• by Wayne Friedman , March 2, 2009

Although its numbers can't rival the past, NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" has seemingly put the network back on the Sunday night map.

"Apprentice," now in its second edition of using celebrities to create business success, posted a sturdy Nielsen preliminary 3.8 rating/9 share for its premiere show, which will now take over a two-hour time block on Sunday night. Previously, its best results came from the "Grammy Awards" show back in February 2008.

While this "Apprentice" debut was down 16% from a 4.5 rating debut when it ran on Thursdays, the new time period slots it as a replacement to "Sunday Night Football," when the series ends. Over the last few years, NBC has struggled to be competitive when it was not airing football.

"Apprentice" ran a close second to a special ABC two-hour event of "Brothers & Sisters," which posted a 4.1/10, winning the night as the best-rated non-sports show. That honor went to Fox's "NASCAR Sprint Series: Las Vegas," which took in a 4.1/11 between 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

One caveat for "Apprentice": It wasn't running against the usual big ratings series of the night, "Desperate Housewives," which moved out of its 9 p.m. time slot to make way for the special "Brothers & Sisters."

ABC won the night with a 3.6/9. Fox was next at a 3.5/9; then NBC at a 2.7/7.

CBS' big program of the evening was its latest TV movie "Jesse Stone: Thin Ice," starting Tom Selleck as a small-town sheriff. But with "Apprentice" and "Brothers" fighting it out for most of the ratings points between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., it could only grab a 2.2/5.

Earlier in the evening, CBS' "Amazing Race 14" rose to a 3.0/8, up from its premiere a week ago. CBS had a 2.4/6 average for the night.

CBS' sister network, the CW, also ran a film--"Rain Man." But it got less than one-quarter of CBS' film, earning a 0.5/1. CW ended up with a 0.4/1 average for Sunday.

Steady Univision grabbed a 1.4/4 among 18-49 viewers. Its best result came from the movie "Nuestra Belleza Latina," which earned a 1.7/4.