Entertainment

Winners & losers

Lena Dunham (Jojo Whilden)

Maggie Smith (
)

Kelsey Grammer (A Starz Original Series)

TODAY

TODAY (Peter Kramer/NBC)

Angus T. Jones (
)

WINNERS

History Channel

It’s not about history anymore. It’s about ratings. And this summer the History Channel broke every record in broadcast cable when it aired “Hatfields & McCoys” on three consecutive nights, drawing 14 million viewers, ultimately winning Emmys for its stars Kevin Costner (right) and Tom Berenger.

Michael Strahan

Everyone from Jerry O’Connell and Dana Carvey to Josh Groban tried out to replace Regis Philbin, but Michael Strahan always had the inside track. An instant hit with viewers, he has brought some much-needed sex appeal to morning TV.

Game of Thrones

Like the novels by George R.R. Martin, the series is HBO’s biggest hit since the sillier and sillier “True Blood.”

Good Morning America

It took forever, but “Good Morning America” is no longer No. 2. A combination of on-air chemistry has helped this ABC stalwart, on the air since 1975, knocked the musty “Today” off its perch.

Jimmy Kimmel

Kimmel’s LA-based talk show moves to 11:30 p.m. in the new year and will give geezers Leno and Letterman real competition. Kimmel also showed Brooklyn some love when he did a week of shows here — in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Lena Dunham

The media, ever on the hunt for the next “voice of a generation,” elevated the 26-year-old creator of HBO’s “Girls” to the level of goddess, a hipster Athena. The show only had modest ratings but Dunham cast a long and glittery shadow. Random House paid an outrageous sum — $3.5 million — for her first book, a collection of essays.

Downton Abbey

The British costume drama gained so much momentum in its second season that creator Julian Fellowes was askedy by NBC to create a costume drama. “The Gilded Age” may surface as early as fall 2013.

Jonny Lee Miller

When CBS announced the production of “Elementary,” a modern-day take on Sherlock Holmes, critics had their knives out, mainly because the Brits had their own Sherlock miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch. But Miller had the last laugh. The series has been picked up for the whole season, with second-season renewal likely.

LOSERS

Kelsey Grammer

Three strikes and you’re out. Grammer’s last three TV shows — “Back to You” on Fox; “Hank” on ABC, and “Boss” on Stars — have all been canceled. Even more embarrassing, Grammer, who has enjoyed so much success, blamed the cancellation of “Boss” on his politics — he’s a Republican.

Kevin Clash

The voice of Elmo on “Sesame Street” was silenced when a young lover outed him and the puppeteer resigned in disgrace.

Today

Meredith Vieira must have known it was over when she left “Today” in 2011 because boy, the show just tanked. Millions still watch, but it has to be out of habit. The camaraderie among the hosts seems forced and the whole enterprise is dull.

Martha Stewart.

Lost her Hallmark Channel cooking show. Saw magazine empire shrink. It’s not a good thing.

Angus T. Wilson

OK. You’re 19. You make $350,000 an episode on a sitcom where the jokes have been about T&A since day one and NOW you have problem with it? After rolling around in the hit sitcom mud with Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer and Chuck Lorre, you get on your high horse and call this enterprise “filth”? Really? And then shortly after your video causes palpitations at Warner Bros., the studio which produces this filth, you issue an apology? Come ON.

Keith Olbermann

The bloviating former MSNBC political show host saw his latest — and last — show, on Current TV, cancelled.

Political Animals

You could not escape the hype accompanying this bloated miniseries about a Washington, D.C. political family very much like the Clintons. A poorly written script gave stars Sigourney Weaver and Carla Gugino very little to work with.

MTV

“Jersey Shore” is ending. And there go the fortunes of the once-vibrant music channel which has extended its shelf life with reality series such as “The Real World,” “Road Rules” and “The Hills.”

Sue Simmons

A potty-mouthed mainstay of WNBC, Simmons was unceremoniously shown the door — and replaced by a much younger woman.