Surprise: TV shows about blogging not popular

NBC’s repurposing of the online series “quarterlife” tanked last night. It lost nearly 60 percent of its lead-in, and a full quarter of its already dinky viewership bailed after the first half hour. Which means it averaged about 3.86 million viewers.

So: It’s supposed to settle into its permanent timeslot on Sunday. Will it last that long?

Otherwise: “American Idol:” 28.5 million, “Back To You” returned with 12.3 million (which would be great had “American Idol” not been its lead-in, but it was, so it’s only so-so), and an ABC newsmagazine (7.64m) beat “Jericho” (6.9m). MSNBC's coverage of the debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton outscored most network fare on Tuesday, with 7.8 million viewers, an all-time high for the cable news network.

In sum: A paltry 18.4 million people – or, 6% of the population – tuned into the broadcast networks last night at 10 p.m. Why are they still called broadcast networks?