Weekly Ratings: 1/4 – 1/9

Sunday Ratings: Did the Superstars of Dance Have Legs?

7 pm/ET
Trailing the conclusion of Fox's NFL coverage, 60 Minutes placed second with 12.32 million total viewers. The first hour of Saturday Night Live's "Sports Extra" special came in a distant fourth (behind Funniest Home Videos), with 4.48 mil.

8 pm
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition topped the hour with just under 11 million viewers; Million Dollar Password was a close second with 10.4 mil. The SNL Sports Extra surged to 6.88 mil in its second hour. Fox's rebroadcast of 24: Redemption averaged 5.9 mil over its two-hour run.

9 pm
Housewives was No. 1 with 14.33 million viewers, yet down 10 percent from its last fresh outing. Cold Case came in second with 12.66 mil, followed by the first hour of NBC's Superstars of Dance premiere (10.4 mil).

10 pm
NBC's superstar Dancers showed some legs by topping the 10 o'clock hour with 10.07 million viewers, besting The Unit (9.73 mil, up 19 percent from its previous new episode). Brothers & Sisters brought up the rear with 9.16 mil, down 14 percent.

Monday & Tuesday Ratings: Huge Gains for Biggest Loser, Scrubs-on-ABC

The Nielsens this week have experienced delays, so I just had two days' worth of data dumped on my desk. Here are selected highlights:

Monday

• Fox's coverage of the Fiesta Bowl dominated the night with 16 million total viewers.

• NBC's Superstars of Dance (9.59 million) dropped 615K from its Sunday bow.

• The arrival of ABC's new Bachelor averaged 8.7 mil, barely grabbing third at 8 pm/ET and dropping to No. 4 come 9 o'clock.

• Gossip Girl (2.94 mil) more or less matched its most recent audience, while One Tree Hill (2.63 mil) enjoyed a gain of 420 thou.

• ABC's True Beauty debuted to 7.64 mil, placing a distant second behind a CSI: Miami repeat.

Tuesday

• NCIS netted 19.07 million viewers, its second-largest audience ever (trailing only this past Dec. 16). That set up The Mentalist for yet another series high, 19.56 mil.

• The Biggest Loser: Couples debuted to 11.82 mil, the series' biggest premiere ever and a 51 percent increase over the Families opener.

• The ABC premiere of Scrubs averaged 6.7 mil across two episodes — a 25 percent improvement upon the sitcom's NBC send-off.

• Both 90210 (2.78 mil) and Privileged (1.74 mil) dipped 150K.

• Without a Trace scored 13.2 mil, down 1.5 mil from its last fresh episode (which delivered a season high). SVU (10.65 mil) slipped 250 thou.

Thursday Ratings: BCS Game, Private Practice Are Night's Only Winners

This Thursday, as Fox's coverage of the BCS Championship game 'tween the Gators and Sooners dominated the night with some 24 million total viewers....

8 pm/ET
Ugly Betty placed third (behind a CSI: NY repeat) with an audience of 7.5 million, down 900K from its last fresh outing. Both NBC's Earl (5.5 mil, down 17 percent) and Kath & Kim (4.15 mil, down 22 percent) suffered serious blows.

9 pm
Grey's claimed the No. 2 spot with 13.7 million viewers, down 10 percent from its last new episode. Leading out of an Office repeat with what I posit was its best episode of the season, 30 Rock (5.24 mil) plunged 30 percent.

10 pm
Private Practice benefitted from its new après-Grey's time slot, surging 36 percent (from its last Wednesday outing) to 9.03 million viewers. Trailing an Eleventh Hour repeat, ER scored 7.32 mil, down, 18 percent.

Friday Ratings: CBS' Flashpoint Is Back with a Bang

How did Friday's fare fare? Allow me to tell you via American Flight 3 to Los Angeles, where Mickey, Tim and I will be covering the Golden Globes and this week's Winter TCA Press Tour. (Thanks, GoGo in-flight wireless!)

8 pm/ET
Ghost Whisperer topped the hour as well as the night with an audience of 10.63 million total viewers, up 450K from its last fresh outing. Howie Do It did 7.68 mil to place second ahead of Wife Swap (4.77 mil).

9 pm
CBS' Flashpoint kicked off its second season with an all-time high audience of 10.06 million viewers (up 400K from its Sept. 18 finale). Trailing Supernanny (5.6 mil) and the second hour of Fox's Bruce Almighty, Lipstick Jungle's last scheduled episode delivered 4.08 mil, dipping 150 thou week-to-week. Did the sudsy sophomore series finish strong enough to make NBC reconsider its swing of the axe? Stay tuned....

10 pm
Numbers (10.08 mil) notched a 10 percent increase from its last new episode, easily besting 20/20 (7.89 mil) and Dateline (4.86 mil).