TV Ratings: Wincester Boys Score Again; "October Road" Premiere Impressive

Unlike the recent repeats-filled Thursdays, March 15 was a night of all-new programming on broadcast TV in America, including series premieres of new dramas "October Road" on ABC and "Raines" on NBC. How well did they do?

It all began at 8pm when "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" proved it was able to stand on its own feet, albeit scoring "only" 12,18 million viewers.

That was however good enough to win the time-period beating a new "Ugly Betty" (10,76 million) on ABC and the coverage of NCAA basketball on CBS (9,59 million, on a par with last year's performance.)

"Betty" pulled in its lowest audience since Thanksgiving. FOX meanwhile scored its best timeslot numbers since comedies "Martin" and "Living Single" aired in the timeslot 10 years ago ("The O.C." never managed to break 9 million in the timeslot.)

The wedding of Lex and Lana Luthor on "Smallville" failed to deliver a ratings high for the veteran drama. The episode dropped 500,000 viewers since its last fresh outing in February with only 4,58 million.

An all-new "Grey's Anatomy" at 9pm (22,4 million) was down from its inflated February sweeps numbers it scored with the infamous Meredith-meets-Denny episode (I am absolutely positive the episode will be used one day to indicate where 'Grey's Anatomy' may have "jumped the shark").

That was however good enough to make "Grey's" the top show of the evening (CSI was pre-empted for basketball on CBS.)

"Supernatural" boys recently hit a series low. That was all history Thursday night as the drama scored its best numbers since October pulling in 3,54 million viewers. The jury is however still out on a third season.

The new drama "October Road" on ABC (14,34 million) did much better than both its predecessor "Men In Trees" and the competing series premiere of "Raines" on NBC (10,34 million).

In other series premiere news, new NBC comedy "Andy Barker P.I." starring Andy Richter scored 5,85 million viewers, about 10% more viewers than the regular timeslot occupant "30 Rock".

Keep in mind the numbers tend to go down after a premiere.

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