Overnight TV Ratings -- Gators Triumph (But Not In Ratings)

As an alumni of the University of Florida (are you an alumni if you never graduated?), I was thrilled to see the Florida Gators win in basketball. However, they cruised to victory so decisively that it wasn't good for the ratings and the game was lower rated than usual. NBC's Deal Or No Deal drew almost 18 million viewers to this family friendly show that is completely mindless -- America clearly loves game shows and family fare like this and Idol/ Look for overkill with LOTS of game shows in the summer and fall. Prison Break was below average with 8 million viewers (even though its male audience wasn't watching basketball) while 24 was definitely down from its usual perch with 13 million viewers -- still a strong showing, big improvementon Prison Break and a big twist at the finale. The WB's 7th Heaven is rightly in its final days (it's been a good long run) and Everwood performed modestly as well. With the WB and UPN combining this fall, it first seemed hard to imagine mixing all those shows together. Now with Everwood and One Tree Hill and Veronica Mars and Reba and so many others under-performing, they may struggle to find much worth keeping. ABCs Miracle Workers flopped at 10 p.m. It's a family show and should be on earlier but I'm glad it's dying -- forcing people to be on reality TV so they can get life-saving or altering surgery is just creepy.