5th Graders School Competition

Fox is definitely savvier than a fifth grader.

The network's new game show, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, promoted copiously during and aired after American Idol, went straight to the head of the ratings class, per the latest Nielsen Media Research rankings.

Starring host Jeff Foxworthy and five elementary-school imports, the trivial pursuit averaged nearly 25 million viewers over its three-night rollout. Were it not for American Idol, 5th Grader would have been TV's most watched show, in the unlikely event 5th Grader would have been TV's next-most-watched show were it not for American Idol. As it was, the game distinguished itself as Fox's highest rated premiere ever.

Tuesday's opener was the biggest of the bunch (fourth place, 26.5 million viewers). It aired after Tuesday's 90-minute Idol, which was not-coincidentally the biggest of its own bunch (first place, 30.7 million).

Viewership dipped, but not much, for the 5th Grader episodes on Thursday (fifth place, 23.5 million) and Wednesday (sixth place, 23.4 million).

This week, the game show, slated for a limited run, will air just once, after Thursday's Idol. The following week, the classroom will face its toughest and truest test when it runs neither before nor after Idol, but rather opposite ABC's Ugly Betty and CBS' Survivor: Fiji.

Just in case things get ugly, Foxworthy might want to get an excused-absence letter from Simon Cowell.

Here are some more ratings highlights from the TV week ended Sunday:

• The Idol boys are now even with the Idol girls, with Tuesday's XY-chromosomal showcase topping Wednesday's XX-chromosomal sing-off (second place, 30 million).
• A special appearance by dead Tammy Wynette, sorry, living-large Kellie Pickler perked up Idol's results show (third place, 27.4 million). 
• According to the Hollywood Reporter, Zach Braff could soon be paid as much as Charlie Sheen to help deliver millions and millions fewer viewers to NBC via Scrubs (61st place, 6.8 million) than Sheen's Two and a Half Men (10th place, 16.6 million) brings to CBS.
• Lost watch: Down from last week (24th place, 12.8 million), and showing no sign of getting up.
• ABC News' Bob Woodruff took a roadside bomb to the skull—and got beat out by a Criminal Minds rerun on CBS (31st place, 10.5 million). Woodruff's To Iraq and Back special (33rd place, 10.1 million) also got outdone by NBC's Law & Order: SVU (26th place, 11.7 million).
• NBC's new mob drama, The Black Donnellys (50th place, 7.9 million), wasn't as weak as Studio 60, but it wasn't strong enough to top the ABC special on Oprah Winfrey's South African school (45th place, 8.8 million).
• The Winner (56th place, 7.1 million for its first episode; 71st place, 6 million for its second episode) debuted as Fox's most watched live-action comedy. Of course, Fox only aired one other live-action comedy, The War at Home (92nd place, 4.3 million).
• Fox's broadcast of the 38th Annual NAACP Image Awards (97th place, 3.9 million) was up—way up (26 percent)--from last year, when ratings were down--way down (30 percent)—from 2005.  
• The CW's America's Next Top Model (80th place, 5.4 million) embarked on its eighth catwalker search with a record number of armchair judges in tow.
• The new Disney Channel sitcom, Cory in the House (4.2 million viewers), was, per the Disney Channel, the most watched show among children ages 6-11 on cable—or broadcast television.
• Elsewhere on cable: USA got its usual monster numbers from WWE Monday Night Raw (6.2 million for the first hour; 6.1 million for the second hour); E! got a big third-season premiere out of The Girls Next Door (2.2 million); and Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica (1.4 million) made a relative killing with the apparent demise of Starbuck. (E! and E! Online are divisions of E! Networks.)
• Could ABC Family have used some Jessica Simpson or even a little Catherine Bach to help sell the made-for-TV Dukes of Hazzard prequel, The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (2.1 million)? The network insisted the no-star movie was fine as is in hooking young male viewers.

In the battle of the networks, it wasn't even close. Thanks to lots of Idol and equal doses of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, Fox easily emerged as the most-watched network (averaging 15.3 million) and the highest-rated network among young adults.

CBS (11.8 million) claimed a pair of second-place finishes. NBC (8.2 million) passed ABC (8.1 million) in viewers, while ABC maintained its advantage over NBC in the race for 18-to-49-year-olds. The CW (3.4 million) did its thing.

In the recently concluded February sweeps, CBS took honors as the most-watched network, while Fox took honors as the network most watched by people still agile enough to change channels if they so desired.

Here's a look at the 10 most watched prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 30.7 million viewers
2. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 30 million viewers
3. American Idol (Thursday), Fox, 27.4 million viewers
4. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Tuesday), Fox, 26.5 million viewers
5. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Thursday), Fox, 23.5 million viewers
6. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (Wednesday), Fox, 23.4 million viewers
7. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 18.3 million viewers
8. CSI: Miami, CBS, 17.4 million viewers
9. Deal or No Deal (Monday), NBC, 17.3 million viewers
10. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 16.6 million viewers