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Monsters Alive!
September 30

Ah yes. The big bad shows are back. Dancing With The Stars. Survivor. The Amazing Race. How monstrous are they? What damage do they cause? And what, if anything, is left in it's wake? We'll find out as we take a weekly look at the numbers.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22

DANCING WITH THE STARS (ABC)
September 22: 21.12 million #1 (5.3 for 18-49) #1

Welcome back, DWTS. How ABC has missed you. They probably won't miss Jeffery Ross or Ted McGinley as much, but the networks probably miss High School Musical - especially NBC, as they see Heroes plummet 33% from last season. Ouch.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23

DANCING WITH THE STARS (ABC)
September 23: 18.2 million (#1) (4.7 for 18-49) (#1)

So it's a dip from Monday, but it still easily crushes everyone. So with a lead-out like that, the lead-in, Opportunity Knocks, must have gotten a nice little boost from that, right?

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS (ABC)
September 23: 6.63 million (#4) (1.8 for 18-49) (#4)

Wrong. Everyone cared about the dancers. Considerably less people cared about making house visits to families. And if you're getting a 6.63 lead-in from an 18.2 million person show, it may be time to change the show. Could this be sent over to Friday to compete against America's Toughest Jobs? Stay tuned...

THE BIGGEST LOSER (NBC)
September 16: 7.81 million (3.1 for 18-49)
September 23: 7.18 million (#3) (2.9 for 18-49) (#3)

...and they may be really thinking about it when The Biggest Loser beats you. They drop, which is to be expected against DWTS, but they don't drop much, which is a very good sign for the series.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24

DANCING WITH THE STARS (ABC)
September 24: 15.57 million (#1) (3.6 for 18-49) (#1)

What's surprising is the small bump downwards, despite it being al elimination show. It could also be a sign that 3 times a week is a little too much for DWTS. Not like ABC would do something like over-exposing a show, right, Millionaire fans?

AMERICA'S GOT TALENT (NBC)
September 3: 10.15 million (2.7 for 18-49)
September 10: 11.49 million (2.5 for 18-49)
September 17: 12.05 million (3.1 for 18-49)
September 24: 10.23 million (#2) (2.7 for 18-49) (#3)

As expected, the penultimate show, against tougher competition, drops a few numbers. Or you can blame George Bush. Either or, this is a good message to NBC to remind them to not put a Winter version of this show on the air in 2009.

AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL (CW)
September 3: 3.5 million (1.7 for 18-49)
September 10: 3.84 million (2.0 for 18-49)
September 17: 4.24 million (2.1 for 18-49)
September 24: 4.07 million (2.1 for 18-49)

ANTM's base seems to be in the 4's. That's still a dip, but it's still the #1 show on the CW, which means to expect a couple more seasons if the ratings hold up - which they should.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25

SURVIVOR (CBS)
September 25: 12.91 million (#1) (4.4 for 18-49) (#1)

Welcome back, Survivor. This show, despite seeing huge numbers in the past, still rules the time slot. The numbers are better than last season, and the numbers went up in the ultra-competitive 9pm slot. But it will stay at 8pm, and with both Earl and Betty having miserable numbers in their debuts, Survivor should have no competition maintaining the #1. But what do the new shows mean for FOX?

GORDON RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES (FOX)
September 11: 6.13 million (2.9 for 18-49)
September 18: 6.15 million (2.8 for 18-49)
September 25: 4.33 million (2.0 for 18-49)

Bad news. That's an over 30% slump for Ramsay, who didn't do any better in the 8pm slot. Are they double running the show to try to promote it, or to burn it off?

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26

ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER? (FOX)
September 5: 7.57 million (2.0 for 18-49) (MILLION AWARDED)
September 12: 6.92 million (1.8 for 18-49)
September 19: 5.93 million (#1) (1.3 for 18-49) (#2)
September 26: 5.1 million (#3) (1.5 for 18-49) (#3)

This is a show that hit double digits on Thursdays last season. Moving it to Fridays obviously doesn't work. They need to swap it with Ramsay. Now.

AMERICA'S TOUGHEST JOBS
September 1: 7.33 million (2.4 for 18-49)
September 8: 6.48 million (2.6 for 18-49)
September 15: 4.95 million (#4) (1.6 for 18-49) (#5)
September 19: 3.34 million (1.1 for 18-49)
September 26: 4.56 million (#4) (1.3 for 18-49) (#5)

This week's episode? Bullfighting. The ratings equate to what the bulls leave over after eating their meal right before the fight - and it's stinky, too.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

THE AMAZING RACE (CBS)
September 28: 10.29 million (#3) (3.2 for 18-49) (#4)

Whatever CBS is putting up there is not going to beat football and it's not going to beat Desperate Housewives. What they want is something that will hold it's own. Mission accomplished. The Race puts up very strong numbers - especially against that sort of competition. Very promising start. So those are the numbers this week.

Coming up next week - stability! The first time we've seen the shows stay put, with no new shows coming in. What are the trends going to be? And how will the Wall Street Crisis affect the number? Will they go up or down? Join us in 7 to see the correlations.

Gordon Pepper plays a lot of Altered Beast. Seriously. Ask him. E-mail him at gordon@gameshownewsnet.com.