'THE NINE' LOSES HALF 'LOST' AUDIENCE

ABC's freshman drama about survivors of a hostage standoff following a bank robbery gone wrong has sunk to new lows. The drama attracted only a little over 8 million viewers last night (10PM), which is less than half of the 16,8 million who tuned into yet another breathtaking installment of "Lost" at 9PM. Little had ABC known when they cancelled the amazing alien mystery drama "Invasion" last season.

Over on CBS, "Criminal Minds" (9PM) continues to give "Lost" a run for its money (16,59 million) becoming one of the greatest success stories of this TV season.

The highest rated program of the evening was Jerry Springer's exit from the "Dancing with the Stars" competition on ABC (8PM) that nabbed almost 20 million viewers.

Jericho continues to be a steady performer for CBS (8PM, 10,54 million) improving the nets timeslot results over previous seasons.

The losers of the evening were NBC's 8PM comedies. Despite that '30 Rock' will get a post-Scrubs timeslot in Thursday's Must-See TV line-up as of November 30.