• by Wayne Friedman , September 27, 2005

ABC picked up where it left off last year, taking apart other networks' broadcast Sunday night schedules like it was an anatomy class.

And that's where "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" come in. ABC soared to a dominant 12.1 rating/26 share for its "Desperate Housewives"' season premiere, some 36 percent higher than last year's series premiere. "Housewives" brought in a total of 28 million viewers.

"Housewives" partner in crime "Grey's Anatomy," which follows at 10:00 p.m., averaged a massive 8.6/21--a big improvement on the series premiere's 7.2/18. That brought in 19.5 million viewers.

All told, ABC earned its best numbers for a Sunday in ten years--which gave it a big-time 7.8 rating/19 share in adults 18-49.

ABC also won adults 25-54 (8.8/19) and adults 18-34 (6.7/19). Way down in second place in the 18-49 race was CBS, with a 4.0/10. This came from the runover of a NFL game, and "60 Minutes," which earned a surprising 5.7 rating in the 18-49 demo--more than double its numbers of a year ago. That performance, however, might have benefited from a strong football game lead-in. Later that evening, a poorly rated Martha Stewart movie, "Martha Behind Bars," pulled a 2.3/5 rating for CBS as well.

In third place, Fox was at 3.9/10 in 18-49 for the evening, all from episodes of "The Simpsons," "Family Guy," "American Dad," and "The War at Home." NBC landed in fourth place with a 2.6/6, despite even more season premieres than Fox--"Dateline" (1.4/4), "The West Wing" (2.4/6), and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (3.0/7). NBC's best effort came from "Crossing Jordan," which earned a 3.7/9--down compared to last year's premiere.

The WB ended up in last place from premieres of "Reba: Beginnings" (0.8/2), "Charmed" (1.8/4), and "Blue Collar TV" (1.1/2).