Karen Neal - “Major Crimes” stars Mary McDonnell (with Tony Denison). The drama’s debut clocked 7.2 million viewers.
One night after NBC wrapped its broadcast of the most-watched event in TV history — and maybe the most new-show promo-laden event, too — a new summer show debuted to whopping big ratings.
Unfortunately for NBC, that show was TNT’s “Major Crimes” — the spinoff of TNT’s “The Closer.” “Major Crimes,” an “all-new drama” (TNT’s words) that puts Mary McDonnell in charge of “television’s favorite squad of detectives” (read: cast of “The Closer”), clocked 7.2 million viewers.
More from Lisa de Moraes
Pulitzer Prize winner, Peabody recipient, Medal of Freedom honoree -- Lisa de Moraes is none of these, but she is an authority on the bad direction, over-acting, and muddled plot lines being played out in the TV industry's executive suites.
NBC also premiered a series Monday night. “Stars Earn Stripes” logged 5.149 million viewers.
“Major Crimes” received a lot of help from its lead-in: the series finale of “The Closer,” which was ending its seven-season run. The finale had an average audience of more than 9 million, which will likely wind up being the crime drama’s most-watched episode, when viewing of the episode over the next seven days becomes available. The “Live + 7” stat is the one that Nielsen now puts in the record books.
“Stars Earn Stripes” also received a lot of help. It was promoted heavily during the most-watched event in TV history, the London Olympic Games. And then there was all that free publicity it got when it was disdained by Sharon Osbourne and Archbishop Desmond Tutu — yes, TV makes strange bedfellows. (In the NBC reality series, minor celebrities are put through military- and first-responder-type training.)
While “Stars Earn Stripes” was premiering, Fox was unveiling its latest hour of tantrum throwing from Gordon Ramsay: “Hotel Hell” averaged 5.199 million viewers, edging out “Stars.”
Lochte’s new Zip code
Fresh off his five medal wins at the London Olympics, swimmer Ryan Lochte has booked his first TV series appearance, but it’s not on “The Bachelor” or “Dancing With the Stars,” as Lochte had hinted in the thick of competition.
Instead, the guy whose mom says he has time for only one-night stands will play what he knows — himself, in a cameo, on the CW soap “90210,” the network announced Tuesday.
Lochte will be a guest at a resort where Naomi (AnnaLynne McCord) and Max (Josh Zuckerman) are staying to work on their relationship on the Oct. 29 episode of the show, the network said.
“When we found out Ryan Lochte was going to be in town and might appear on ‘90210,’ we felt like we’d won a gold medal!” said show exec producers Patti Carr and Lara Olsen in Tuesday’s announcement.
“We only wish the episode was a surf event, so we could have gotten him in the water, but he deserves a little rest on dry land,” they added.
During the Games, Lochte told NBC’s ‘Today” show that he’d be game for ABC’s “The Bachelor” or “Dancing With the Stars.” In interviews, he gave the edge to “Dancing” because, he said, he’s a competitive guy. He also told NBC’s Games celebrity interviewer Ryan Seacrest that he planned to move to Los Angeles after the Olympics.
Of HBO and Ocho
While VH1 decided that it had to cancel an already-shot reality series after one of its stars, the Miami Dolphins’ Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, was arrested over the weekend for allegedly attacking his new wife, HBO will go ahead with Tuesday night’s episode of “Hard Knocks.” In one of those happy coincidences, the show follows the Dolphins this season.
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