Note: The Programming Insider will be reporting live from The Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour in Los Angeles effective on Tuesday, July 15 through Monday, July 21. All regularly scheduled sections -- Prime Time Ratings, Ratings Box, On the Air Tonight, TV Tidbits and TV Trivia Time -- will return on Wednesday, July 23. But don't forget to click on PIFeedback.com for your daily dose of the fast affiliate ratings results, and other nuggets of note from The Press Tour.

Due to my travel schedule, The Programming Insider will be on hiatus on Monday, July 14 and Tuesday, July 22.

Note: The following averages do not include the Tampa market.

-Percent Change From the Year-Ago Evening (Monday, July 9, 2007):

Note: The fast national results for Monday will be posted at PIFeedback.com by 12 p.m. ET. Go to the website, click on Ratings Box (the first category), then Last Night’s Results, and Monday, July 7, 2008.   

The Bachelorette (ABC), Two and a Half Men R (CBS), House R (Fox), The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose (ABC)

A night of The Bachelorette led ABC to Monday overnight victory, with a 1.2 rating point advantage over second-place Fox and a first-place finish in every half-hour. Third overall in the metered markets was CBS, followed by NBC and the CW. 

The two-hour The Bachelorette season-finale scored an above-average 6.4 rating/10 share in the metered markets from 8-10 p.m., building in every half-hour as follows:

That led into special The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose at a dominant 6.9/11 from 10-11 p.m.

Fox opened the evening with a repeat of Bones at a 4.9/ 8 (#2) in the overnights at 8 p.m., followed by a repeat of House at an also second-place 5.9/10 at 9 p.m. Growth of 20 percent for House out of Bones is worthy of positive mention. As a reminder, House moves to Tuesday at 8 p.m. and Bones Wednesday at 8 p.m. this fall.

CBS, also in an all encore evening, opened with The Big Bang Theory at a third-place 3.7/ 6, followed by How I Met Your Mother (#3: 3.5/ 6), Two and a Half Men (#2: 5.9/ 9 -- up 69 percent from How I Met Your Mother), another installment of The Big Bang Theory (#3: 4.3/ 7) and CSI: Miami (#2: 6.0/10). As I say every week, it really is a pity more viewers have not discovered laugh-out-loud The Big Bang Theory this summer.

Despite airing all originals, NBC left little to be desired with its combination of American Gladiators (#4: 3.1/ 5), Nashville Star (#4: 3.0/ 5) and Dateline (#3: 4.3/ 6), which is splattered everywhere this summer. The CW capped off the evening with repeats of Gossip Girl (#5: 1.1/ 2), which has not found new viewers outside of the traditional season, and veteran One Trill Hill (#5: 1.0/ 2). I do think, however, that Gossip Girl will pick up some steam next season.

To keep you interested, here is the new Monday schedule beginning in September (with new shows in caps):

 8:00 p.m. Dancing With the Stars

 9:30 p.m. Samantha Who?

 8:00 p.m. The Big Bang Theory

 8:30 p.m. How I Met Your Mother

 9:00 p.m. Two and a Half Men

 9:30 p.m. WORST WEEK

 8:00 p.m. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (new time)

 9:00 p.m. Prison Break (new time)

 8:00 p.m. Gossip Girl

 9:00 p.m. One Tree Hill

NBC Sports’ Breakfast at Wimbledon coverage of the Gentleman’s final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal averaged a hefty 4.5 rating/12 share in the metered markets on Sunday, July 6. Comparably, that was its best overnight performance in eight years (since Pete Sampras vs. Patrick Rafter), and highest rated final without an American competitor in the mix since 1991. Wimbledon was the highest-rated, non prime-time sports program of the weekend.

Based on a report issued by Magna Global, the prime-time landscape continues to age up. In five years the five broadcast networks, on average, have increased their median age from 46 to 49. CBS remains the oldest skewing at a current median age of 53, which is on par from one year earlier. But ABC, Fox and the CW have all aged up from the 2006-07 season, and Fox is up by a noticeable seven years since 2003-04. Take a look at the five-year track:

Prime-time Regular Series Median Age Trends (October – May)

CW (compared to an average of UPN and the WB from 2003-2006)

 9:00 p.m. I Survived a Japanese Game Show

 10:00 p.m. Primetime: The Outsiders

 9:00 p.m. 48 Hours Mystery (R)

 8:00 p.m. Celebrity Family Feud

 9:00 p.m. America’s Got Talent

 8:00 p.m. Moment of Truth 

 9:00 p.m. Hell’s Kitchen

 8:00 p.m. Beauty and the Geek (R)

 9:00 p.m. Reaper (R)

 8:00 p.m. Street Patrol (R)

 8:30 p.m. Street Patrol (R)

 8:00 p.m. Quantum Leap (R)

 9:00 p.m. Dead Zone (R)

WNBC in New York has launched NBC New York Traffic Cam, a free service that enables mobile phone users to monitor real-time traffic 24 hours per day. Users will view streaming video from over 400 roadside cameras placed throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut by local Departments of Transportation. To download an application, visit www.nbc.com/tcam or call 1-888-NBC-TCAM (1-888-622-8226).

 -Showtime Announces Hosts for Inside the NFL:

James Brown, Phil Simms and Cris Collinsworth have been named hosts of Showtime’s upcoming Inside the NFL, which premieres on Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. ET.  Produced by CBS Sports and NFL Films, Inside the NFL will air each Wednesday during football season through Feb. 11, 2009.

Dan Patrick will return to the small screen opposite former ESPN partner Keith Olbermann (and Cris Collinsworth, Bob Costas, Jerome Bettis and Tiki Barber) as a commentator on NBC’s Football Night in America. The pair co-anchored The Big Show together from 1992 to 1997. 

Sitcom Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, which originally ran on ABC from 1992 to 1997, began airing on ION Television yesterday, with back-to-back episodes scheduled in the Monday to Friday 6 p.m. hour.

What musical instrument did Steve Urkel play on Family Matters?

Four of the following five series were set in Florida. Which one wasn’t?

Is: e) Profiler, which was based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Sheila Berman, Gerry Bixenspan, Larry Collins, Shelia Collins, Sam Damon, Phyllis Epstein, Jim Forkan, Maureen Goldman, Geoffrey Gordon, Bob Ingersoll, David Jackino, Marie LeFevre Karp, Alan Perris