• by David Kaplan , January 28, 2005

There's nothing like bickering talent judges and wacky debutantes to glue viewers to their seats. And, perhaps because of a cold front that hit a large portion of the country, viewers didn't seem to warm up to prospective swimsuit models.

In any event, that's the formula Fox used to good effect on Wednesday, as "American Idol" and "Simple Life: Interns" racked up the audience numbers.

In terms of numbers, week two of Fox's "American Idol" delivered an 11.2/28 rating among adults ages 18 to 49, according to Nielsen Media Research, with 26.5 million people tuning in to see judges Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul bicker over hapless contestants, while one Idol-hopeful performed a truly frightening version of the Michael Jackson hit, "Thriller."

Fox followed that up with another ratings winner, the premiere episode of "Simple Life 3: Interns," which posted a 6.2/14 rating among adults ages 18 to 49 with 13.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen. The episode, which brings back America's favorite, albeit clueless, debs--Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie--achieved its second highest rating ever among adults ages 18 to 49 and its highest ever in total viewers, teens, and persons ages 12 to 34, according to a Fox spokeswoman.

Last night's 6.2 rating among adults ages 18 to 49 for "Simple Life" outscored both the premieres of the original, which had a 5.9 rating in 2003 and "Simple Life 2," which scored a 4.0 in 2004.

Over on NBC, in the 10 p.m. timeslot, the NBC News Katie Couric special, "The 411: Teens & Sex" scored a 3.6 rating in the 18 to 49 category and 9.2 million viewers overall.

The Katie Couric special report was preceded by "The West Wing" at 9 p.m., which scored a 3.7 rating among adults ages 18 to 49, with 10.7 million viewers overall, doubling its 18-to-49 lead-in, the "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search" at 8 p.m., which averaged a 1.6/4 rating in adults ages 18 to 49 and 4.3 million viewers overall.

As for ABC, a rerun of "Lost" averaged 3.9/10, while week four of "Alias" delivered its lowest rating of the season--4.9/11--and was down 21 percent from its season average of 6.2/15, according to Nielsen. "Wife Swap" (3.0/8) was a repeat.

CBS' "60 Minutes" scored a 2.0/5, while "King of Queens" got a 4.0/9 rating.