Entertainment

ABC has new season's young edge, while CBS keeps top ranking overall

07:47 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 28, 2005

By ED BARK / The Dallas Morning News

Paced by sophomore phenoms Desperate Housewives and Lost, ABC shot out of the starting gate and sprinted to a clear win among advertiser-craved 18- to 49-year-olds in Week 1 of the new fall season.

CBS claimed victory among total viewers, edging ABC after thumping all rivals a year ago. NBC and the WB continued to slump while UPN and Fox enjoyed year-to-year increases. Most impressively, the six major broadcast networks collectively held the fort against cable and other competitors, showing modest gains among all viewers (from last September's 46.93 million to 48.95 million) and 18- to 49-year-olds (from 23.27 million to 23.53 million).

ABC won Week 1 among younger viewers for the first time since the opening bell for the 1995-96 season, when it still banked heavily on sitcoms such as Home Improvement, Roseanne, Coach and Grace Under Fire.

This time ABC dominated the Top 10 among 18- to 49-year-olds with a quintet of one-hour series (DH, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the new Invasion), plus Monday Night Football, which goes to ESPN next fall.

The 24-hour sports network's ongoing Sunday Night Football topped the week's cable programs with 9.8 million viewers, good enough to rank an impressive 39th overall.

Once-dominant NBC, which keeps touting 18- to 49-year-olds as the only viewers worth having, had just one show in the top 10: the new My Name Is Earl.

The Peacock network's second season of Joey opened with a thud. Its special one-hour episode finished out of the top 25 with 18- to 49-year-olds and 52nd among all viewers in a time slot previously ruled by Friends.

CBS held the other three Top 10 spots among younger viewers with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami and a special Thursday preview of its new Criminal Minds series, which beat NBC's competing ER. UPN made a major breakthrough with the premiere of its Chris Rock-narrated Everybody Hates Chris, whose 7.8 million total viewers were the most for a comedy series in the network's 10-and-a-half year history. Chris beat both Joey's first half-hour and Fox's increasingly buzz-less The O.C. in their first match-up on Thursday nights at 7.

Fox, which opened last fall with a reality-infested lineup, fared better this time with a far heavier dose of new scripted series. The network's Prison Break and Bones are both off to decent starts, but Fox also has the season's first cancellation in Head Cases. October again will bring baseball's playoffs and World Series, requiring another November relaunch of regular programming.

The WB fell sharply from last season's Week 1 performance, with the momentum-starved network's new Twins comedy and Don Johnson's Just Legal drama among several shows playing before virtually empty houses.

E-mail ebark@dallasnews.com

WINNERS

Everybody Hates Chris (UPN)

The Chris Rock-narrated comedy opened big by beating competing Joey (NBC) and The O.C. (Fox). That's a mega-achievement for both the show and its oft-ridiculed network.

My Name Is Earl (NBC)

High praise and higher-than-expected ratings made it the biggest bright spot on the struggling Peacock network. But did Earl hold its own last night against ABC's launch of Commander in Chief and the season premiere of CBS' The Amazing Race?

Invasion (ABC)

Its time slot after Lost helped propel the best of the new creature features into Nielsen's weekly top 10 opposite formidable competition from Law &Order's 16th-season premiere on NBC. CBS' CSI: NY joins the battle tonight.

NEWCOMERS

•Prison Break (Fox) – Wearing well on Monday nights despite next-to-no help from preceding comedies Arrested Development and Kitchen Confidential.

•Ghost Whisperer (CBS) – Jennifer Love Hewitt's return to TV scared competing networks, handily beating all competitors with its Friday night opener.

RETURNEES

•60 Minutes, NCIS (CBS) – They may have older followings but are still consistent top 20 performers week in, week out.

LOSERS

The Apprentice: Martha Stewart (NBC)

Her spin on The Donald's franchise drew just 7.1 million viewers for its ballyhooed opener, less than half the audience pulled by a competing Lost clip show. That's a bad thing.

Inconceivable (NBC)

Teeny ratings for premiere episode indicate that this series about infertility instead smelled like fertilizer.

NEWCOMERS

•Kitchen Confidential (Fox) – Ill-served by rock-bottom lead-in from Arrested Development, it may get a reprieve elsewhere on Fox's schedule.

•Killer Instinct (Fox) – Ratings stunk in competition with marginal Friday night newcomers Threshold and Three Wishes.

RETURNEES

•The Apprentice (NBC) – Donald Trump's original keeps downtrending, drawing just 9.9 million viewers, compared with competing CSI's 29 million.

•The Bernie Mac Show (Fox) – Victimized by constant night and time shifts, it's now near death as part of Fox's Friday night hellhole.

•Living With Fran (WB) – No thanks. Would rather live with a rabid monkey.