• by Wayne Friedman , April 16, 2009

Fox's "American Idol" grabbed slightly more 18-49 viewers on Wednesday night versus the week before -- as it again crushed the competition, growing to a Nielsen preliminary 8.0 rating/20 share.

Good news for ABC's "Lost," which competes against the big "Idol" show at 9 p.m.. It also picked up 18-49 viewers -- climbing to a 3.9/10 from a 3.7/9. "Lost" also grew almost a half a rating point among young 18-34 viewers, to a 4.0/12.

ABC went in the other direction with its new 10 p.m. show "The Unusuals" -- dropping to a 1.9/5 from a 2.2/6 the week before, its premiere. But time-period leader, CBS' "CSI:NY" also had troubles -- down to a 2.8/8 from a 3.3/9, its lowest 18-49 numbers ever.

At 8:30 p.m., ABC's other new midseason comedy "Better off Ted" grew to a 1.9/6 against a rerun of CBS' "Gary Unmarried," which posted a 1.8/5.

Earlier in the evening, Fox won the 8 p.m. time period with "Bones" earning a 3.0/9.

Fox remained the top network on Wednesdays -- this time with a 5.5/15 among 18-49 viewers, up a bit from a week before. ABC earned more than half of those ratings, registering a 2.6/7, the same numbers as the previous Wednesday.

CBS was next with a 2.4/7 -- dropping from a 2.9/8. As a comparison, it isn't that bad, considering two of its three hours, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., were in reruns this Wednesday.

NBC picked up a little from the week before to a 1.7/5 with an all "Law & Order" rerun night: The original "L&O" show airing at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., with "Law & Order: SVU" at 9 p.m.

CW's biggest-rated show, "America's Next Top Model," lost a bit during the 8 p.m. hour, earning a 1.8/5 among 18-49 audiences. It went down in overall viewers to 3.8 million from 4.7 million. The network ended the night with a 1.1/3 among 18-49 viewers. It had a 1.2/4 in the 18-34 demo, which tied NBC.