Primetime Ratings: ‘Lie To Me,’ ‘Idol’ Give Fox Wednesday Win

Fox won the Wednesday night primetime ratings with strong showings for Lie To Me and American Idol. ABC’s new show The Unusuals finished second in its time slot and earned 6 million viewers.

Lie To Me led off the night with a 2.5/8, beating out second place CBS (2.2/7) which aired The New Adventures of Old Christine (2.1/7) at 8 and Gary Unmarried (2.2/7) at 8:30. The CW and ABC tied for third place on the hour at 1.7/5. The CW earned the number for America’s Top Model while ABC aired Scrubs (1.8/6) at 8 and Better Off Ted (1.7/5) at 8:30. Top Model was beat out by Scrubs in the first half-hour but was higher than Better Off Ted in the second. A re-run of Law & Order on NBC was fifth at 1.2/4.

American Idol delivered a 7.8/20 at 9 p.m. with 22.4 million average viewers. Lost on ABC was next at 3.7/9. CBS’ Criminal Minds earned a third place 3.2/8 and was second in total viewers at 13.2 million. NBC was fourth at 1.3/3 for Life, while the CW dropped to fifth at 0.9/2 for the Top Model clip show.

CBS took first place at 10 with a 3.3/9 for CSI: NY. The Unusuals debut on ABC earned a 2.2/6 and maintained much of the Lost audience. NBC was third at 1.2/3 with another re-run of Law & Order.
On the night Fox delivered a 5.2/14 and earned 15.4 million viewers. CBS was next at 2.9/8 and 11 million viewers. ABC finished third at 2.6/7, followed by the CW at 1.3/4. NBC was fifth with a 1.2/3.