• by Wayne Friedman , April 9, 2009

ABC's new 10 p.m. drama/comedy "The Unusuals" didn't do much better than "Life On Mars" -- the show that it replaced -- in its series debut.

The quirky ABC show posted a ho-hum Nielsen 2.1 rating/6 share for the 18-49 demographic, slightly better an original episode of "Life on Mars" the week before, which grabbed a 2.0/6.

ABC didn't get any better news earlier in the night. Its other recent show -- "Better Off Ted," at 8:30 p.m. -- slipped to a 1.7/5 from a 1.9/5. ABC wasn't cheering too wildly at 9 p.m. either. "Lost" posted its worst 18-49 numbers to date -- at a 3.8/10. A week before, "Lost" checked in with a 4.3/11. ABC averaged a 2.6/7 for the evening.

If there was any consolation for "Lost," it was that other 9 p.m. shows were down as well. NBC's "Life" dropped to a 1.3/3 from a 1.5/4. Even Fox's "American Idol" was down a bit as well, to an 8.0/20 versus an 8.4/21. But the huge numbers for "Idol" don't seem to be waning much on a percentage basis. "Idol" crushed the competition once again for a Wednesday night.

Earlier in the night, Fox's "Lie To Me" continued on its same trajectory with a 2.5/8 -- virtually the same numbers as the week before. It won the 8 p.m. time period. Fox ended the night at a 5.3/15 versus its 5.5/15 the previous week.

CBS went back to its Wednesday 8 to 9 p.m. comedies this week -- "The New Adventures of Old Christine" earned a 2.1/7 and "Gary Unmarried" took a 2.2/7. The week before, it opened some eyes with the reality effort "I Get That A Lot" -- where celebrities took on some surprising turns with mainstream jobs -- earning a 3.4/10. CBS averaged a 2.9/8 for this particular Wednesday, well behind Fox for second place.

NBC went into rerun mode at 8 p.m. and then at 10 p.m. with "Law & Order". It ended the night with a 1.2/3.

CW's big Wednesday show, "America's Next Top Model," came across the line with a 1.7/5 -- about the same as a week ago. "Model" had the best results during the 8 p.m. time period among women 18-34 with a 2.7/9, and ranked second with adults 18-34 -- earning a 1.9/6, behind "Lie To Me."

CW ended up just ahead of NBC among 18-49 viewers, with a 1.3/4. But Univision topped both English-language networks with a 1.9/5.