After having its lowest-rated debut ever on Sunday, Big Brother 10 lost a few viewers for its weeknight episodes, and was down from last summer. On Tuesday, the show's second episode--which aired against the all-star game--was watched by 6.1 million viewers, "in line with its Sunday season premiere and down 15% from its Tuesday debut in 2007," Variety reports. It was beaten among viewers 18 to 49 by ABC's I Survived a Japanese Game Show. On Wednesday, among people ages 18 to 49, it "[tied] the lowest outing in series history," and also tied Univision's "Al Diablo con los Guapos," according to Media Life. TV By the Numbers says that just 5.75 million watched during the first half-hour, when the houseguests put on a hysterical self-deprecating puppet show, while 6.06 million tuned in the second half-hour, when Julie Chen presided over yet another ridiculous HOH challenge (guess what everyone else is about to guess!). Overall, those two half hours average to 5.9 million viewers for th

NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker and the Weinstein Company's Harvey Weinstein were in court yesterday, presenting arguments in NBC's lawsuit to keep Project Runway from moving to Lifetime. Zucker said that the show is "one of the most central programs to the entire company," according to Adweek's account of the testimony. He said that when the two men met in early 2007, he promised to move Runway to another NBC Universal-owned network for its sixth season, perhaps even NBC, and says in exchange, Weinstein agreed to give them an option to keep the show if someone else was interested. Harvey Weinstein, however, said their meeting was like a "divorce proceeding," and said, "I'd rather cut off my arm than give them a right of first refusal." He also said Bravo "ruined the relationship" with its clones of the show. Weinstein also said he got a $50 million offer from Discovery Communications for the show in March of 2007.Titans Clash in Court Over 'Project Runway' [Adweek]>> read the latest new

Promoting the new ABC reality series Opportunity Knocks yesterday, its executive producer, Ashton Kutcher, said that reality television has kept Los Angeles alive as films leave to be produced elsewhere. "I try to create jobs. With all the films moving out of Los Angeles, television and reality television supports a lot of people who make film, make television. And I think without reality television, the city of Los Angeles would be a pretty barren zone. There are a ton of jobs that are created through reality television and so -- just not always for actors," he told TV critics. Initially, he was asked, "what do you think about actors bitching about reality shows?" and replied, "They bitch about reality shows? They probably just don't bitch to me because I make them and that would be weird." He later went into an extended metaphor about a cake that others are eating before someone gets a piece, and said, "And I think that all those actors that are sort of bitching or worried about r

The magazine Vogue is producing an online-only reality series that follows "three models as they navigate casting calls, catwalks and airports for fashion weeks in new york, London, Milan and Paris," The Wall Street Journal reports. A total of 12 eight-minute episodes of Model.Live will air on vogue.tv, and will also appear elsewhere online, such as Hulu. They will be product placement and sponsorship-heavy, as Express "paid in the 'low seven figures' to be the show's lead sponsor," and while "the European and American offices of IMG Models will be furnished with closets of Express clothes, ... the models won't be required to wear them, executives say." The WSJ says that at a cost of $3 million, or $31,000 a minute, this is "among the biggest-budget Web-TV projects to date. By contrast, marketers spent an average of $4,500 for an online video in 2007, according to Forrester Research." Having cameras follow the models in their real lives may result in footage that , and IMG's Russel

Reality TV: season two averaged 1.6 million total viewers -- E! viewers will be keeping up with the Kardashians for a third season.

Reality TV: Even in unscripted TV, casting is everything. So while this "Gong Show" revival is really just David Letterman's "Stupid human tricks" in competition guise, the producers have wisely populated the show with the right humans (and hand puppets), beginning with host Dave Attell and, in the premiere, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog as a surly judge. Paired with the reality spoof "Reality Bites Back" -- another entry where clever execution enlivens a potentially stale premise.

Reality TV: Majority of shows aired now locally produced -- The number of locally produced reality TV shows in the Arab world is rising, according to a new report by the Arab Advisors Group.