• by Wayne Friedman , September 12, 2005

Although the official start to the new fall network season is two weeks away, an early preview of some new shows has given some predictable results. ABC's Thursday Night edition of "Monday Night Football" and two Fox shows started up last Thursday, with ABC easily winning the night.

ABC's NFL season-opening game between the Super Bowl Champions' New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders earned a strong 7.7 rating/28 share in the adults 18-49 demographic. That's up 7 percent versus last year's opener, and 16 percent higher than "Monday Night Football"'s average for 2004, which earned a 6.6 rating in adults 18-49.

Fox's season premiere of the "The O.C." pulled in a 3.3 rating among adults 18-49, and the network's new show "Reunion" grabbed a 3.0 rating. Both shows fared well--although a bit below expectations in comparison to last year's viewer trend data for Fox. Fox pulled in an average 3.9 in adults 18-49 in winning the season last year.

ABC's football game, while earning good numbers, came on a Thursday night when other networks--especially CBS--weren't premiering any new shows.

"The football game did pretty good," said Brad Adgate, senior vp and corporate research director of Horizon Media. "But it's not an atypical game." ABC won the night with an average 6.4 rating for adults 18-49.

The game was preceded by a big event music show, "NFL Opening Kickoff," which ran at 8:00 p.m., and featured The Rolling Stones, Santana, Kanye West, and other artists. That show earned a 2.8 rating in adults 18-49.

"The only trend of the night is that 'Reunion' held most of the lead out of 'The O.C.'", says Horizon's Adgate. "The O.C." grabbed a 4.8 household rating; "Reunion" stayed close with a 4.4.

For all that Fox did on Thursday, CBS--with a new "Big Brother" and reruns--posted the second-best numbers of the evening after ABC, with a 3.6/10. Fox came in third, with a 3.1/9. NBC was far off in fourth place, with a 2.0/5. The WB and UPN tied for last place, with each averaging 0.7/2 for the night.