What a Familiar Ring

Despite the traditional focus on which new programs are captivating audiences, the first week of the prime-time television season primarily underscored the durability of old favorites, as the usual suspects and their spinoffs rounded up viewers.

Preliminary results also reinforced perceptions that this season will likely shape up to be a two-network race, with CBS edging NBC overall last week--NBC did lead by a wide margin among adults ages 18 to 49, the key demographic to advertisers--while ABC and Fox lagged far behind.

The good news for the major networks is that people generally returned--sometimes in record numbers--for programs they liked, an ongoing concern as alternatives from cable to the Internet vie for leisure-time attention. In fact, the aggregate audience for CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox was virtually identical to the corresponding week a year ago, with CBS’ gains offsetting ABC’s decline.

The flip side for the networks is that it remains difficult to inspire viewers to sample--and, more significant, stick with--new series. Although several newcomers have gotten off to promising starts, a few already are exhibiting signs of fading.

Among the tried-and-true programs delivering in particularly stellar fashion last week were “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” which cracked 30 million viewers for the first time; “Friends,” with its most-watched season premiere ever; and “Frasier,” posting its highest rating in two years, thanks to the Niles-Daphne marriage.

The top-rated new program, meanwhile, was “CSI: Miami,” in essence a brand extension of the existing show, just as NBC has rolled out additional lines from the “Law & Order” factory.

Indeed, “Law & Order” spinoffs “Special Victims Unit” and “Criminal Intent” both won their time periods, the latter providing the centerpiece of a solid Sunday drama lineup for NBC, which posted respectable ratings for the nostalgic “American Dreams” and Los Angeles-based crime show “Boomtown.” The former was first in its hour with more than 13 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research estimates, while “Boomtown’s” premiere ran a close second to ABC’s “The Practice.”

Overall, Sunday yielded a mixed bag for ABC, as the second-season premiere of “Alias” drew an estimated 11.7 million viewers--the show’s biggest audience since its debut--while the movie “Prince William” landed with a less-than-royal thud, attracting only 7 million.

As always, initial sampling can be deceiving. Fox’s new drama “John Doe,” for example, performed well against reruns but saw the audience drop sharply Friday versus the premiere of CBS’ “Hack,” starring David Morse as an ex-cop-turned-vigilante.

Similarly, ABC’s “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter” slipped to 12.8 million viewers last week--a 26% drop from its premiere--once original competition arrived. ABC would still be satisfied if the show settled near that level, with the question being how well the John Ritter comedy holds up in subsequent weeks.

Although ABC has some room for optimism regarding “8 Simple Rules” and the Damon Wayans sitcom, “My Wife and Kids,” which easily weathered Fox’s move of “The Bernie Mac Show” against it, the network already faces some serious problems. The interactive drama “Push, Nevada” may top that list, plummeting 45% from the previous week against CBS and NBC’s Thursday heavyweights.

ABC officials have said the program will run at least one more time but haven’t committed beyond that. The network’s new back-in-time drama “That Was Then” also looked virtually dead on arrival Friday, drawing an estimated 4.3 million viewers to finish a distant fifth in its hour.

The second edition of “The Bachelor” was left at the altar too, with a tepid 9 million viewers. A sophomore jinx--or “been there, seen that” mentality--has plagued many unscripted shows, with “Survivor” a notable exception.

In what amounts to a bookkeeping trick, ABC lobbied Nielsen to relabel the opening installment a special, “The Bachelor Revealed,” allowing the network to delete Wednesday’s rating from the program’s season average and to promote this week’s episode as “the season premiere.”

Beyond CBS and NBC, the other standout was the fledgling WB network, whose highlights included record tune-in for the second-year premiere of “Smallville.”

Fox will televise the major league baseball playoffs this month and thus preempt much of its regular prime-time lineup, creating what competing networks hope will be a window of opportunity for some of their programs.