First Blood: CBS Cans "Danny"

Not even a name change could save the doomed Daniel Stern comedy Danny, which CBS has pulled from its Friday lineup and now carries the, ahem, "distinction" of being this fall's first TV casualty.

It took just two episodes for the network to pull the plug on the Big Ticket Television production, which starred the former City Slicker as a divorced dad who runs a youth rec center. The series debuted September 28 to a disappointing 6 million viewers, and then sank to 5.1 million during week two. Both times, Danny also lost viewers from its already weak Ellen Show lead-in audience.

By comparison, CBS' The Fugitive averaged 13.1 million viewers during the same time period last season.

In becoming the first to drop, Danny managed to outsuck a batch of other shows already circling the drain, including Fox's soap Pasadena, CBS' eerie dog show Wolf Lake and NBC's version of Hell's Kitchen, Emeril.

But there were plenty of other programs showing progress last week, as more new shows debuted and other fall rookies held strong following their premieres.

Among the highlights: NBC's new Tuesday medical comedy Scrubs made the most of its post-Frasier position and won its 9:30 time period, averaging 15.4 million viewers. Despite a critical pummeling, ABC's new Jim Belushi sitcom According to Jim fared well in its Wednesday debut, as Belushi and his beer gut drew 12.7 million viewers, building off their lead-in audience from My Wife and Kids.

Meanwhile, the WB pulled on some cowboy boots and kicked a little Friday night butt with Reba, as the new sitcom starring country crooner Reba McEntire averaged 5 million viewers--the WB's best performance ever in the 9 p.m. timeslot.

The network's other new Friday comedies, Maybe It's Me and Raising Dad, didn't fare as well as Reba, but the family- and young women-oriented lineup ("TGIF," anyone?) still helped the Frog Network nab its target audience and improve on performance from last year.

Among the returning shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer lives on thanks to UPN, as the series averaged 7.7 million viewers, its second-largest audience ever. On Wednesday night, The West Wing's Very Special Episode on terrorism pulled in 25.2 million viewers, its largest audience ever. And on Thursday night, the WB welcomed back Charmed with a new sister (Rose McGowan) and the network's second-strongest Thursday ratings ever (6 million viewers).

CBS, meanwhile, is hoping its special Survivor preview is not a sign of things to come. Thursday's Survivor: Countdown to Africa was a distant second place at 8 p.m., drawing 10 million viewers to Friends' 30 million.

Overall, NBC topped its competition for the week ended October 7, averaging 13.2 million viewers, followed by CBS (which no doubt would've fared better with its Emmy Awards Sunday) with 11 million and ABC with 9.8 million. Fox placed fourth with 6.9 million viewers on average, followed by UPN with 5.7 million and the WB with 4.1 million.

Here's a rundown of the week's top 10 among total viewers:

1. Friends, NBC, 30 million viewers
2. ER, NBC, 26.9 million
3. The West Wing, NBC, 25.2 million
4. Law & Order, NBC, 22.5 million
5. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, 22.5 million
6. Inside Schwartz, NBC, 20.6 million
7. C.S.I., CBS, 19.7 million
8. Will & Grace, NBC, 19.5 million
9. Becker, CBS, 18.2 million
10. Frasier, NBC, 16.5 million