Fox wins week, as ABC's "Road" makes strides

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - ABC traveled down a happy trail last week with "October Road," giving the network its strongest companion program to top drama "Grey's Anatomy."

Meanwhile, Fox won the week in both viewership and adults 18-49, according to Nielsen Media Research, as "American Idol" boosted the fortunes of other shows on the network.

NBC won Monday in viewership and tied Fox in adults 18-49 on the strength of "Deal or No Deal" (16.8 million, 4.8 rating/13 share in adults 18-49). Fox was lifted by "24" (12.4 million, 4.6/11). Tuesday belonged to a two-hour "Idol" (29.8 million, 11.7/31) that blew away mostly repeat competition.

The next night, underperforming Fox sitcom "'Til Death" (14.1 million, 5.8/15) posted its strongest ratings ever following the half-hour "Idol" (26.2 million, 10.1/26). "Bones" (10.4 million, 3.5/10) won at 8 p.m., nuking, among other things, CBS' "Jericho" (7.8 million, 2.3/7). ABC's "Lost" (12.5 million, 5.4/15) won its 10 p.m. time period against repeats.

Thursday belonged to ABC, which saw "Grey's" (22.7 million, 9.0/23) boost the 10 p.m. premiere of "October Road" (13.9 million, 5.6/15), about a successful author's return to the small New England town and the friends he abandoned a decade earlier.

But NBC's "Ugly Betty" (10.8 million, 3.5/10) was beaten at 8 p.m. by Fox's "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" (12.6 million, 4.6/13). NBC premiered "Andy Barker, P.I." (6 million, 2.4/6) and "Raines" (10.5 million, 2.9/8) later Thursday.

For CBS, most of Thursday, Friday and Saturday -- day and primetime -- was about NCAA men's basketball. While overall ratings were up 4% for the first two rounds, the tournament hasn't been faring as well in primetime. CBS averaged 11 million viewers for three telecasts during the weekend, down 1% from the same period last year. Seven primetime telecasts averaged 9.7 million viewers, down 6% from a year ago. It's the lowest ratings for the NCAA tournament in primetime since 2003, when it coincided with the start of the Iraq War.

Sunday belonged to CBS, which had strong ratings from a basketball-delayed "60 Minutes" (14.4 million, 3.6/10), "The Amazing Race" (12 million, 3.9/10) and "Cold Case" (15.1 million, 4.2/10). That was helped by the fact that all of ABC's schedule was repeats. NBC had a "Deal" repeat, but "Grease: You're the One That I Want" (6.8 million, 1.9/5) and "The Apprentice" (7.2 million, 2.8/7) were new, as were Fox's "The War at Home" (3.4 million, 1.5/5) and two shots of rookie comedy "The Winner," at 8:30 p.m. (5.5 million, 2.7/7) and at 9:30 p.m. (5.1 million, 2.6/6).

For the week, Fox averaged 11.3 million viewers and a 4.4/12 in the demo, followed by CBS (10.7 million, 3.4/9), NBC (8.3 million, 2.5/7), ABC (7.9 million, 2.8/8), the CW (3.1 million, 1.2/3) and MyNetworkTV (900,000, 0.3/8).

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter