• by Wayne Friedman , December 20, 2006

In keeping with NBC's by-the-numbers reorganization plan, dubbed "NBC 2.0," its new game show "Identity" did just that--earning good ratings on Monday night.

Posting a solid debut with a preliminary 4.4 rating/11 share among 18-49 viewers, the new show, hosted by Penn Jillette, one half of the comedy/magic team, Penn & Teller, kept its entire lead-in from "Deal or No Deal," which earned a 4.4/12.

All that gave NBC a win for Monday night with a slender 3.5/9.

The NBC 2.0 plan, announced some weeks ago, included NBC Universal making sizable employee cutbacks as well as other cuts, which could include abandoning script programming during the 8 p.m. hour for low-cost reality and game-show programming.

For the rest of the networks on this third Monday in December--a month that traditionally offers up little in way of original programming--there were lots of repeats.

CBS came in second for the night, with a 3.0/8 for reruns of "CSI: Miami" and "Two and a Half Men."

ABC was behind CBS with a 2.3/6--although it had some originals, "Supernanny" and "What About Brian." "Brian" continued to under-whelm, posting a series' low 2.0 rating. Fox tied ABC with the same results. It offered up repeats of "House" and Bones," which earned a 2.5 and a 2.1, respectively.

Univision bucked the trend with some originals--"La Fea Mas Bella," "Mundo de Fieras" and "Cristina." It averaged a 1.7/4 for the night.

CW came in last, repeating its entire comedy lineup: "Everybody Hates Chris," "All of Us," "Girlfriends" and "The Game." It ended up with a 0.8/2 for the night.