'Dallas,' NBC, Bristol Palin: Summer TV's winners and losers

Lynette Rice
Updated

Yeah, NBC, for those great Olympic ratings! Boo, NBC, for those dreadful time delays!

We realize summer isn’t officially over yet, but the dog days have already produced some incredible highs — and some spectacular lows. Here are our top winners and losers for the summer of 2012.

WINNERS

1. Dallas. Reboots are always a risky business but TNT successfully demonstrated that you can go back again to South Fork, even if Larry Hagman hasn’t trimmed his eyebrows since the Texas Oil Boom.

2. Modern Family actors. The six adult stars of ABC’s top comedy not only earned across-the-board Emmy nominations last month, but they triumphed at the negotiation table by scoring 160-plus percent salary increases. We especially liked this quote from executive producer Steve Levitan once the talks were completed: “I’m happy they’re going to get what they deserve. Justin Bieber is now [playing] Cam.”

3. NBC. Complain all you want about those time delays and those pesky spoilers, but NBC’s coverage of the London Olympics shattered records. The first six nights of Olympics coverage were higher rated than the first six nights of the previous two Summer Games in Beijing and Athens. What’s more, the first three days of coverage averaged 35.8 million — the most-watched weekend of any Summer Olympics in history.

4. Bristol Palin. Her family crest may continue to send chills down the spine of most Americans but the eldest daughter of the ex-Alaskan Governor still managed to score a prime berth — and a return engagement with Mark Ballas — on Dancing With the Stars’ All-Star edition this fall.

5. Firefly. Just because a show is canceled doesn’t mean it can’t live in the hearts of fans forever. The cast of Fox’s short-lived sci-fi show was met with a standing ovation at Comic-Con last month, where Creator Joss Whedon got emotional talking about the legacy of the Nathan Fillion starrer. Awww! (A reunion special dubbed Browncoats Unite will air on The Science Channel on Nov. 11).

LOSERS

UPDATE:.

6. Glass House. CBS wasted its time by throwing a hissy fit in court over ABC’s Big Brother ripoff because the show turned out to be as exciting as a bowl of slop: The hidden-camera reality show that relies on viewers to evict houseguests only averaged 2.9 million this summer. And yet, CBS is still pursuing its lawsuit! Get over your bad selves, guys.

7. Dish and DirecTV. The two satellite companies flashed the middle finger to cable viewers by yanking the signal to AMC Networks and Viacom-owned channels over protracted carriage disputes. DirecTV settled with the owners of MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central on July 20 while the war between Dish and AMC continues to rage.

8. Ryan Lochte. Dude, you win five medals in London and the first cameo you decide to make is on the CW’s 90210? Was it because they weren’t hiring on Whitney?

9. PBS. The network used the lame excuse that the production schedule for Market Warriors was too tight — they didn’t want Fred Willard’s “circumstance to become a distraction” — so that’s why they decided to drop him as the narrator. Willard was arrested on suspicion of a lewd public act in an adult theater but will not face jail time — probably because the courts knew Hollywood would impose its own cruel and unusual punishment instead.

10. Bristol Palin. Viewers largely abstained from watching her primetime show Life’s a Tripp on Lifetime, which prompted the cabler to relegate the reality show to a late-night berth (where the single mom was sure to get even less action than she already did.) D’oh!