'Gossip Girl' hits record high, 'Terminator' declines

This just in: Deafening buzz can indeed translate into improved ratings. At least that looks like the case for The CW’s Gossip Girl — a recent cover subject for Entertainment Weekly — which averaged a series-high 3.7 million viewers last night. That figure was up a half-million viewers over last week and 300,000 eyes over its Sept. 1 season premiere; even more exciting for CW execs, last night’s episode grew a healthy 1 million viewers over the third GG episode from season 1, and helped make the network No. 1 for the night with women 18-34 and adults 18-34. In further good news for The CW, One Tree Hill scored 3.4 million viewers last night, retention of 91 percent out of its GG lead-in.

Apparently, however, scoring an EWwy nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series wasn’t enough buzz to help Lena Headey’s Fox drama, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, maintain viewership levels for the second episode of its second season. The show scored an average 5.5 million viewers in the overnights, down 800,000 viewers from last week’s season premiere (which was itself off 36 percent from its first-season average of 9.8 million). The network’s onetime buzz-worthy Prison Break, meanwhile, managed to grow its audience out of Sarah Connor, averaging 5.9 million viewers, but still declined from last week’s overnight viewership average of 6.5 million.

In other first-run news, NBC’s Deal or No Deal scored 8.8 million viewers in the overnights, while ABC’s broadcast of Batman Begins drew 5.7 million. A rerun of Two and a Half Men on CBS led all shows with 9.8 million.

If you’re a GG obsessive, you’ll want to check out Tim Stack’s episode recap, watch his behind-the-scenes video from the GG set, and read our guide to the Best and Worst of Gossip Girl and recent Gossip Girl cover story.

If Terminator is more your thing, check out Tom Conroy’s recap of the premiere and our Sarah Connor Chronicles Best and Worst gallery.

addCredit(“Giovanni Rufino”)