ABC Wednesday Ratings Meltdown

Highly-anticipated ABC Wednesdays got off to a lackluster start this week as the trio of sophomore dramas "Pushing Daisies," "Private Practice" and "Dirty Sexy Money" pulled in just 6.5-8 million viewers.

ABC tried to spin the numbers in their press release, but the best they could do is say that the 2nd season opener of whimsical "Pushing Daisies" beat NBC's "Knight Rider" in key female demos.

The truth is the show generated only 6.32 million viewers vs. the hideous "Knight Rider", which actually went up in the ratings to 7.56 million.

"Private Practice" at 9pm pulled in only 8.05 million viewers, a far cry from the 14 million who tuned into the series premiere last September, or the 11 million that the show averaged during its short 9-episode run last fall.

Finally at 10pm, Dynasty-esque sudser "Dirty Sexy Money" kept 7.15 million viewers tuned to ABC. That is a little higher than its last episode last year (6.7 million) and the show did retain almost 90% of the PP audience.

Unfortunately, only "Private Practice" built its audience during the hour, both "Pushing Daisies" and "Dirty Sexy Money" shed viewers during their respective hours.