It’s time for the final Ratings Roundup of the year. So who shone – and who stunk – over the last 7 days… let’s find out!

WINNERS

FEAR FACTOR: Okay everyone – let’s put this into perspective shall we!

From all the internet hoopla surrounding the return of Fear Factor this week (yes, that would be you Perez Hilton), you’d have thought that NBC had struck the ratings jackpot with their resurrected reality franchise. Short answer – they didn’t. But Fear Factor did well nonetheless.

On Monday night the Joe Rogan hosted gross out series returned from its 5 year break to pull in 8.52 million viewers and a 3.5 18-49 rating. That’s NBC’s best score in the 9pm timeslot for over a year.

But now some perspective. Fear Factor went up against a repeat of House on Fox and Hart Of Dixie on The CW as well as a painfully low rated ABC game show (see below). Plus while that demo is good, the overall ratings aren’t astounding and are likely to fall in the weeks to come. A premier of 8 million isn’t that impressive when slippage is likely. Still even if Fear Factor settles at the 6-7 million mark – that will still pretty much make it the highest rating show on NBC. Now that’s scary!

BAG OF BONES: Hot on the heels of Fear Factor it seems horror truly is the genre of the moment!

Following the success of The Walking Dead on AMC and American Horror Story on FX, A&E decided to get in on the scary scene this week with their 2-part adaptation of the Stephen King novel, Bag Of Bones. And as with most things King related, the results were solid – with Bones scoring 3.37 million on Sunday night (and a 1.1 18-49 rating) and 2.99 million on Monday (0.9).

Sure that’s far less than the 6 million The Walking Dead attracts on a weekly basis – and also the 5 million True Blood pulls in. But it is comparable with the ratings for American Horror Story. Plus Bag Of Bones gives A&E a touch of big screen cache and class and a two part special they can repeat again and again. All in all that’s a pretty big win.

LOSERS

ONCE UPON A TIME: And still it continues to fall!

Looks like ABC’s once hot fairytale saga is starting to lose its ratings magic. How else to explain the show’s continually eroding ratings over the last few weeks.

Launched in October, Once pulled in almost 13 million viewers for its debut and had many calling it the biggest new hit show of the Fall season. But since that impressive debut the Sunday night series has lost viewers every single week – this week slipping below the 9 million mark, to 8.92 million (and a 2.9 18-49 share)

Sure that’s still a hit, but ABC has to be worried that Once Upon A Time keeps on falling and still doesn’t seem to have reached its ratings bottom. Will the series slip below the 8  or 7 million mark in the New Year, or see a ratings rebound? Put it this way – if Once does slip below the 7 million barrier it’s unlikely to see a happy ending – or a second season.

YOU DESERVE IT: Once Upon A Time may be slipping but at least it started strong to begin with and has room to fall. No such luck for fellow ABC game show You Deserve It which has been a big fat fail from day one!

Described by critics as both a ‘hodgepodge’ and ‘tacky’, the barely buzzed about series is yet more proof that game shows just aren’t working on network TV at the moment and that the glory days of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Deal Or No Deal are long since gone.

This week – opposite Fear Factor – You Deserve It managed a miserable 3.38 million and a 0.9 18-49 share. That’s just terrible on a night of largely repeats. In fact You Deserve It even lost audience from a Charlie Brown Christmas repeat airing earlier that evening (5.31 million). So will this quiz show be returning down the line? I think we all know the answer to that question!

THE BIGGEST LOSER: From ABC to NBC and another sign that the Peacock network is in some serious trouble at the moment.

For the last few years one of the few franchises NBC could rely upon to deliver the ratings goods has been the sturdy weight loss format The Biggest Loser. But airing twice a year and with a central premise that is, let’s be honest, pretty repetitive – Loser has seen some serious slippage this season.

This year’s finale pulled in just 7.81 million viewers and a 2.7 18-49 share. That’s a season high for the show’s Fall run – but was also 33% down on the Spring finale – and Loser’s lowest rated climax to date.

Personally I lay much of the blame for this year’s ratings demise on new trainer Anna Kournikova! Whoever suggested the tennis champ as a suitable replacement for the much-missed Jillian Michaels needs a serious Jillian style takedown.

My suggestion – give The Biggest Loser a rest for a few years (like Fear Factor) and then bring the show back with the winning team of Jillian and Bob. Let the audience miss the franchise instead of being bored by it…