Debut Numbers for Fallon: Not Too Shabby

The President, The Bachelor, The Donald, plus a rare Sunday made-for-broadcast-TV movie made for a very special week, ratings-wise.

Here's a look at the week's predators and prey:

Winners

Jimmy Fallon. It appears Fallon did not embarrass himself in his "Late Night" debut, based on preliminary stats. We've got only overnight metered-market household numbers, which no one will remember. But NBC says Fallon did 35 percent better than Conan O'Brien's season-to-date average in the time slot, which is super-lame because that includes Conan reruns. Looks as though Fallon beat CBS's Craig Ferguson in the time slot, according to early stats, even though Ferguson had Paris Hilton as his guest. Can we all agree she is over? Great. Fallon also beat ABC's Jimmy Kimmel in the half-hour when their two shows overlap but, ABC notes, Kimmel's show overall copped a bigger crowd than Fallon's. NBC counters that Kimmel's earlier start counts for a lot late at night (so true) and besides, Fallon had only Robert De Niro and Justin Timberlake as his guests, while Kimmel's guest was The. Skeeviest. Bachelor. Ever.

Bachelor Jason Mesnick. Season finale of ABC's make-a-marriage series "The Bachelor" clocks its biggest crowd in five years Monday -- 15.5 million viewers -- when Mesnick wraps up his son-as-chick-magnet gag and proposes to Melissa (gak). Then, Mesnick heads to "Bachelor: After the Final Rose" and bags an even bigger audience -- a franchise-best 17.5 million viewers -- when he tells show host Chris Harrison that he's going to break up with Melissa right there on national TV, because he has feelings for someone else: runner-up Molly! Shut It! Melissa gets whacked, Jason asks Molly to go out for a drink, Molly scoffs at him, then makes out with him, which, in fairness, would confuse any guy. Mesnick next heads to Kimmel's late-night show -- and cops more viewers than Fallon when he tells Kimmel he broke up with Melissa because he did not want to lie to America. Mesnick's appearance hands Kimmel what looks to be his biggest Monday audience ever, if the metered-market trend holds up when final stats are spit out. If you think ABC's done with the Mesnick gravy train, you are wrong -- Part 2 of "After the Final Rose" aired last night, giving viewers yet another glimpse of his incredible loserness.

Chuck Lorre. CBS renews Lorre's "Two and a Half Men" -- the country's most watched comedy -- for three more seasons, and his "Big Bang Theory" for an additional two. The press calls it a sign of the two shows' popularity. Yes, it's all that -- and a sign that CBS knows Warner Bros. TV will give it a cheaper license-fee deal if it buys the two shows in bulk. Like Wal-Mart.

President Obama. At least 52.4 million caught Obama's first Address to the Joint Session of Congress -- the biggest AttJSoC since President George W. Bush clocked about 62 million viewers in January 2003 with his War in Iraq Walk-Up AttJSoC, a.k.a the Yellowcake Uranium Address. Biggest beneficiary is Fox News Channel, which becomes the week's second-most-watched cable network.

Losers

"Jesse Stone: Thin Ice." CBS Sunday movie, starring Tom Selleck, snags 15.2 million viewers -- the week's fifth-most-watched program. But 12 million of them are older than 50, so they don't count, because that's how Madison Avenue rolls. Viewers 49 and younger are so dead-set on not watching a Tom Selleck flick, they flee to NBC instead to watch Donald Trump exchange unpleasantries with Joan Rivers and fire Andrew Dice Clay on the season debut of "The Celebrity Apprentice." "TCA" logs only 8.8 million viewers -- the show's smallest opening ever -- but 5.7 million of them are younger than 50 -- which makes "Celebrity Apprentice" the week's No. 8-ranked show among the 18-to-49-year-olds who are the trophy wives of Mad Ave.

"Life on Mars." After last week's episode attracted fewer than 5 million viewers, ABC let "Mars" producers know it was curtains so they could write and shoot a series finale.

"Privileged." CW picked up every drama series on its fall slate for next season, except "Privileged." Ouch.

"Ugly Betty"/"Kath & Kim." Pushed around by the president, "American Idol" moves its results show to Thursday, against which ABC's "Betty" suffers her smallest-ever numbers -- just 6.7 million viewers -- while NBC's "Kath & Kim" plunges to its worst-ever 3.4 million viewers. Also killed by Thursday "Idol" was NBC's 8 p.m. "Secrets of the Furious Five," which, we're told, was the bonus material on the "Kung Fu Panda: Furious Five" DVD posing as a TV show. It actually did better than "Kath & Kim," scoring more than 4 million viewers. "DVD Bonus Material: The Series" -- look for it on NBC in the fall.

The week's 10 most watched programs, in order, were President Obama's Address to the Joint Session of Congress, Fox's Wednesday "American Idol," Fox's Thursday "American Idol," CBS's "NCIS," CBS's "CSI," CBS's "Jesse Stone: Thin Ice," Fox's "House," CBS's "60 Minutes," CBS's "Criminal Minds" and CBS's "CSI: NY."