• by Lydia Loizides , Op-Ed Contributor, October 15, 2007

So, I will admit it upfront -- I am a huge fan of Angie Harmon. She was one of the only reasons I watched "Law & Order," and the main reason why I stopped watching it the day she left. 

So I was thrilled to see her return to television in "Women's Murder Club" last Friday. The ABC rookie drama averaged a 2.5/8 in 18-49 and 10.8 million viewers overall -- the best demo delivery, according to Variety, for ABC in the 9 p.m. time slot since May 2006 and the largest total-viewer figure since 2003.  It even kept pace with baseball!

What does this tell me? That the television viewing audience still has an appetite for mentally stimulating entertainment.  And that there is still a wealth of content alive and ripe for the picking from the book world.  Think about it: "Women's Murder Club" is based on James Patterson's novels, of the same title, about four women -- intelligent women -- in San Francisco who are involved in various aspects of solving the city's murders.  In order to understand the mass appeal of this television program, one only needs to look at the success of Patterson as a book author. He is credited with selling 12 million books in 2006 and upwards of 130 million books worldwide.  Time  magazine once referred to Patterson as "the man who can't miss" in book publishing; if Friday's rating are any indication, he can't miss on television either. Of course, as long as Angie Harmon stays onboard (smile).