By Lisa de Moraes
Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Last week, when the Hollywood writers' strike was in full throttle, viewers flocked to whatever crumbs of original scripted programming were tossed their way -- not.

Here's a look at the week's super and subpar:

WINNERS

"20/Tabloid," a.k.a. "20/20: The Final Hours of Natalee Holloway." Just in time for the February ratings sweeps, the journalists at the ABC News program succumbed to an urgent need to update us about new evidence in America's favorite blond-chick-in-peril story that has prompted Aruban authorities to reopen the case -- again. The update snagged nearly 13 million viewers, the newsmag's biggest audience in more than a year.

"Biggest Loser." NBC gave its weight-watching competition another season pickup because week in and week out it's the best performer among young viewers in the "American Idol" Tuesday time slot.

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." While Disney-owned ABC's "EM:HE" team builds a deserving family a new home, the family repays the favor by agreeing to be shipped to San Diego to endure a "Hannah Montana" concert and meet with singer Miley Cyrus, so the show can flog that Disney franchise. It beat the Grammy-cast among teen viewers and clocked the biggest overall "EM:HE" audience in a year.

LOSERS

Grammy Awards. Despite a Writers Guild the-show-must-go-on waiver, and big trophy hauls by Amy Winehouse and Kanye West, the music industry's trophy show drew its second-smallest audience in at least 30 years and probably forever -- 17.17 million viewers. Among 18-to-49-year-olds, the Grammy telecast suffered its smallest ratings in people-meter history. Could viewers have been confused by the Writers Guild's flipping and flopping over picketing the show? Do they not care about Winehouse and West? Whatevs.

Scripted series promoted during Super Bowl. Super Bowl plugs appear to have done little for scripted series. "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," for instance, logged just 164,000 additional viewers from its last pre-Bowl telecast to its first post-Bowl episode. "Prison Break" went down by 400,000 viewers. The Super Bowl's biggest beneficiary, "House," which received in-game promos plus the plum postgame time slot, went up 600,000 week to week to become the week's most watched scripted show. But, alas, it was also that series's last completed original episode.

"Welcome to the Captain"/"The New Adventures of Old Christine." On Monday, neither CBS's premiering "Captain" nor the season debut of "Christine" could touch the crowd collected by CBS's "Two and a Half Men" rerun.

"Lipstick Jungle"/"Cashmere Mafia." Cume the audiences for the two new "Sex and the City"-esque sitcoms, on NBC and ABC, respectively, and you still don't have a top-10 show for the week.

"The Return of Jezebel James." Before it even debuts, Fox has tossed its Amy Sherman-Palladino sitcom to the wolves, canceling its March 12 post-"American Idol" launch so as to expand the singing competition's half-hour results show to one hour. "JJ" instead will debut two nights later, on a Friday -- Friday being Fox's Saturday.

CBS's Super Tuesday coverage. CBS kicked off its prime-time coverage of the presidential primaries in 24 states at 9 p.m.; from 10 to 11, it got beat by CNN and had FNC breathing down its neck.

"Survivor: Micronesia." Thursday's debut audience of 14 million was the franchise's smallest to date, behind even its premiere in May '00 (15.5 million), though the show is still considered resilient for a reality series in its 16th edition.

The week's 10 most watched programs, in order, were: Fox's Tuesday and Wednesday "American Idol," and "House"; CBS's broadcast of the Grammy Awards ceremony; Fox's "Moment of Truth"; ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Lost"; CBS's "Survivor: Micronesia"; NBC's Monday "Deal or No Deal"; and CBS's "60 Minutes."