Nielsen Rating's Top 20 for September 20 - September 26

The Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for September 20 - September 26. The first number is the ranking, the second number is the season average, then the show name and network. The last number represents the number of viewers in millions. An asterisk * indicates a tie.

Rank	Show name	Network	Viewers in millions	Season-to-date average (in millions)
1.	Dancing with the Stars	ABC	21.3	21.3
2.	NCIS	CBS	19.4	19.4
3.	Dancing with the Stars results	ABC	18.5	18.5
4.	Sanday Night Football	NBC	18.1	18.1
5.	NCIS: Los Angeles	CBS	15.8	15.8
6.	The Mentalist	CBS	15.5	15.5
7.	CSI	CBS	14.7	14.7
8.	Two and a Half Men	CBS	14.6	14.6
9.	60 Minutes	CBS	14.4	14.4
10.	Grey's Anatomy	ABC	14.3	14.3
11.	Hawaii Five-0	CBS	14.2	14.2
12.	Criminal Minds	CBS	14.1	14.1
13.	Big Bang Theory	CBS	14.0	14.0
14.	NCIS: Los Angeles (special)	CBS	13.6	13.6
15.	Desperate Housewives	ABC	13.1	13.1
16.	Blue Bloods	CBS	13.0	13.0
17.	Modern Family	ABC	12.7	12.7
18.	$#*! My Dad Says	CBS	12.6	12.6
*	Survivor: Nicaragua	CBS	12.6	12.6
20.	Glee	Fox	12.5	12.5

Dancing With The Stars & Booing Sarah Palin

That is Sarah Palin, and her giant man hands, moving in for a hug of her daughter Bristol, up in Wasilla, Alaska, where daughter Bristol brought her dance partner, Mark Ballas, to meet her mom, as seen, last night, on Dancing with the Stars.

Sarah verbalized being proud of Bristol's dancing and was curious as to how Bristol learned to shimmy and shake. Sarah tried to shimmy and shake, making it apparent she needed some lessons from Mark Ballas.

All the dancing seemed to go well, last night, except for Michael Bolton. Dancing is not his forte.

The most interesting part of the evening was mysterious, loud booing a bit after Jennifer Grey got her scores. The booing seemed disconnected from the scores.

Next we cut to Tom Bergeron interviewing the aforementioned Sarah Palin. I wondered if this was the source of the booing. No explanation was forthcoming on the live show for the booing.

However, this morning I learned it was Sarah Palin the audience was booing. What a shock.

Below is an interesting account of the booing from someone who was in the audience....

Having been an audience member on DWTS when Sarah Palin was there, people have been asking me if the audience was actually booing at Sarah. The answer is absolutely yes. It pretty much stopped though when the production assistants were encouraging the audience to cheer. But there's no doubt we were booing at her once it became clear that she was about to be interviewed by Tom Bergeron. While you can hear it before they pan the camera to Sarah Palin, they didn't capture her on television during the booing. Suffice to say, she was looking back at everyone in the audience rather incredulously (just up to the point where the camera focus goes to her and you see her shaking her head in disgust).

First of all, keep in mind, this is a Hollywood television production. I've never been to such an event before. It's not quite like what's seen on TV at all. Actually, much of the time you can't even hear what the hosts are even saying, since the mic is often tapped purely into the television feed and not the room speakers. It's most certainly a made-for-television show. The audience is actually a lot smaller than it seems on TV too, and a good 80% of them were booing, loud and clear.

I don't usually keep a blog, but I want to get the truth out there. There are some articles out there where a producer from ABC is reporting to have said that the booing was because the audience was disappointed about Jennifer Grey's score (I mean, all audience reaction is largely just encouragement from the production assistants anyway). Total TV production BS. Going to this kind of event was quite an experience, but in a way, it's actually increased my cynicism about Hollywood.

But thank you, ABC. Sarah Palin gets to spew her nonsense on the Internet and behind the safety of Fox News pundits on a daily basis with no real accountability, all the while pretending to be something that she's most certainly not. So I consider waiting in line all day to get in the audience to be the least I could do as my civic duty to show that fraud what most of the country really thinks of her. At least most of the audience felt that way.

Project Runway: Ivy Out While Mondo Wins Again

That is Ivy getting the Auf Wiedersehen, you're OUT kiss, from Heidi Klum on tonight's Project Runway. Ivy is OUT due to making a couple dresses even I could tell were terrible.

