Reality TV Updates

The debut of Fox’s new reality series “Celebrity Duets” was hardly off-key. But it wasn’t solid gold, either.

“Duets” averaged a decent 3.0 adults 18-49 rating during its two-hour debut last night, according to Nielsen overnights. It rose from a 2.7 in its first half hour to a 3.1 in its last, a jump of 15 percent.

But it was behind CBS’s recently improving “Big Brother 7: All-Stars” and “Rock Star: supernova” during the 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. hours. And “Duets” was basically on par with what repeats of “House” have averaged Tuesdays on Fox.

“Duets” did help Fox to No. 1 for the evening in total viewers, averaging 8.13 million and rising about 1 million in its second hour.

Whether “Duets” has promise as more than a solid performer will become more apparent tomorrow night, when Fox airs the second episode of the show at 8 p.m. “Duets” will air twice weekly with a performance and results show, the latter on Fridays, starting next week.

Fox led for the night among adults 18-49 at a 3.0 rating and 9 share, followed by CBS at 2.7/8, NBC at 2.2/6, ABC at 2.1/6, Univision at 1.7/4, WB at 0.9/2 and UPN at 0.4/1.

At 8 p.m., CBS was No. 1 at a 3.1 for “Brother,” ahead of Fox’s “Duets” at 2.9, Univision’s “La Fea Mas Bella” at 2.0, NBC’s “Fear Factor” at 1.8, ABC’s pair of “According to Jim” repeats at 1.7, WB’s “Gilmore Girls” rerun at 0.8 and UPN’s “Veronica Mars” repeat at 0.4.

At 9 p.m., CBS led again at 3.2 for “supernova,” followed by Fox at 3.1 for “Duets,” ABC at 2.1 for “Jim” reruns, NBC at 2.0 for a repeat of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” Univision at 1.8 for “Barrera de Amor,” WB at 0.9 for a “Girls” rerun and UPN at 0.5 for a “Mars” rerun.

At 10 p.m., NBC was No. 1 at 2.9 for a repeat “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” trailed by ABC’s “Primetime: The Outsiders” at 2.6, CBS’s “48 Hours Mystery” at 1.9 and Univision’s “Noticias Univision Presenta” at 1.3.

Among households, Fox was No. 1 for the night at a 5.3 rating and 9 share, edging NBC at 5.2/8, CBS at 4.8/8, ABC at 4.3/7, Univision at 2.1/3, WB at 1.6/3 and UPN at 0.9/1.

——————-