'Wipeout' Wipes Up in the Ratings

Only two scripted series were among the 10 most watched in the country last week -- one starred Charlie Sheen, the other David Caruso. We're not sure what it means, but we're fairly certain it can't be good. The rest of the best was mostly reality programming, including NBC's "America's Got Talent," which captured the biggest crowd, followed closely by ABC's unveiling of "Wipeout."

Here's a look at the week's "Wipeouts" (good) and wipeouts (bad):

WINNERS

"Wipeout." The top-rated summer series-opener on any network in nearly a year, "Wipeout" logged nearly 10 million viewers Tuesday. It was the week's top series among the 18-to-49-year-olds who are the hot blond chicks of Madison Avenue, becoming TV's first series in nearly a year to open at No. 1 in the coveted demographic. Thanks to "Wipeout" and the debut of "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" immediately afterward, ABC clocked its strongest non-sports summer Tuesday in nearly seven years.

"America's Got Talent." Almost 12 million caught the second episode of this round of NBC's competition series, the only program on broadcast or cable to break double digits last week.

"Hopkins." The debut of the ABC News documentary series about Johns Hopkins Hospital staffers won its time slot when almost 6 million tuned in. That was about 74 percent more viewers than its "Grey's Anatomy" rerun lead-in.

BET Awards. Sure, 5.9 million viewers is the trophy show's smallest audience in three years. But it still beat Fox, which only logged 5.6 million viewers that night with a "Hell's Kitchen" rerun and original. BET's trophy show was also the night's No. 1 telecast, on cable or broadcast, with teens.

LOSERS

"Secret Diary of a Call Girl." Showtime's crowd seems to be quickly losing interest in the network's call girl. Only about half of those who watched the unveiling returned for another round a week later -- that's about 538,000 people. Its "Weeds" lead-in fared much better, week to week, bagging 1.1 million viewers, compared with the previous week's 1.3 mil in the same slot.

"Dance Machine"/"Duel." ABC performed the neat trick of losing audience every half-hour between 8 and 10 Friday, which is pretty hard to do in the summer because so many more people are coming to their TV sets each half-hour during daylight saving time.

CW. The CW network limped through another week, closing things out with an average of just 760,000 for Sunday night's lineup. Most other nights it programs, CW hovered somewhere between 1 million and 1.8 mil, excepting Friday night, when it actually whomped both ABC and Fox with an average audience of more than 4 million viewers glued to "Friday Night SmackDown." Fortunately, CW is getting rid of that turkey in the fall.

The week's 10 most watched programs, in order, were: NBC's "America's Got Talent"; ABC's "Wipeout"; CBS's "60 Minutes" and "Two and a Half Men"; NBC's "Celebrity Family Feud"; Fox's Thursday "So You Think You Can Dance"; CBS's "Million Dollar Password"; Fox's Wednesday "So You Think You Can Dance"; CBS's "CSI: Miami"; and ABC's "I Survived a Japanese Game Show."