Lisa de Moraes TV Column: New-Season Draws Include Susan Boyle, Leno, 'House'

Susan Boyle, Jay Leno, Giants, Cowboys and a Vicodin-addicted doctor drew us back to prime time as the new TV season got underway.

Here's a look at the week's winners and losers:

Winners

"House." Fox won the opening night of the 2009-10 TV season thanks to a two-hour all-about-the-Vicodin episode of "House," which attracted nearly 17 million viewers Monday -- about 2 million better than last season's kickoff.

Emmy Awards. The audience for Sunday's Neil Patrick Harris-hosted Emmycast climbed to 14 million when final stats came in -- a 2 million improvement on last year's smallest-ever crowd for the franchise, and no small feat given that the glam-category winners were a virtual rerun of last year and the trophy show aired against the biggest regular-season NFL football game in 12 years.

"Glee." In an effort to keep the press writing about its new musical comama (comedy-cum-drama), Fox announced it had picked up "Glee" for the full season, though the most recent episode averaged 7 million viewers and the show had yet to air against its regular broadcast competition. This strategy is what we call "so cable."

"Big Bang Theory." Moved to 9:30 p.m. Monday, CBS's nerds sitcom opened its third season with its biggest audience yet: 13 million.

Susan Boyle. NBC's competition series "America's Got Talent" wrapped its season with its biggest audience on record -- 16 million viewers -- last week. Kentucky's charming 35-year-old chicken-catcher Kevin Skinner won the $1 million prize and a gig headlining the "America's Got Talent" variety show in Las Vegas next month, but we suspect many people tuned in to watch Brit singing sensation Susan Boyle, who covered the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" during the finale -- the first single from her debut album, "I Dreamed a Dream," due out in November.

Jay Leno. A whopping 18 million viewers watched the unveiling of his prime-time NBC show last week -- the No. 2-ranked program, behind Sunday's Giants-Cowboys game. (This Monday, he attracted 6 million viewers against season debuts on the competition.)

President Obama. More than 7 million people watched Obama visit David Letterman's CBS late-night show Monday. Obama's appearance -- the first by a seated president to Letterman's show -- was no match for the 13 million who tuned in in December 2005 when Dave and Oprah kissed and made up, ending a years-long feud. But it was Dave's biggest crowd since, and Dave appears to have thumped not only NBC's time-slot competitor, "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" (2.4 million viewers), but also Leno (6 million). We won't know for sure until Nielsen's final Monday late-night stats show up in about a week.

Losers

"Dancing With the Stars." ABC's decision to invite disgraced former House majority leader Tom DeLay to participate may have backfired. Monday's ninth-edition debut of the ballroom dance competition attracted an average audience of 18 million viewers -- sounds great, but it's the show's smallest opening audience since its first year on the air. The show's past two fall editions each clocked more than 21 million.

"Heroes." Beyond saving: Just 6 million bothered watching its two-hour season debut -- the show's smallest audience on record for an original episode. Yes, we know about the DVR-ing and the downloading, but they won't cover the 40 percent year-to-year ratings plunge.

"The Beautiful Life: TBL." CW's unveiling of Ashton Kutcher's semi-autobiographical drama -- hunky Iowa farm boy becomes New York model to save family farm -- connected with only 1.4 million viewers despite the episode's Emmy-worthy moment in which Farmer Dad tells his clan, "We're gonna be paying off this little family vacation for the next three harvests."

"Curb Your Enthusiasm." HBO dismissed as Sturm und Drang concerns about its decision to return "Curb" in the teeth of Sunday's Emmy Awards and the biggest regular-season NFL football game in a dozen seasons. But network execs may be rethinking that after the show attracted only 1.1 million viewers at 9 p.m. (then 811,000 at 10, but who knows how many were enjoying it a second time).