NBC wins first night of new TV season

NBC won the first night of the new television season in America according to overnight ratings data from Nielsen Media Research.

The network led its competitors in total viewers and in the crucial advertiser-friendly 18-49 demographic.

A two-hour season premiere of Deal Or No Deal was watched by 15.8m viewers, building its audience throughout. That was followed by West Wing-creator Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, which averaged 13.4m viewers. However, closer inspection of the minute-by-minute data reveals that Studio 60 lost audience during its second half.

CBS put forward a four-episode comedy block to compete against Deal; between 8-10pm, the network averaged around 12.1m viewers, helped in large part by Two And A Half Men's average of 15.1m viewers. CSI: Miami's season premiere at 10pm easily beat Studio 60, however, and was the most-watched programme of the night with 17.2m viewers.

Fox placed third, with Prison Break coming second to Deal in the 18-49 demographic and averaging 9.4m viewers. Vanished built on its week-on-week ratings, averaging 7.5m viewers.

ABC rounded up the big four networks in fourth place, averaging 7.6m viewers in primetime. MyNetworkTV reports ratings solely on a weekly basis.