• by Wayne Friedman , October 11, 2005

Despite the advent of possible big-rated sports programming from Fox, ABC continued to roll through the early part of the new season--easily making it three straight Sunday victories.

Because of its big three shows--"Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"--ABC grabbed a Nielsen Media Research 7.0 rating/17 share in adults 18-49.

Fox was a distant second with a 4.5/11. NBC was next, at 3.0/7; then CBS, at 2.8/7 and WB, at 1.2/3. Overall, ABC is the leader in 18-49 for the beginning weeks of the season.

"Desperate Housewives" pulled in with a top-notch 10.9 rating/24 share in adults 18-49 and 25.7 million viewers. That was a decline in ratings of about 10 percent from the week before. "Grey's Anatomy" examined a 8.2/19 in 18-49 and 18.5 million viewers. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" sank somewhat from the week before--but still won its time slot with a solid 6.1/15 in 18-49 and 15.0 million viewers overall.

Fox tried to compete with an overrun NFL game from the afternoon and a Major League Baseball playoff game--New York Yankees-Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim--which earned Nielsen 9.7 household preliminary rating. The game was up 45 percent versus a year ago.

NBC again had a hard time competing on Sunday because of its low-rated dramas: "West Wing" earned a 2.5/6 in 18-49, and 8.1 million; "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" did a bit better, at 3.8/8 in 18-49 and 12.5 million viewers overall (which is up over the week before); and "Crossing Jordan" did about the same, with 3.8/9 in 18-49 and 12.9 million viewers overall.

CBS did well with "Cold Case"--4.0/10 in 18-49 and 15.8 million viewers. But it couldn't build from there. Its original movie "Hunt for the BTK Killer" sank to a 2.6/6 in 18-49 and 8.6 million viewers overall.