TVSquad

Let's face it, the Top Ten list on The Late Show with David Letterman can be hit or miss some nights (and just miss other nights). But they can still make lists where every entry is pretty damn funny. That happened last night, as Letterman presented the "Top Ten Signs Your Toddler Watches Too Much Television." Hey, it's TV-related so it's a perfect list for us.

[Watch episodes and clips of The Late Show and other shows at SlashControl.]

You're probably going to say that Dancing with the Stars was one of them, but actually those episodes were numbers 9 and 10. And it wasn't one of the CSI shows or one of the comedies on CBS and it wasn't Grey's Anatomy.

Hint: the two shows are related, and I think they're taking over the television landscape. Here's the full list of the top 20 shows in the Nielsen ratings last week. Three new shows made the list.

Everyone is always up in arms about the Nielsen ratings, saying they don't accurately represent the shows that a lot of people like or aren't measured correctly or simply don't matter in this age of DVRs, iTunes, network web sites, and DVDs.

Now it looks like the networks are giving a thought to providing an alternative. CBS, NBC, Disney, News Corp, Discovery, Time Warner, and Viacom are getting together and hope to have some sort of plan on what the "consortium" will do by the end of September. A VP at Starcom MediaVest, one of the companies involved, says that they don't necessarily want to replace Nielsen but there's no reason why another company can't "come in and do both [TV measurement and digital measurement]"

[via TV Tattle]

If Jay Leno isn't the answer for NBC prime time, perhaps the network should think about booking President Obama. NBC News devoted two hours, on Tuesday and Wednesday night, for Inside the Obama White House and the ratings were strong. Better than the insipid I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here, which acted as a lead-in. Of course the season finale of Law & Order: SVU on Tuesday didn't hurt the news production.

Having watched the two hours, NBC should sign the president ASAP. There's always the curiosity factor when a viewer is being given access behind the scenes, and that's what Inside the Obama White House did. It was a look at the real West Wing, which reminded me a lot of the fictional, Aaron Sorkin West Wing creation, and that was quite cool. President Obama still fascinates me, and it's well past 100 days.

We all need good news in these days of economic chaos and uncertainty, and here it is: not only is Dr. Phil not on the list of favorite TV personalities, ratings for his show are down a lot this season. Yay TV viewers!

Nielsen reports that ratings for The Sick Exploitation Cavalcade with Dr. Phil, or whatever the damn show is called, have dropped 27% this season. And the female audience, which was once the "doctor's" biggest fans, has dropped about a third. Anymore news like this and McGraw might have to start to counsel himself. Though I don't even think that he'd go to himself if he had a problem. In other daytime news, ratings for Ellen DeGeneres's show are up. She came in second in that favorite personalities poll.

Of course, Oprah is the one who unleashed this festering cancer on the world. Her ratings are down 8%. But she's still the queen. I don't mind her show, but if we could get some more real talk shows and game shows to take over the spots currently held by Dr. Phil and Maury, I think it would be a better world.

The celebrations may be over in Washington D.C. as President Barack Obama gets to work, but there's probably still some partying over at the networks as the ratings for the Inaugural Day coverage have begun to come in. Things look good for a number of networks as they continued their upward trend of viewership that began during election coverage.

Overall, nearly 38 million of viewers in the U.S. tuned into one of the 17 broadcast and cable networks to watch the inauguration events. While not the 41.8 million that watched Ronald Reagan's inauguration in 1981, it is the most viewers since that time. Breaking it down further, NBC, ABC and CNN led the way with the most viewers between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. Even further than that, NBC had the most viewers between 11:00 and the end of Obama's speech with a total of 11.5 million. In the world of the Internet, MSNBC was king with a total of 16.4 million unique visitors throughout the day.

Oh, Festivus, Oh, Festivus, the holiday for TV fans. How exciting that once a year we can close our eyes, click our heels and make our wishes for the magical ways television can be made better in the year to come. Still, there are more than a few changes that I think need to be made to make TV better ... not to say that it's bad. It just that everything can be better.

This is a great opportunity to get a little Scrooge-y and vent about what I want to see corrected/improved/altered in TV in 2009. Is it wrong that I hope the bigwigs at the networks and cable companies are surfing the net and take my grievances to heart? Is it wrong that I still believe they care about what viewers think? Yeah, probably, but here's my wish list anyway:

Here at TV Squad, we often bemoan the quick cancellation of a show that deserves a chance to evolve. We've chronicled the demise of a fan favorite like Moonlight, and empathized with our readers. There have been times when we've agreed that networks spend so much time and talent developing a show that it seems a down-right shame when the plug is pulled after a half-dozen episodes.

So, knowing all that, we have to acknowledge when a network does something right. NBC is bending over backwards to see to it that Chuck becomes a ratings hit, to go along with its already established and growing fan base. Creator Josh Schwartz expressed his thanks to NBC for the post- Super Bowl Chuck episode. The Super Bowl is Sunday, February 1.

