Simon Cowell's American Inventor made a strong debut on ABC Thursday night, with over 14m viewers tuning in.

The network had been airing promos heavy on the "from the producers of American Idol" line in the run-up to the reality show's debut, a move that clearly paid off. Between 8pm and 10pm, it built viewer numbers with each successive half-hour and appeared to give Primetime at 10pm a ratings bump, with the news magazine posting an above-average 8.7m viewers.

Non-stop NCAA action averaged just under 11m viewers for the night, handing CBS second place in the preliminary numbers. NBC was a close third, with ER posting a strong 14.1m viewers at 10pm after relatively lackluster performances from its comedy block. Fox trailed far behind in fourth place, averaging 5.3m viewers for the night.