I really have not figured out why I find Project Runway entertaining. I have absolutely no interest in high or low fashion. I have absolutely no interest in sewing clothes.

I guess I find it entertaining watching people do something I know I could not do and seeing them whip out these ridiculous items of clothing. Along with drama and angst.

Some of the characters are entertaining. I have gone from really disliking Gretchen, to, well, she has sort of redeemed herself. She seems to have gotten cuter.

Most of the non-redeemable characters are now gone, like that annoying one who was OUT last week, Michael Drummond, I believe was the name. One of the worst speaking voices I've ever been tortured by.

Project Runway is not nearly as amusing without Casanova. They really should have kept him longer.

And then there is the little guy who calls himself Mondo. At first I had trouble getting past what a weirdo he seemed to be. Now he seems more interesting character than weirdo. What he wears is a character of its own. And what he does with his hair is usually strange.

Another strange thing about Mondo is, after seeing him for awhile now, he starts seeming really, well, almost normal and grounded. And quite likable, with an amusing sense of humor.

Mondo won tonight's competition to design a high end piece of couture. Whatever that means. And a ready-wear companion piece was later thrown in as a curve. Mondo won $20,000, plus got his designs in some magazines as advertorials, which I assume are advertisements that serve as editorials. But I really have no idea.

We saw Mondo at the photo shoot for the advertorial, all done up in one of his Mondo outfits. Then the photo-shoot people totally tarted Mondo up with a manly hair-do and a suit. He looked quite stylish.

Mondo said he had $14 in his bank account when he left Colorado and was now quite happy to have $20,014 in his account. All of the designers seemed quite eager to win the $20,000, with Mondo saying that was more than the $12,000 he made last year.

It was Mondo, Gretchen and the annoying Hawaiian, Andy, in the Top 3. The OUT Ivy, Valerie and Michael Costello in the Bottom 3.

Michael C made this bizarre dress that had a 50 foot, or longer, tail trailing behind it. Valerie's looked like something I could make if you left me alone with a needle and some cloth for a day. Ivy's was just tacky looking and a really bad color of blue.

In the previews, for next week, the judges are mortified at what they see come down the runway, just like they are every week on Project Runway.

Season 8 of Hell's Kitchen Started Tonight Without Jean-Phillipe

I was surprised to see Hell's Kitchen on the list of recordings tonight when I warmed up my DVR to watch Survivor.

Didn't Holli win Hell's Kitchen something like 2 weeks ago? And it's back on again, already?

I don't mind. I like Hell's Kitchen.

I like the new opening, with Chef Gordon Ramsay being a tied down Gulliver, with the chef's being Lilliputians torturing him.

It's hard to remember names when a Reality TV Show starts up and there are so many characters.

But one really stuck out in the 2 episodes tonight. Raj. I'm sure he's being kept around for comic fodder, because it's fairly obvious he can't cook. And that he is mentally disturbed.

In the first episode the chefs had to make Ramsay their signature dish. One of the women's was so awful it made Ramsay gag. Then he had everyone else taste it. Everyone gagged. Said it tasted like mud. Her dish was a gumbo.

The gumbo cooker was not the first sent home. Instead she collapsed early on in the first dinner service. Or before. It's so hard to remember. Anyway, an ambulance took her away and off the show.

Both the women and men failed the first dinner service. It was a woman with multi-colored hair who got told to leave. The next night the women did real well, the men failed miserably. The boys put up Raj and this Russian guy, let's call him Boris. Ramsay then added this Italian New Yorker guy. But then did not send any of those 3 home, instead he sent home a good ol' southern boy who could not make sushi.

It looks like this is going to be one wild season of Hell's Kitchen. But you can never trust the previews.

I forgot to ask, what happened to Jean-Phillipe? Why is he not on Season 8 of Hell's Kitchen?

Survivor Nicaragua: Young Tribe Loses & Kicks Out Shannon

That is Shannon on the right. He was very bitter about getting kicked out of his tribe tonight.

Just as the previews had indicated, Jeff Probst's first question at Tribal Council did open the biggest whoop ass at the start of a Tribal Council in Survivor history.

I think before his tribe got to Tribal Council some of Shannon's tribe might have been placing there vote elsewhere, but Shannon's hot-headedness may have turned a vote or two against him, which left only, I think, 3 voting for Brenda.

