• by Wayne Friedman , January 3, 2007

On New Year's Day, Fox's first outing with the Bowl Championship Series showed that it was a player. It could hold its own against ABC--the first TV network, along with sister network ESPN, to run the event in past seasons.

Fox's Fiesta Bowl wild seesaw match-up saw Boise State eke out a come-from-behind win over Oklahoma, 43-42, which produced a preliminary 4.9 rating/12 share among 18-49 viewers.

Those numbers are similar to ABC's Sugar Bowl prime-time game a year ago between Georgia and West Virginia (a 4.8/13). This gave Fox the win in prime time on Monday night.

ABC also did well with college football, as its late afternoon/early evening Rose Bowl game, in which USC beat Michigan, pulled in an overall 7.5 adults 18-49 rating. Part of the game that aired in prime time--8 p.m. to 9 p.m.--earned the network a 6.6 rating.

Too bad it didn't air completely in prime time. ABC reruns were on tap for the rest of the evening--a 2.6/6 and a 2.8/7 for two previously seen "Supernanny" episodes. This meant that ABC came in second place for the night, with a 3.4/8.

CBS offered up repeats of "CSI: Miami" (a 3.8/10 in 18-49) and "Two and a Half Men" (3.7/9 in 18-49). This wasn't as bad as it looked. The Eye came in just behind ABC with a 3.3/8, proving once again that CBS reruns can hold their own against new programming.

More glaring is that CBS' reruns almost doubled the rerun number at NBC and its hot new series "Heroes," which averaged a superpower-less 1.9/5 in 18-49 viewers, NBC's average for the night.

Univision, with a 1.5/4, and the CW with a 0.9/2, pulled up the rear.