Paula Abdul's 'Dance’ Loses to 'Biggest Loser’

© CBS

Viewers were torn between watching overweight couples struggle with weight loss and sinewy dancers endure criticism from Paula Abdul. At least that was the message gleaned from Tuesday night’s two-hour premiere of Abdul’s CBS competition reality show Live to Dance which held its own against NBC’s Biggest Loser Couples.

The premiere of Live to Dance (8-10 p.m.) attracted the most total viewers (10.2 million) compared to Loser (8.7 million). But the NBC weight loss staple took the block among the ad-centric 18-49 demographic (3.3 versus 2.4 for Dance).

At 8 p.m., ABC’s No Ordinary Family (1.9, 6.7 million) was flat compared to its last original episode on Dec. 7. But the second series premiere of ABC’s V at 9 p.m. was down a whopping 60% compared to its last premiere in November 2009 managing a 2.1 with 6.5 million viewers.

Fox was fourth at 8 and 9 p.m. with a rerun of Glee (1.7, 4.7 million) and Million Dollar Money Drop (1.3, 3.7 million). And the CW barely registered a pulse with reruns of One Tree Hill (0.4, 1.0 million) and Life Unexpected (0.3, 827,000).
At 10 p.m., NBC’s Parenthood won the hour in the demo (2.3), up 21% compared to its last original in November delivering its largest total audience (6.0 million) since September. But a rerun of NCIS (1.7, 10. 2 million) was tops in the hour among total viewers. And ABC’s Detroit 1-8-7 (1.2, 5.1 million) sunk to its lowest-rated telecast ever dropping 14% compared to its last original on Dec. 7.