" lost some steam falling to 7.31 million, while NBC's "Choirs" actually rose to 7.72 million. The show was followed by the season finale of "The Biggest Loser" which scored a much superior 11.43 million.

Then on Wednesday, "Duel" rose a bit to 7.41 million, while NBC aired a 2-hour edition of "Choirs" which came out on top with 8.25 million viewers. Thursday's ratings have yet to be published, but it appears we may have a winner here.

Meanwhile, an extended "Choirs" didn't really help the network's time travelling drama "Journeyman" which went out with a whimper. The series finale of the canceled drama pulled in only 4.63 million viewers.

Finally, The CW aired a new Christmas-themed episode of "Gossip Girl," but may have been better off saving it for January. As some fans may not have realized a new episode was on, the show sank to a series-low of 1.8 million viewers. Ouch.

The last and almost the least, ABC's Ford Theater special did do much better than last week's repeat of "Dirty Sexy Money," but the show actually did just a little bit better than the underwhelming "Journeyman" scoring only 4.86 million viewers.

I'll add Thursday night's ratings as soon as they are available.

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SURVIVOR FUELS CBS
Ratings for Thursday, September 14, 2006

CBS was at the top of its game yet again winning Thursday's US network television battle. The Eye network kicked things off with the controversial return of "Survivor: Cook Islands" (17,71 mil viewers), the highest rated program across all networks last night. Back to back CSI repeats delivered 15,40 and 14,54 mil viewers, respectively.

Over at ABC, back to back repeats of Grey's Anatomy pushed the Alphabet net to the second place with 7,41 and 9,06 mil viewers. 8,16 mil viewers tuned into an all-new Primetime Live at 10pm.

FOX was third with its combination of sitcoms 'till Death and Happy Hour that lost some considerable steam in the second week (6,33 and 5,25 mil viewers respectively). Then at 9 the disappointing Celebrity Duets pulled in 5,89 mil viewers.

Finally, gone are the days of Must See TV as NBC's line-up of supersized installments of My Name Is Earl and The Office finished fourth. A repeat of ER at 10pm did not improve things much (5,15 mil viewers).