"Bachelor" Bows to "Idol"

Is the tread wearing thin on The Bachelor?

The ABC reality show, now featuring tire scion Andrew Firestone, finished an unspectacular 34th place in its third-season premiere, opposite, in part, an American Idol on Fox in which approximately nothing happened.

Such was the prime-time ratings week ended Sunday. Per usual, CBS was the most-watched network (12.1 million viewers), CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was the most-watched show (26.4 million viewers), and Fox's American Idol was everything else, its Tuesday and Wednesday shows combining for 41.5 million viewers.

Idol worship remained strong despite most of the contestants doing bad karaoke bar renditions of disco classics on Tuesday's installment, and nobody being voted off in Wednesday's hourlong episode. (Quick recap: At the conclusion of the elimination show, host Ryan Seacrest revealed that producers had decided not to boot anyone, on account of hopeful Corey Clark had already been disqualified that week on account of he, um, forgot to mention that he was facing trial for allegedly putting the smackdown on his sister.)

Anyway...

Last Wednesday's Idol might not have been TV's most eventful hour, but it served its purpose. By positioning the show from 8:30-9:30 p.m., Fox blunted the 9 p.m. debut of The Bachelor on ABC.

The latter show averaged 10.2 million viewers, pretty good by ABC standards, pretty so-so by Bachelor standards. Idol's impact was clear: The Bachelor drew 8.9 million in its first half-hour, surging to 11.5 million in its second half-hour, after Simon Cowell & Co. had packed it in for the night.

Not that Fox conceded the 9:30 p.m. time slot to the single guy. Its new Wednesday comedy, Wanda at Large, continued to live large, with 13.9 million viewers (15th place).

Another ABC reality series, Are You Hot?, concluded its leering search for sexy people Saturday night, with back-to-back episodes. Since you probably didn't see the shows--they averaged just 5 million viewers--we will note, in the interest of public service, that Chantille Boudousque and David Maxwell were declared the hottest of them all. Judge Lorenzo Lamas is now free to return to whatever it is he does for a living.

Elsewhere, newsmags with timely profiles performed well, a Barbara Walters special with untimely profiles didn't.

Katie Couric's sit-down with Trisha Meili, heretofore the unnamed rape victim in New York's Central Park jogger case, drew 13 million viewers for the NBC newsie's special, Katie at Night (19th place). Diane Sawyer's chat with Elvis spawn turned aspiring singer Lisa Marie Presley, for ABC's Primetime Thursday, rated with 11.4 million (27th place).

Walters' Oscar special, airing more than a week after the Oscars, managed no better than 64th place (8 million viewers). The ABC interview show, featuring Renée Zellweger, Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore looking forward to a big night...in which they'd all lose, previously was preempted due to ABC News' coverage of the Iraq war.

ABC got better somewhat news out of the sitcom premiere of its new Tuesday night comedy Lost at Home (60th place, 8.4 million).

In the department of inglorious indignities, NBC's Emmy-winning Frasier fell to 47th place (9.25 million viewers), opposite honest-to-god stiff competition from new time-slot combatant, ABC's According to Jim (48th place, 9.22 million).

Could-be cancellation candidate Ed, meanwhile, made a case for its survival, perking up to 32nd place (10.4 million) in a Friday night outing for NBC.

Overall, the Peacock averaged 11.1 million viewers for the week, second to CBS. Fox trailed with 9.3 million, and ABC really trailed with 7.5 million. The WB and UPN tied with about 3 million each.

Top-dog CBS placed four shows in the top 10, but got only mixed results from the men's college basketball tournament. Ratings for Saturday's Final Four games were down about 27.5 percent from last year's action. Monday's final, in which Syracuse bested Kansas, easily led the Eyeball to a nightly victory. CBS says more than 38 million tuned in to at least part of the game, with some 122 million watching the tourney. That's down from 137 million last year, but CBS blames the war in Iraq for the decline.

Here's a rundown of the 10 most-watched shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 26.4 million
2. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 21.2 million
3. Friends, NBC, 20.8 million
4. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 20.3 million
5. Survivor: Amazon, CBS, 19.8 million
6. ER, NBC, 18.9 million
7. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, 18.6 million
8. CSI: Miami, CBS, 17 million
9. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NBC, 15.8 million
10. Law & Order: Criminal Intent, NBC, 15.6 million