'The Glee Project' Premieres to Terrible Ratings

First "The World According to Paris," and now this!

The Oxygen Network's new reality competition series "The Glee Project" premiered this week with high hopes for a successful run. It had everything a "Glee" fan could want: a tie-in to the actual "Glee," singing and dancing, drama, and even an appearance from Darren Criss.

But the premiere episode debuted to a mere 455,000 viewers. That's only a bit more than the premiere the other week of "The World According to Paris," which also bombed with 409,000 tuning in.

The numbers have execs both disappointed and surprised, as the show had a good marketing campaign and was getting good online traffic leading up to the premiere. Plus, with the following that "Glee" has and the fact that the winner of this competition will get a multi-episode arc on "Glee," you would think that fans would be tuning in.

A good part of it could simply be competition. "The Glee Project" premiered on a night that saw an important game of the NBA Finals being played. Granted, the NBA Finals probably doesn't share an audience with a singing and dancing competition much, but you know what probably does? The Tony Awards. And those aired on Sunday night as well.

President of Oxygen Media Jason Klarman made a good point, though: when "Project Runway" premiered in 2004, it pulled in only 219,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo. There's still a chance for Oxygen to grow "The Glee Project." But they'd better hurry.

Did you watch the premiere? What did you think?