Rosie’s dreams of TV comeback dashed; ‘Dancing’ finale dominates ratings
December 3, 2008
NEW YORK — Rosie O’Donnell’s dream of bringing back the television variety show was dashed.
Her NBC special the night before Thanksgiving, “Rosie Live,” attracted a meager audience of 5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Liza Minnelli, Alec Baldwin, Clay Aiken and Alanis Morissette were among the guests.
The show was widely considered a test-drive: if it intrigued audiences, an O’Donnell variety show could have become a series.
NBC now says there are no plans to make any more O’Donnell specials.
The show ranked No. 81 in Nielsen’s weekly prime-time rankings, below Univision’s Wednesday telenovela “Querida Enemiga.”
O’Donnell’s former colleague on “The View,” Barbara Walters, did much better on Thanksgiving eve with her Barack and Michelle Obama interview. It was seen by 11.6 million people, the most in its time slot for a year and a half, Nielsen said.
The variety show was a personal project for O’Donnell, who wrote on her blog about watching, as a child with her mother, Minnelli perform on television six months before her mother died. Attempts to revive the variety format have largely failed, with shows like “American Idol” and “Dancing With the Stars” filling its role of programming that can be watched together with the family.
In fact, the season finale of “Dancing” dominated the week’s ratings. The final dance-off was seen by 21.1 million people.
For the week, CBS led with an average of 11 million viewers in prime-time (6.8 rating, 12 share). ABC averaged 10.3 million (6.3, 11) and won the coveted 18-to-49-year-old demographic for the third time in four weeks. NBC had 6.6 million viewers (4.0, 7), Fox 6.1 million (3.7, 6), My Network TV 1.9 million (1.1, 2), the CW 1.4 million (0.9, 1) and ION Television 730,000 (0.5, 1).
A ratings point represents 1,145,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 114.5 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Nov. 24-30. Listings include the week’s ranking, with viewership for the week. An “X” in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 21.1 million viewers.
2. “Dancing With the Stars Results,” ABC, 20.65 million viewers.
3. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 18.64 million viewers.
4. “NCIS,” CBS, 18.12 million viewers.
5. “The Mentalist,” CBS, 15.93 million viewers.
6. “Sunday Night Football,” NBC, 15.92 million viewers.
7. “Desperate Housewives,” ABC, 15.81 million viewers.
8. “Two And a Half Men,” CBS, 14.95 million viewers.
9. “CSI: Miami,” CBS, 14.33 million viewers.
10. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 14.11 million viewers.
11. “House,” Fox, 12.87 million viewers.
12. “CSI: NY,” CBS, 12.3 million viewers.
13. “Amazing Race 13,” CBS, 11.83 million viewers.
14. “Barbara Walters Special,” ABC, 11.61 million viewers.
15. “Cold Case,” CBS, 11.52 million viewers.
16. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” ABC, 11.33 million viewers.
17. “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” ABC, 11.08 million viewers.
18. “Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick,” NBC, 10.82 million viewers.
19. “Samantha Who?” ABC, 10.71 million viewers.
20. “CSI: Thanksgiving Special,” CBS, 10.68 million viewers.
Rankings for the top 10 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Nov. 24-30.
1. “Monday Night Football,” ESPN, 11.38 million viewers.
2. College Football: Texas vs. Texas A&M, ESPN, 5.56 million viewers.
3. “WWE Raw” (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 5.04 million viewers.
4. “WWE Raw” (Monday, 8 p.m.), USA, 4.7 million viewers.
5. “SpongeBob SquarePants” (Friday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 4.44 million viewers.
6. “SpongeBob SquarePants” (Friday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 4.18 million viewers.
7. “NCIS” (Monday, 6 p.m.), USA, 4.16 million viewers.
8. “SpongeBob SquarePants” (Saturday, 8:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 4.1 million viewers.
9. “SpongeBob SquarePants” (Friday, 8:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 4.09 million viewers.
10. “SpongeBob SquarePants” (Friday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 4.08 million viewers.
