• by Wayne Friedman , May 28, 2009

The battle of the returning summer shows has started, with Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance?" drawing first blood.

The perennial big summertime show pulled in a healthy Nielsen preliminary 3.5 rating/10 share among 18-49 viewers for its two-hour showing, which was Fox's nightly average, leading all networks for Wednesday night.

Strong competition came from ABC's "Wipeout," however, which also offered up a healthy 3.2/10 for the 8 p.m. hour, beating the first hour of "Dance."

ABC couldn't keep up the good work for the rest of the evening, as its new animated comedy "The Goode Family" only took in half of "Wipeout" viewers, with a 1.6/5.

Later in the night, ABC went further downhill for a remaining original comedy episode of "Surviving Suburbia," which took in a lowly 1.0/3. Another remaining episode of a midseason show, "The Unusuals," grabbed a 1.2/3 during the 10 p.m. hour. ABC had a 1.9/5 average for the night.

CBS had some original programming of its own: a two-hour "George Strait: ACM Artist of the Decade All-Star Concert" registered a modest 2.2/6. CBS landed in second-place with a 2.1/6.

NBC borrowed "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" from its sister network USA Network, running an original episode but getting a slim 1.1/4. NBC tied Univision for fourth place at a 1.5/4 for the night.

CW was next with a 0.5/1 among 18-49 viewers and a 0.5/2 for 18-34 viewers for reruns of "America's Next Top Model" and "Hitched or Ditched."