That is Brenda in the middle, with Chase to the left of her. Chase had an alliance with both Brenda and Shannon, but turned on Shannon after, I think, Shannon tried to get Chase to turn on Brenda.

Survivor is such a complex, treacherous game.

Meanwhile on the Old Geezer team it turned out to be one of them who took a tribemate's shoes, filled them with sand and sent them out to sea. Last week's previews made me think this happened on the Youngster Tribe.

But it was a crazy ol' coot named Holly who went all wackydoodle from the Survivor stress. Before she took one of her fellow Geezer's shoes, Holly took away the food that Jill was eating and threw it away. Holly's breakdown grew worse as she decided she could no longer play Survivor. But then Coach Johnson had a pep talk with her and got her back in the game.

Had the Geezers not won immunity, it likely would have been Holly kicked out of the tribe.

An amusing thing, the CBS website still calls Jud by his Jud name, but on Survivor's opening credits it is now calling him Fabio. Tonight Fabio went from seeming like a dumb blonde to seeming a bit more grounded, goofy, but grounded.

In his final shot at his tribe, Shannon derided their childish immaturity and said he should have been on the Geezer team because he had been married for 11 years.

I forgot, another of Shannon's charming moments, at Tribal Council, was when he asked Sash if he was gay. That then degenerated to a catfight between Sash and Shannon over how many women have been blessed with them. Shannon seemed to turn more and more stupid the more he talked.

Very amusing Survivor tonight.

Oh, and Jill figured out where the Hidden Immunity Idol was, and then for reasons unclear to me, told Marty, which then had another Geezer involved. Eventually the trio found the idol and now have to figure out what do to with it.

Flipping Out: Zoila Gets a Car

Last week's previews for this week's Flipping Out led me to believe that Jeff's constant criticizing of Zoila had her break down in tears.

We did see Jeff being way too picky about Zoila's housekeeping in Jeff's immaculately kept house.

But, the tears came when Jeff told Zoila that she could now have Sunday's off, that she no longer had to go clean his grandma's house on Sundays.

Near as I could tell Zoila's tears were due to feeling guilty about wanting that day off, but after so many years of Sunday's at Jeff's grandma's, Zoila had developed a relationship with the grandma. I think.

This episode, in addition to Zoila's tears on two occasions, I'll get to the second tearful Zoila occasion later, but, in addition to Zoila's tears, we were treated to scenes of a painter named Jesse being gaga over gag-worthy Sarah. And other workers enjoying staring at Sarah's plus-sized, ultra-round, rumpus area, which Sarah seemed to be wiggling on purpose. It was all very unpleasant.

So, back to Zoila. Jeff tells Zoila he is talking her on a field trip. Jeff tries to make Zoila think this will be on a plane. Instead Jeff drives Zoila to a car dealer where he presents her with her very own new car, wrapped in ribbons. As Zoila sat behind the wheel Zoila had her second tearful moment of the episode.

We did not visit Casa Vegas on this episode. We did visit the barber shop salons that are taking 3 years to re-do. Chaz? Is that the name? All the fussing over preserving one mural was sort of amusing, particularly when some random guy spray painted an X on it, which had Jeff giggling and Chaz horrified.

We heard a trace from Trace this episode. He opined that the Jeff/Zoila relationship was disturbing, like Norman Bates in Psycho type disturbing. I did not think the analogy was all that apt. It's more like Jeff & Zoila are a very odd version of The Odd Couple.

If the previews are to be believed, next week it is back to Casa Vega where that inept contractor finally gets axed. I'd be nervous axing that guy if I were Jeff. The Russian Mafia likely has a bureau in Los Angeles.

Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for September 13 - September 19

The Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for September 13 - September 19. The first number is the ranking, the second number is the season average, then the show name and network. The last number represents the number of viewers in millions. An asterisk * indicates a tie.

The move from Thursday to Wednesday appears to have given Survivor its best ratings in awhile, coming in #6.

