With a few weeks under its belt, it's time to look over how the ratings are doing for the Fall shows so far and what shows look to have a chance of surviving.
<strong>ABC</strong>
"Desperate Housewives" continues to be the biggest new hit with its third outing its best yet - pulling in 20.6 million viewers and easily winning Sunday night,hanging comfortably in the Top Five where its only competition seems to be the "CSI" franchise and "Without a Trace". "Lost" is also still doing huge numbers with only very little drop-off and is hanging around the 10th place mark for the week - easily still the highest rating new drama outside "CSI: NY". "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is proving one of the few reality show successes of the season although the network's "The Benefactor" is getting cancelled after just six outings and sitcom "Complete Savages" is going to be butchered soon. "Boston Legal" sadly is beginning to slip despite its positioning right after 'Housewives' - "The Practice" spin-off is slowly bleeding ratings, enough that NBC's "Crossing Jordan" is managing to beat it in the timeslot.
<strong>NBC</strong>
The peacock has fallen back to third place with drops across the board. Stalwart "ER", "The Apprentice" and the assorted "Law & Order" shows continue to be their best performers even though all are significantly down from last season. New shows wise "Joey" is still proving the network's strongest comedy but not anywhere near "Friends" level and as a result both it and stalwart follow-up "Will & Grace" are falling behind "Survivor". Some are now saying CG animated comedy "Father of the Pride" with its sliding numbers is only being kept on due to the wishes of Jeffrey Katzenberg. "Hawaii" has already been pulled, "LAX" gets mediocre numbers at best and is unlikely to last the season unless its recent timeslot move is a success. Funnily enough the only new show performing even moderately well is their Friday drama "Medical Investigation" which in the difficult Friday night timeslot is surprisingly the network's top-rating new drama. Finally, the long in production "Revelations" which was to debut mid-season has been pushed back yet again.
<strong>CBS</strong>
The crime-drama network continues winning all the top slots. The "CSI" franchise, "Without a Trace" and "Cold Case" are still the highest rating dramas on network television. Its new shows however are only going so-so. After "Joey", Jason Alexander's "Listen Up" is the biggest sitcom success of the new season. "Clubhouse" is losing much of its "NCIS" lead-in, whilst "dr. vegas" is an utter disaster.
<strong>FOX</strong>
Murdoch's heavily reality-oriented network has lost around a third of its viewers across all timeslots. Reality shows are failing left right and center with "The Next Great Champ" getting dumped to cable, "The Complex: Malibu" pretty much coming last in its timeslot and all its other shows not going well. Many are expecting it'll wait til "American Idol" returns in January before it'll hit ratings peaks although it has a new drama or two starting next month.
<strong>UPN & The WB</strong>
"Jack & Bobby" reached its lowest ratings of the young season this past Sunday, the WB drama and the network's other newbie "The Mountain" are fading fast, though returning shows like "Smallville" and "One Tree Hill" continue doing boffo numbers. Over on UPN, "Kevin Hill" is doing passably well but "Veronica Mars" is struggling to keep above water.
Thanks to 'Wacky'.
