Big bows for 'Bionic', 'Private Practice'

NBC's Bionic Woman and ABC's Private Practice were the two highest-rated premieres of the 2007-08 television season so far, according to data from Nielsen Media Research.

The large audiences achieved by the shows will come as a relief to America's broadcast networks, whose big freshman premiere events had thus far largely failed to ignite buzz. Trade magazine Variety even called the Wednesday night premieres "liftoff" after the less than spectacular numbers achieved a week ago.

Bionic, which stars former EastEnders actress Michelle Ryan in the lead role, was watched by 13.9m viewers with a 14% share in 18-49. Those numbers represent NBC's best rating for a Wednesday premiere since The West Wing made its debut in 1999. Nielsen's numbers also indicate that the show built audiences through its second half hour.

Over on ABC, Grey's Anatomy spinoff Private Practice beat Bionic in total viewers, acheiving 14.4m, but came second in the demo with a 13% share. However, the shows - contrary to pre-premiere speculation - appear able to share the 9pm hour, with Bionic leaning toward young males and Practice skewing to 18-34 females.

Private Practice was undoubtedly assisted by ABC's savvy scheduling of the first Dancing with the Stars result show as its 8pm lead-in, which pulled in a huge 16.8m viewers against NBC's Deal or No Deal's 9m.

The two networks remained locked in pitched battle at 10pm, with Dirty Sexy Money beating Life in terms of total viewers but again flipping the result in the demo. CSI: NY on CBS performed best in terms of total viewers but more 18-49s opted for Life.

Over on the CW, Gossip Girl performed reasonably well on its second outing, retaining most of its premiere audience in the young female demos. However, up against new dramas at 9pm it dropped - not unsurprisingly - to under 2.5m total viewers. A similar phenomenon was experienced by Fox's Kitchen Nightmares, which lost a fifth of its premiere audience.