Rank	Show name	Network	Viewers in millions	Season-to-date average (in millions)
1.	Sunday Night Football: Giants at Colts	NBC	23.1	19.4
2.	America's Got Talent finale (Wed.)	NBC	16.4	12.5
3.	America's Got Talent (Tue.)	NBC	14.6	12.1
4.	60 Minutes	CBS	13.5	11.8
*	Football Night in America Pt. 3	NBC	13.5	10.2
6.	Survivor (new time slot)	CBS	12.2	--
7.	Outlaw (series premiere)	NBC	10.7	--
8.	NCIS (repeat)	CBS	10.4	--
9.	Undercover Boss (special, repeat)	CBS	8.7	16.1
10.	Big Bang Theory (special, repeat)	CBS	8.4	--
11.	Big Bang Theory (special, repeat)	CBS	8.4	--
12.	NCIS: Los Angeles (repeat)	CBS	8.2	13.4
13.	Big Bang Theory (special, repeat)	CBS	8.1	--
*	Undercover Boss (repeat)	CBS	8.1	11.7
15.	Big Brother	CBS	7.9	7.7
16.	Two and a Half Men (repeat)	CBS	7.8	13.1
17.	The Mentalist	CBS	7.7	13.6
18.	Parenthood	NBC	7.6	8.1
19.	College Football	ABC	7.5	6.4
20.	Wipeout	ABC	7.5	7.4

Dancing with the Stars 1st Episode of Season 11

I thought I'd be doing a lot of fast forwarding through Monday night's 2 hour premiere of the new season of Dancing with the Stars.

Instead I did not find myself hitting the FF button too much.

There is no Pamela Anderson equivalent this season. DWTS held my attention last season til the entertaining Miss Anderson got the boot.

This season the group of, uh, "stars" seems like a good mix.

We have 2 pro athletes this time. The requisite footballer in the form of quarterback Curt Warner. And for the first time, an ex-NBA, LA Laker basketballer in the form of Rick Fox. Both did well with their Viennese Waltz.

I had no idea who Kyle Massey is, but, I quickly liked him, as did the judges and the crowd.

I also had no idea who Mike Sorrentino, aka "The Situation," is, but I found him amusing.

Audrina Partridge, from MTV's The Hills, I also had no clue about. She seemed like a nice girl.

Brandy is a singer, TV actress I have no familiarity with. She is teamed with Maks. I don't know why Brandy has no last name.

Margaret Cho is funny. Her dancing, not so much. Margaret's Viennese Waltz was the strangest of the evening. And really was not all that funny, even though that was what, apparently, she was intending.

Michael Bolton was the stiffest, worst of the night, in my opinion. I suspect he may be the first to go.

I am not much of a Florence Henderson fan. But she sure is in good shape for a 76 year old dame. She is taking the dancing serious, unlike Cloris Leachman, and not going for comedy. Cloris Leachman is one my all-time DWTS favorites.

I have never liked David Hasselhoff. His drunken Whopper on the floor in a motel room video is etched upon my memory. Like the mystery of the French thinking Jerry Lewis is a comic genius, the Germans think Hasselhoff is a musical genius. His pro partner, Kym Johnson, had to fly to Hanover, Germany, where Hasselhoff was in concert mode, for their first meeting. Hasselhoff was stiff and annoying with his dancing.

Jennifer Grey is another one I don't like all that much. Why? I don't know. But, I thought I remember reading that she and Patrick Swayze did not get along all that well during the filming of Dirty Dancing. But, last night Ms. Grey had a big breakdown while practicing, overcome with emotion over the passing of Patrick Swayze. It all seemed hokey to me. She did dance well.

That leaves us with the Big Star of the evening. Bristol Palin. Bristol's mom was not in attendance. It'd been reported that Bristol claimed she would not wear anything skimpy. I thought she was going to be a bit of a bore with no personality. I was wrong. Bristol is way out of her comfort zone. And she did well, or so it seemed to me. It was amusing that the song she danced to was Mama Told Me Not To Come, to which Bristol said that is appropriate, because her mom, Sarah, advised her not to come on Dancing with the Stars.

As for Bristol not wearing anything skimpy. Well, her dancing started with Bristol in a very conservative suit. And then Mark Ballas ripped the suit off to reveal Bristol in a very skimpy red mini-dress. I can see why she told mama not to come.

Tonight the first one gets eliminated. I'm guessing it'll be with Michael Bolton, Audrina Partridge, Margaret Cho or Mike Sorrentino.

Survivor Nicaragua: Wendy Kicked Out of Geezer Tribe

That is Wendy in the cowboy hat, making her exit from Survivor, after being the first kicked out of her tribe in Survivor Nicaragua. What's the deal with the strange cemetery the bootee walks through?

