Why No Live Blog Last Night? (6/23); ISaJGS Surprisingly Did Well

I apologize to all of you for not having a live blog on June 23rd. I came down wioth a severe case of sinusitis (and now know how Ryan Howard felt) and basicly decided to pass. Needless to say, we will be back up and running tonight around 8 PM US EDT for the Wednesday night twinball of Countdown and I Survived a Japanese Game Show.

And speaking of ISaJGS, which saw Philly homegirl Kimberly Williams the first player out in Season Two, it surprisingly did well against the second half of So You Think You Can Dance? on Fox, and the repeats of an episode of Criminal Minds over on CBS, and Law and Order on NBC. But tonight brings us the real litmus test: How will the show fare (ratingswise) against that NBC summer juggernaut known as America's Got Talent with new host Nick "Wildin' Out" Cannon? Based on last year's numbers, the ratings began to dip in what NewsCorpse dubbed "the money demo" (18-49 year olds) week after week following the premiere, but this year it ended in a dead heat for eighth place with Univision telenovela Manana Es Para Siempre (Tomorrow is Forever) three times and a rerun of CSI Miami on CBS after the opening week.

Keep in mind that a year ago, the Tuesday night 9 PM slot was not only occupied by ISaJGS, but repeats of House on FOX (except for the 2008 MLB All-Star Game back on July 15), AGT on NBC and Big Brother 10 on CBS. This summer, CBS has raised the white flag (although it doesn't look like it) by airing reruns of Minds, and everyone else is doing some sort of reality/game show/entertainment contest, but unlike last summer, when NBC had the powerful moneymaking ratings destroyer called the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Beijing which cremated anything else ABC tried to air (read Mike Greenberg's Duel - mostly to blame on to The Price is Right Million Dolar Spectacular though over on CBS, High School Musical: Get Into The Picture or Wanna Bet? as they were even trumped by Univision's telenovelas in the money demo for crying out loud!), the field is wide open.