Last week saw some big debuts of pilots and even bigger returns for old shows and today the networks are reflecting on the numbers and seeing what stacks up and where.
One of the bigger pieces of news is that "Lost", the new series from J.J. Abrams about plane crash survivors trapped on a strange island, won a huge victory for ABC. The first half of a two-part pilot managed to score a 18.7 million audience, the biggest new series premiere the network has had since 1995's "Murder One". Still it didn't take away from other shows in the same timeslot with the return of "Smallville" scoring an impressive 6.1 million whilst the third "America's Next Top Model" took in 3.6 million.
All three new episodes of "CSI" that aired last week won their timeslots, while Bruckheimer TV-produced "Without A Trace" amassed more viewers than "ER" and hit series highs across the board in their season premieres. The return of "CSI" didn't affect the scores of "The Apprentice 2" although it did significantly outrate the Trump reality show. The premiere of "CSI: New York" with 19.3 million easily beat the audience of the returning "Law & Order" with 15.4 million for the first hour (its second 'new' hour picked up significantly though).
Not faring so well last week were Fox's Wednesday comedies, ABC's The Bachelor, and UPN's Veronica Mars which all fared so-so at best.
Thanks to 'Casey'.
