Summer Glau

It would be inaccurate to say nobody watched the Golden Globes. But it wouldn’t be far off.

NBC’s prime-time coverage of Sunday’s Globes announcements, billed by the network as "Hollywood’s biggest night for TV and film," scored about as many viewers as your average Cops: 5.8 million, per Nielsen Media Research estimates.

Overall, it actually was a big night for TV, with Fox killing with the premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and CBS riding high with the first part of its new western miniseries, Comanche Moon.

As for the sad, little Globes...

It was reported Monday that NBC’s Globes ratings were way off from last year’s (about 70 percent, if you judge Sunday’s 5.8 million against 2007’s 20 million). But comparing last year’s ratings to this year’s ratings is like comparing apples to atomic particles.

Last year’s Globes was a show, with stars, gowns and acceptance speeches, all exclusively aired on NBC. This year’s Globes, caught in the middle of a Hollywood labor war that kept every single nominee and winner home, was a 30-minute, dress-down news conference hosted by entertainment-news anchors and carried live by several networks, including CNN, E! and TV Guide Channel.

It was not known how many people, combined, watched the news conference on broadcast and cable. The only stat to go by on Monday was the audience, such as it was, that NBC captured for its Access Hollywood-branded Globes special, which aired 9-10 p.m. and saw anchors Billy Bush and Nancy O’Dell read off the winners after their colleagues had read off the winners at the news conference.

The special, which was not the official Globes telecast (there was no official Globes telecast), did "best" among viewers over 50, who apparently like to have their news disseminated more slowly, and with a bit of a delay.

The special did deliver NBC its biggest numbers of the night, if only because there was even less interest in its two-hour Dateline NBC, which featured interviews with Globe nominees, and averaged 4.4 million viewers.

It could be said that the Globes’ demise gave rise to The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but it would be better said that the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys did.

Airing at 8 p.m., right after the conclusion of super-high-rated NFL playoff action in many markets, The Sarah Connor Chronicles averaged 18.3 million viewers. According to Fox, it was its most watched premiere of a scripted show since Malcolm in the Middle launched in 2000.

Two provisos before the hit label is sewn on: One, the show, picking up where Terminator 2: Judgment Day left off, lost 2.5 million viewers from its first half hour to its second half hour; and two, Fox compared its performance to Dark Angel and Oliver Beene, a pair of shows that started big, and ended small after only two seasons each.

CBS, meanwhile, spun the 15.8 million viewers that Comanche Moon averaged from 9 to 11 p.m. as the "largest audience for any movie on any network in more than two years." Which it was, if you don’t count High School Musical 2 as a movie, and the Disney Channel as a network. (Later, in its release, CBS clarified that it was talking about broadcast networks.)

In any case, Comanche Moon outdrew a new Brothers & Sisters on ABC (10.9 million), an old American Gladiators on NBC (4.3 million) and, of course, the Globes special on NBC.