TV Ratings: FOX's Inane Reality Hit "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" a Legit Hit

Uh-ho! FOX has created another reality monster. "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" was back with Nielsen vengeance on Wednesday night scoring 23,4 million viewers holding on to almost 80% of "American Idol" audience.

Every once in a while comes a reality program of inexplicable appeal ("Deal Or No Deal" being the other obvious candidate in the category) that for some reason manages to capture a mass audience.

For this reason, and despite a gigantic number of reality failures, expect the broadcast networks to continue to unleash upon us new reality formats in the years to come.

Earlier in the evening, "American Idol" once again failed to crack the 30-million mark pulling in "only" 29,6 million viewers from 8 to 9:30pm.

The show nevertheless destroyed its competitors as FOX attracted as many viewers as ABC, CBS and NBC combined.

The comedies on ABC continue to suffer with an average of only about 5 million people tuning in, giving ABC's 10pm show "LOST" (12,7 million) a very disappointing lead-in. The drama has for now leveled off in the upper 12 million mark.

Can this really be happening? NBC's "Friday Night Lights" has slipped to a new series-low with only 5,1 million viewers tuning into the episode "Extended Families".

Fortunately, the next two Wednesdays NBC will air repeats saving the drama before that menace called "American Idol" moves to 9pm with its half-hour results shows.

Finally, "Jericho" on CBS continues to suffer in the head-to-head battle with "Idol" at 8pm; the post-apocalypse series with its modest Hallmark-Channel-style production values scored 8,65 million viewers - on a par with last week's installment, but way off its fall average.

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