So You Think You Can Get Summer Ratings?

Summer TV is here. Cue the jazz hands.

The second-season premiere of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance finished a respectable 14th in the Nielsen Media Research weekly rankings out Tuesday. The standings represented the last gasp of the 2005-06 fall season, and the first wave of the '06 summer season.

American Idol, the 2005-06 champ, easily topped all comers for the week, closing out its fifth season with a ginormous first-place finish (36.4 million for Wednesday's finale), and an almost-as ginormous second-place finish (31.8 million for Tuesday's penultimate episode).

Fox's House (third place, 25.5 million) posted the largest non-Idol finale; ABC's Alias (30th place, 6.7 million) didn't.

So You Think You Can Dance premiered the night after Idol formally crowned Taylor Hicks, as well as the night after the fall season officially ended. About the only new product out there, the two-hour Dance averaged 10.7 million, up slightly from last July's season opener.

Also off to an okay start: Last Comic Standing, which returned to NBC on Tuesday night after a two-year layoff. Its fourth-season opener, with new host Anthony Clark, averaged an estimated 8.5 million, the network said. The show's previous season premiere, with then-host Jay Mohr, drew 7.8 million in August 2004.

Elsewhere in the TV week ended Sunday:

The possibility of seeing Charlie Sheen tie the knot lured 15.5 million to the third-season finale of CBS' Two and a Half Men (sixth place). CBS' telecast of the Academy of Country Music Awards (11th place, 12 million) got beat, but not killed by Tuesday's Idol. Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball was a win-win: Its hostess got herself a write-off-able dinner party; its host network, ABC, got itself a fairly good draw (13th place, 11.6 million). Maybe next time, ABC should ask Stephen King to write an hourlong Desperate Housewives instead of three-hour Desperation (26th place, 7.5 million). Speaking of Desperate Housewives, it ages about as well as previously used Dynastys--47th place, 5.5 million for a Sunday night rerun. ABC's Grey's Anatomy is holding up better upon repeated viewing--34th place, 6.4 million for a Sunday night rerun. NBC's "high-octane thrill ride," 10.5: Apocalypse, sputtered to its miniseries conclusion--31st place, 6.5 million. More people caught old Lindsay Lohan in an ABC repeat of Freaky Friday, which attracted 5.8 million viewers (43rd place), than caught new Lindsay Lohan in her latest movie, Just My Luck, which has inspired just 2.3 million paying customers. (This bracing stat brought to you by long division--specifically, by dividing the movie's $14.3 million gross by 2005's average ticket price.)

Overall, Idol-led Fox won the week in total viewers (averaging 14.8 million) and demographically desirable 18-to-49-year-old ones.

CBS ran second in viewers, with 9 million, followed by ABC (7.3 million) and NBC (6.3 million).

As reported last week, CBS and Fox shared bragging rights for the just-concluded season, with CBS ending up among as the overall most-watched network, and Fox ending up as the most-watched network in the industry's beloved demo.

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 (Wednesday), Fox, 36.4 million
2. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 31.8 million
3. House, Fox, 25.5 million
4. CSI: Miami, CBS, 20 million
5. Lost, ABC, 17.8 million
6. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 15.5 million
7. Deal or No Deal (Monday), NBC, 14.2 million
8. 24, Fox, 13.8 million
9. CSI, CBS, 13.3 million
10. The New Adventures of Old Christine, CBS, 13.1 million