Lost's third season opener proved a ratings winner for ABC on Wednesday night according to fast national numbers from Nielsen Media Research.

ABC started strong out of the gate at 8 with Dancing with the Stars averaging 17.3m viewers and a 13% share in the adults 18-49 demographic. Lost at 9 averaged 18.5m viewers and a 19% 18-49 share, down on last year's season premiere but in line with its performance towards the end of last season. The cult hit gave a good lead-in to The Nine at, and one assumes that the marketing department got time-and-a-half on this one, 10pm; the drama averaged 12m viewers and a 13% 18-49 share.

Only CBS really challenged ABC for first place night-long. Jericho did well at 8 against the Stars results show with 10.8m viewers and a 10% 18-49 share; Criminal Minds also performed well against Lost at 9 with a respectable 15.1m viewers and 10% 18-49 share. The network moved into the lead at 10 with perennial favourite CSI: NY's 15.6m viewers and 13% 18-49 share.

Both Fox and The CW did well considering what they were up against; a new Top Model averaged just under 8m viewers and an 8% 18-49 share at 9, while a House re-run tied The CW for share in the hour and averaged 8.9m viewers.

NBC had a bad evening all round. A re-run of Tuesday night's Friday Night Lights - as Bill, the NBC promo guy says, "that's not confusing" - led into The Biggest Loser, which came last in its timeslot with 7m viewers and a 7% share in 18-49. Not to be outdone, the "too difficult a concept", to be wrapped up after 13 episodes-"thriller" Kidnapped gave up at 10pm with 5.3m viewers and a 5% 18-49 share.