ABC is at it again, finding its new hit drama “Commander in Chief” in the top 10 in the weekly Nielsen ratings, not far behind its sophomore successes of “Desperate Housewives” (No. 2), “Lost” (No. 3) and “Grey’s Anatomy” (No. 6).
“Chief” checks in at No. 8, giving ABC a fourth drama in the top 10. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” had been a top 10 regular but has fallen out in recent weeks and checked in at No. 13 in the ratings released Tuesday for the week of Oct. 3 to Oct. 9.
CBS filled in most of the top 10 gaps that ABC didn’t already own: At the top was “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” with “Without a Trace” following at No. 4. “CSI: Miami” was No. 5, “Survivor: Guatemala” was No. 7 and “NCIS” was No. 9 in total viewers. NBC’s only top 10 appearance came from “Law &Order: Special Victims Unit,” which rounded out the list.
Other noteworthy developments include continued strong showings from NBC’s breakout sitcom, “My Name is Earl,” which is still the second most watched sitcom, behind CBS’s “Two and a Half Men,” by about 1 million viewers.
A troubling note for ABC is that “Invasion” seems to be losing the grip it had on viewers who hung around after “Lost.” “Invasion” made a strong showing in the first couple of weeks, but fell off to 11.3 million viewers last week, which is about half the number of people who watched “Lost” in the previous hour.
NBC’s flipflop that moved “E-Ring” to 8 p.m. Wednesday and “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart” to 9 p.m. Wednesday appears to have helped “E-Ring,” if anything. It scored a slightly higher number of viewers than its previous average while Martha lost a few.
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