Ratings Round-Up: Will Ferrell Boosts 'The Office,' 'Paul Reiser' Crashes and Burns

Will Ferrell made his big debut on "The Office" last night (we have a more detailed account and a clip for those who missed it), but the big question is this: did it work? Did Ferrell's star power boost the show?

The short answer is yes. "The Office" pulled in 7.7 million viewers last night, which is a 15% improvement over the last original episode that aired a few weeks ago. Ferrell is the likely explanation for that, though the last "Office" episode was widely regarded as one of the best in a long time, so that might have convinced a few people to tune in as well. Admittedly, I hadn't watched "The Office" for months, but I made sure I watched last night's ep to see Ferrell, and I wasn't disappointed.

That ratings boost also helped the shows that followed: "Parks and Recreation," "30 Rock" and "Outsourced" all received a ratings bump from anywhere between 8% and 20%.

Everything leading up to Will Ferrell's "The Office" debut, however, was far less successful. "Community" was back after a three-week hiatus, but it doesn't seem that everyone was very excited to see it: the 18-49 demo was down about 20%, and the show pulled in 3.5 million viewers overall.

The premiere of "The Paul Reiser Show" was even worse: the new comedy only drew 3.3 million viewers, which is nearly 50% fewer viewers than the premiere of "Perfect Couples" drew back in January. Considering "The Paul Reiser Show" replaced the now-cancelled "Perfect Couples," that's not a very good sign. It's a shame, since Reiser is a comedy veteran and he had some funny scenes with Larry David of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." We had high hopes for this one.

Maybe it's because Reiser refuses to use social networking?