'Idol' strong, 'Apt. 23' solid Wednesday
ABC comedy runs third in timeslot as Fox rolls
By RICK KISSELL

On another night with more lackluster numbers for many shows, Fox's
''American Idol'' held steady as the net dominated the night. ABC's
new ''Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23'' looked pretty good in its bow
behind the first original ''Modern Family'' in four weeks.

According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, ''American
Idol'' averaged a 4.9 rating/14 share in adults 18-49 and 16.4 million
viewers overall from 8 to 10 p.m., on par with last week when the show
did a 4.7 in the prelims and rose to a 4.9 in the nationals. From 8 to
10, ''Idol'' beat both CBS and ABC by 6 shares in adults 18-49. Still,
it was off by about 30% from the comparable night a year ago.

At ABC, ''The Middle'' (2.1/7 in 18-49, 7.0 million viewers overall)
and ''Suburgatory'' (2.1/6 in 18-49, 6.1 million viewers overall)
matched their season lows in the opening hour, and ''Modern Family''
followed with its lowest demo delivery of the season for an original
episode (4.1/11 in 18-49, 10.3 million viewers overall), though it
remained the night's top-rated scripted program among young adults.
The debut of ''Don't Trust the B in Apt. 23'' ran third in 18-49 at
9:30 p.m. (2.9/7 in 18-49, 7.0 million viewers overall), coming in
lower than some episode of ''Happy Endings'' in the timeslot this
season but holding on to a bigger chunk of ''Family's'' audience than
any show since the premiere night of ''Happy Endings'' a year ago. And
at 10, the clip show ''Revenge: From the Beginning'' averaged a 1.6/4
in 18-49 and 5.6 million viewers overall; the rookie hit returns with
new episodes next week.

CBS finished second on the night across the board, as ''Survivor'' hit
a season low kicking off the night (2.6/8 in 18-49, 9.6 million
viewers overall) and at 9, ''Criminal Minds'' (3.0/8 in 18-49, 11.8
million viewers overall) matched its low set last week. And closing
things out, ''CSI'' hit a season low but comfortably led its 10 p.m.
hour (2.3/6 in 18-49, 9.8 million viewers overall).

NBC saw week-to-week declines for new half-hours ''Off Their Rockers''
(1.6/5 in 18-49, 6.2 million viewers overall) and ''Best Friends
Forever'' (0.9/3 in 18-49, 2.9 million viewers overall), and the
timeslot debut of ''Rock Center with Brian Williams'' was a bust at 9
p.m. (0.6/2 in 18-49, 2.8 million viewers overall). At 10, an original
''Law and Order: SVU'' was at season-low levels in its return (1.6/4
in 18-49, 5.4 million viewers overall) but more than doubled its demo
lead-in score.

At CW, ''America's Next Top Model'' hit a low (0.5/1 in 18-49), with
the one-time hit drawing just 1 million viewers overall.

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 4.9/14; CBS, 2.6/7;
ABC, 2.4/7; Univision, 1.4/4; NBC, 1.1/3; CW, 0.4/1.