"They were doing this big promotion inside of the Super Bowl and handing out 150 million 3-D glasses, so we are the beneficiaries of that. ...Chuck seemed like the best fit for that type of thing."

CBS has a killer Monday night lineup. The sitcom block from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., followed by the very popular CSI: Miami consistently delivers in the Nielsens. The only vulnerable, flexible and soft spot is 9:30, after Two and a Half Men, before Horatio Cane and company.

The network apparently isn't sure that Worst Week has earned that coveted spot -- even though it's doing well enough in the ratings -- or else they're wondering what they have in Gary Unmarried.

Next Monday, Gary Unmarried will get a shot at 9:30. The pilot episode of Gary Unmarried -- which was pretty good -- will be rerun in that cushy timeslot with the idea of getting more people to sample it.

Nielsen has posted an interesting article on their blog in which they rate the television viewers' political leanings with regards to the programs they watch. Based on their study, the show which best engages the Democratic viewer is The Colbert Report. The show which best engages the Republican viewer is South Park. The show which best engages bi-partisans is The Cleaner.

I don't know about anybody else, but I find this list to be amusing. I can understand why The Colbert Report and South Park (particularly with its counterculture theme) engages their respective politics, but Doctor Who? Cash Cab? I'm a fan of all of the above (I've even been a contestant on Cash Cab) and my politics lean left. Have I been watching the wrong shows?

I'd like to think that while certain shows attract a certain political demographic, it doesn't mean that the content leans one way or the other or that it is intended for that demographic. Okay, maybe The Colbert Report, but that's it.

Ratings for NBC's Heroes are falling each and every week. The most recent episode was down 11% from the previous week's numbers.

I gotta tell ya, I don't get it. I'm really loving this season, but TV critics left and right have given up on the show. Sure, it's completely ridiculous and over the top, but if you remember the first season wasn't exactly a PBS documentary. The show has always been comic-book crazy, so I wonder if the writers strike had a bigger impact on the show than we all thought. Or maybe people have just gotten tired of the show, not because of any massive drop in quality but just because they're watching other things, not into sci-fi as much anymore, or don't want to follow another show with a continuing storyline and a lot of characters. I don't know, but I do know that the show is a ton of fun to watch, and even if there is a lot going on, it's a great ride.

It probably doesn't help that the ratings for the lead in show, Chuck, are down 15%. Wow, if these two shows go away, what other hour-long shows will there be left to watch on NBC? I'm not sitting through The Biggest Loser or Knight Rider, sorry. I wonder how My Own Worst Enemy will do in the Monday at 10 time slot when it premieres next week?

Conventional wisdom says that vice presidents don't matter much when it comes time to vote, that people ultimately make their choice based on who's running for president. However, when it comes to debates, VEEPs are the main event.

The Nielsen numbers are in for last night's debate between Vice Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin and they're huge -- 69.9 million viewers watched the VEEP debate. That's a whopping 17.5 million more viewers than Barack Obama and John McCain drew for their first debate last Friday night.

Why were so many more people tuned in for Biden-Palin? There are a few reasons, starting with the curiosity about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Remember all of the interest over the summer about whether or not FOX was going to keep The Sarah Connor Chronicles or cancel it after one season like they do with so many fan favorites? Well, how come you're not watching the show?

There are reports swirling around that the network is going to cancel the Monday night show because of bad ratings, ratings that worse than FOX expected. The show is averaging a 4.1/6, which means it's down 34% from last year. Even the 18-49 demo loved by networks and advertisers aren't watching the show. When the geeks science fiction enthusiasts aren't watching the show, you know you're in trouble.

I have to admit I've drifted away from the show. There are just too many shows to watch and towards the end of the first season I sort of decided to not want to follow this story anymore (same thing is happening with Fringe). Anyone else there stop watching this show after the first season?

The Republicans have been crying foul about how the media has been unfairly going after vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Right or wrong, all that media attention, plus the curiosity about who this little known Alaska governor is, fueled last night's broadcast of her acceptance speech. The results were predictable. The Palin speech was a Nielsen ratings hit, drawing 37.2 million viewers. That's nearly as many viewers as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama scored a week ago at his Denver stadium event.

As I said, the big number was hardly a surprise, especially if you are at all media savvy. On the net, the name Sarah Palin has become the top draw on every search engine. She's presently a bigger celebrity -- yes, sorry, but that's the word that fits -- than Paris Hilton, Miley Cyrus, Madonna or Barack Obama. She's on the cover of every supermarket magazine this week, as well as the news magazines.

If you're like me, you probably get annoyed when you roll down your window and your beard blows up in your eyes... And if you don't have a ridiculous beard, but are still like me in your appreciation for a good teen drama, this might be relevant to your television scheduling.

It seems the overlords over at the CW have hatched a new plan. The last five episodes of Gossip Girl, set to begin on Monday, will not be available for online streaming. I know. OMG! Right? I'll pause while you text your BFF. Over at the New York Times, Paul McGuire, senior VP of communications for the network, is quoted as saying, "This is an experiment to see if this moves the [Nielsen ratings] needle at all."