• by Wayne Friedman , December 8, 2006

It's good strategy for a non-sweeps period: When everyone is in reruns, trot out a season premiere of a venerable, hardworking show. This is what CBS did with "King of Queens." Twice.

The net ran the show at 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., averaging a 3.2 and a 3.6 adults 18-49 Nielsen preliminary rating. The 3.4 average for the night was just slightly better than last year's season average.

CBS beat CW, its sister network, which came in second in the 8 p.m. hour with monster numbers for the finale of its "America's Next Top Model." "Model" did a 3.0 rating in the 18-49 demo, beating out NBC, Fox, and ABC. CW earned the best numbers ever for the network for the evening.

Plus, "Model" was the best among adults 18-34 at 8 p.m., averaging a 4.0--almost a 1.5 number ahead of CBS. This carried over to CW's 9 p.m. show "One Tree Hill," which went to a 2.6 at 9 p.m., tied for second in the demo in the time slot.

For the night, CBS won the evening with a 3.7 average rating and a 10 share. NBC was second at 3.2/9; CW was next with a 2.4/7. Then came ABC at 2.1/6, Fox at a 2.0/6, and Univision with a 1.7/5.

NBC started off the night with a 2.6 for "The Biggest Loser," then moved up to a season-high 4.0 rating for its second hour of "Loser," which also won the time period. CBS was a close second, but still smiling at the economics of it all, as it earned a 3.9 for a repeat of "Criminal Minds." CBS smiled some more at 10 p.m., taking first place with a 3.8 for a repeat of "CSI: NY."

ABC offered up a slim 1.9 for game show "Show Me the Money" at 8 p.m. Then at 9 p.m., it headed farther south with a paltry 1.7 for "Daybreak." It did improve to a 2.7 for "Primetime." Fox was also sitting back this evening, offering up two repeats of "Bones," earning a 2.1, then a 2.0.