• by Wayne Friedman , February 19, 2009

ABC's "Lost" showed ratings improvement this week--but "American Idol" still pulled down the big numbers of the night, giving Fox a Wednesday win.

"Lost" at 9 p.m. had a Nielsen preliminary 5.1 rating/12 share--up from a 4.4 rating/10 share a week ago when it battled an expanded version of "American Idol."

ABC's 10 p.m. show "Life on Mars" edged up a bit from its recent outings, to a 2.1/6--but lower than its initial shows in the fall.

Fox ruled the night, starting with "Idol" and its 8.9/24. This was down versus a 9.5/23 performance a week ago. At 9 p.m., "Lie To Me"--which took a 4.2/10--came in second place to "Lost."

Fox averaged a 6.6/17, with ABC less than half those numbers--reaching a 3.1/8.

CBS was behind ABC. Its Wednesday comedies continue to suffer in the wake of "Idol": "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "Gary Unmarried" received a 2.0/6 and a 2.1/5, respectively, about the same as a week ago.

CBS had its best result from "Criminal Minds" with a 3.7/9, good for third place at 9 p.m.--although "CSI:NY" was clearly the best choice for viewers at 10 p.m., grabbing a 3.1/8. That's almost two full rating points ahead of NBC's "Law & Order" and ABC's "Mars." NBC's "Life" continued to struggle in the highly competitive 9 p.m. spot--and as result, reached a 1.5/4, good for fifth place. A week ago the show earned a 1.3/3.

Earlier in the night, NBC's rookie show, "Knight Rider," took in the same exact number because of strong competition from "Idol" at 8 p.m. It earned a 1.3/3 a week ago.

NBC averaged a 1.7/4 for the night--just a bit below Univision at a 1.8/5. With all the competition, CW went into reruns with "Privileged" and "90210", averaging a 0.3/1 among 18-49 viewers and a 0.4/1 for its 18-34 audience.