I did not realize the new season of Survivor started up this week. My DVR somehow did not get the memo that Survivor had moved from Thursday to Wednesday.

I told myself I could watch it online, if I felt the need.

And then today I discovered my AT & T U-Verse DVR thing has a new feature called "Video on Demand." I've no clue how this technology works, but eventually I found my way to CBS and Survivor.

I always have trouble at the start of Survivor. Too many people, too little plot. The Geezers vs. The Babies twist was sort of good. I guess. The Geezer who got the boot, Wendy, stifled her personality, which seemed sort of fun, to me, when she finally unstifled herself, after she got evicted.

Jimmy Johnson is one of The Geezers. A lot of the other Survivors seem to know who he is. I know who he is due to living in the Dallas zone where the fact that a former coach of the Dallas Cowboys was on Survivor was news here. Apparently Jimmy Johnson coached the Dallas Cowboys long ago, when they actually won a lot of games and were in Super Bowls.

I think Jimmy Johnson is the oldest of The Geezers. He had a real rough time his first night, no clue it would be so miserable. He told his tribemates he was on Survivor for the adventure, that he knew he could not win the million, but he wanted to help one of them win. No one believed him.

When the Survivors finally met up with Jeff Probst, after some bantering, Probst told them about a new Survivor twist. The Golden Medallion of Power. Or something like that. First one to find it, had the Power. Whatever the Power was.

The girl who, I think was a cheerleader for one of Jimmy Johnson's teams, found the Power. Probst then divided the teams into The Geezers and The Babies. Then he tempted the Power Holders with a treasure chest that they could have if they gave the Power to The Geezers. They did so.

Then at the Immunity Challenge we learned that if you play your Golden Medallion of Power all it gives you is a slight advantage in the challenge. You can opt to keep the Power to use in a future challenge, which is what The Geezers decided to do. Had they used the Power, the Medallion of Power would have gone to The Babies Tribe.

The Golden Medallion of Power seems a goofy twist to me. I'm sure I'll end up liking it. But, right now it seems goofy.

The Babies with their Treasure Chest got fire, while over on The Geezers, one of The Geezers, I think her name was Jane, used her magic powers to quickly make fire. That was impressive.

Let's see, what else was notable. Well, one of The Babies lost part her lower leg due to a birth defect. Her prosthetic device seems to work well.

Another of The Babies has his teammates saying he is a Dumb Blonde. I don't remember what his name is, but they have taken to calling him Fabio.

Another odd thing. All the guys on The Babies Tribe seem to be wearing the same type boxer underwear. Not the loose baggy type, but the stretchy tight type. And for some reason the fronts of these boxer shorts must be blurred out. This type blurring always seems really perverse to me.

Next week I think it is The Babies who go to Tribal Council, due to the previews showing Jeff Probst at Tribal Council saying something like "In 21 seasons of Survivor that is the biggest whoop ass that has ever erupted from the first question at a Tribal Council."

I am guessing it has something to do with Fabio.

Top Chef D.C.: Kevin Wins Top Chef

That is the look on Kevin's face when Padma told him he was Top Chef.

There have been spoilers on the Internet for some time now that Kevin was the winner. And a lot of people grousing about it not being right that Kevin should win, as in another bad winner, like Hosea, a few seasons back.

I don't see it that way. I do remember being appalled when Hosea was named Top Chef.

I sort of thought Angelo was going to win, after recovering, miraculously from his near death experience with some vile virus that an anti-biotic shot seemed to abate.

Kevin's sous chef was last season's Top Chef, Michael Voltaggio. Angelo's sous chef was the amazing past Top Chef, Hung. Ed got Ilan. I think that is how you spell his name. Ilan is not one of the more popular past Top Chefs. Illan turned out a lame dessert, compared to Angelo's and Kevin's. That may have been his downfall.

While Kevin's dessert was all sorts of brilliant. They are in Singapore, so Kevin invents The Singapore Sling 2010. Non-alcoholic.

I was okay with any of the 3 winning. They were all likable in their own way. Kevin has a nice back story. Has worked hard, married, kids to support. I did not realize until he said so, at the end, that he is African-American, as in the first African-American to win Top Chef. I somehow assumed Kevin was Hispanic.

Angelo and Ed were very congratulatory towards Kevin, both completely gracious.

Great season of Top Chef.