Bionic Showdown with Grey's Spinoff

Thu., Sep. 27, 2007 1:21 PM PDT by Joal Ryan

Sure, Jaime Sommers is super strong, but Addison Montgomery isn't so bad herself.

ABC's Private Practice, the Grey's Anatomy spinoff relocating Kate Walsh's Dr. Montgomery to Los Angeles, was Wednesday's most watched drama or comedy, while NBC's Bionic Woman, the dark redo of the 1970s action series, was the night's highest rated show among desirable young adults, preliminary Nielsen Media Research stats show.

Going head-to-head in the 9 p.m. hour, Private Practice averaged 14.2 million viewers to Bionic Woman's 13.6 million. Private Practice was a close second to the Jaime Sommers display of amazing arm strength in the 18-49 demographic.

NBC was the bigger winner in that last fall, in the same time slot, it was stuck with the under-sized Biggest Loser (8.2 million). Private Practice, meanwhile, was filling in for Lost, which opened with 18.8 million viewers last October. The time slot later went bad on ABC, too, devolving into an hour of the little-watched comedies Knights of Prosperity and In Case of Emergency.

The reason ABC and NBC have had problems on Wednesday is because that's one of the nights Fox airs American Idol. That force of nature, no bionic parts required, returns in January.

Until then, NBC used Bionic Woman to boost the premiere of its new cop show, Life. In the 10 p.m. hour, the freshman drama ran first among 18- to 49-year-olds, and finished a close third in total viewers (10.1 million). All in all, Life marked a big improvement over the network's occupant last fall: Kidnapped, which bowed before 7.8 million, en route to a quick hook.

Private Practice seemed to give ABC's new 10 p.m. soap, Dirty Sexy Money (10.4 million) a nice boost, too, but the numbers say that last fall Lost gave The Nine an even bigger boost—the serial about the survivors of a bank robbery premiered before 11.9 million—and the story didn't exactly end well for that series.

CBS, meanwhile, better hope that an awful lot of people set their TiVos to record Criminal Minds and CSI: NY, because the overnight numbers weren't comforting. At 9 p.m., Mandy Patinkin's unfond farewell on Criminal Minds got squeezed out by Bionic Woman and Private Practice, ran third in viewers (12.7 million) and lost 3 million armchair detectives from last fall's premiere. At 10 p.m., CSI: NY was the hour's most watched show (12.7 million), but was about 3.5 million viewers lighter than last fall's opener.

At 8 p.m., Kid Nation (7.6 million) continued to fare worse than the currently sidelined Jericho, which occupied the time slot last fall. The controversial reality series did, however, run first among children aged 6-11, who must have been pleased to see that mucus medicine Mucinex signed on as a sponsor.

Overall, ABC ruled the night thanks to its third helping of the week of Dancing with the Stars. The results show, which resulted in the ouster of model Josie Maran, averaged 16.6 million, tops for any Wednesday show.

Elsewhere, the Fox lineup of Back to You (7.5 million), 'Til Death (6.2 million) and Kitchen Nightmares (5.4 million) floundered when faced with fall competition; while, the CW's Gossip Girl (2.5 million) already looked talked out, down about 1 million viewers from its premiere.

On NBC, going opposite Dancing with the Stars, Deal or No Deal didn't have a great night (8.9 million); soon, it won't have any kind of night on Wednesday. The network is scuttling the Wednesday edition of the game show in October to make way for Phenomenon, a sort of American Idol search for the next great spoon-bender, to be hosted by spoon-bender Uri Geller and illusionist Criss Angel, late of Britney Spears.