'HOUSEWIVES' WINS THE NIGHT

"Desperate Housewives" was back for a third season Sunday night helping ABC win the night. Although the drama was off about 23% from last year's premiere, it was on a par with numbers it posted in May (almost 24 mil viewers) providing a strong lead-in for some decent sampling of the new Calista Flockhart series "Brothers and Sisters" (16,10 mil viewers), which did however lose some steam in the second half hour. CBS finished fourth as the combination of "Housewives" on ABC, football on NBC and cartoons on FOX proved too hard to beat.

Elsewhere this weekend, CBS won Friday night and its 9pm drama "Close To Home" was the most-watched program of the evening with about 12 mil viewers. Law & Order did quite well in its new timeslot. The biggest loser was FOX with its weak combo of reality shows.

College Football on ABC won Saturday night with over 7 mil viewers.