Ratings: Talking Babies Rule

That's right, during a week rife with midseason premieres (including anthropomorphic bunnies, stupid bachelor tricks and even stupider TV show titles), the Eye network has found its biggest new hit in the goofy Look Who's Talking-style sitcom, Baby Bob--all while another new CBS show, AFP: American Fighter Pilot, barely registered a blip on viewers' radars.

Bob pulled in 14.2 million viewers last week. That, along with the top-rated C.S.I. (25.2 million), the solid-performing Survivor: Marquesas (20.5 million) and more NCAA college hoops coverage, helped CBS average 12.6 million viewers for another weekly ratings victory, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Not so promising for the network was AFP, the new fighter-pilot reality series which took a nosedive Friday with just 4.9 million viewers. The Supreme Court drama First Monday didn't fare much better, drawing 6.4 million and upping the odds that its last Friday is coming soon.

NBC, meanwhile, settled for second place among total viewers (11.8 million viewers), while once again topping the competition among adults 18-49, the demographic coveted by advertisers. The Peacock continues to thrive off the success of ER (24.8 million) and Friends (22 million), not to mention its time-period winning Fear Factor (15.8 million).

Less stellar were its latest midseason efforts, Leap of Faith (dropping to 14.5 million viewers last week) and Watching Ellie (9.7 million). The Julia Louis-Dreyfus comedy stabilized enough to earn a brief reprieve from network execs, who were ready to rip it from the schedule this week, but its future still remains questionable.

Elsewhere, ABC sunk back into its post-Oscar slump, getting little help from its new midseason entries, The George Lopez Show, The Court, the horrendously titled Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central) and the just plain horrendous The Bachelor. Wednesday (7.9 million viewers) retained just 80 percent of its already weak Drew Carey Show lead-in, while Lopez (10.4 million), The Court (10 million) and The Bachelor (9.9 million) raised few eyebrows.

On the bright side, ABC's annual Easter airing of The Ten Commandments (based on a certain best-selling book, natch) scored a first-place finish, drawing 12.5 million viewers Sunday night. ABC averaged 9.4 million viewers to land in third place for the week ended March 31.

Over on Fox, puppet-show spoof Greg the Bunny scored one of the midseason's most promising debuts--drawing 10.1 million viewers and topping ABC's Wednesday 9:30 by more than a hare.

Fox, however, has already shut down the American Embassy. The new series was canceled this week after four low-rated episodes.

In other cancellation news, UPN axed its Friday-night reality block of Amazing Race 2 repeats and Under One Roof. UPN still managed to top the WB last week among total viewers (3.5 million vs. 3 million) and adults 18-49 (1.5 rating/4 share vs. 1.3 rating/4 share).

Here's a rundown of the week's 10 most watched shows, according to Nielsen:

1. C.S.I., CBS, 25.2 million viewers
2. ER, NBC, 24.8 million
3. Friends, NBC, 22 million
4. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS, 22 million
5. Survivor: Marquesas, CBS, 20.5 million
6. Law & Order, NBC, 19.3 million
7. NCAA Playoffs, CBS, 18.5 million
8. Yes, Dear, CBS, 17.1 million
9. The West Wing, NBC, 17 million
10. JAG, CBS, 15.9 million