No touching ABC on Sunday

Morning Ratings Flash - Rick Kissell

By RICK KISSELL

ABC cruised to another monster ratings victory on Sunday, propelled by potent numbers for a "Desperate Housewives" recap show, more series highs for medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" and another powerful perf by "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen.

From 9 to 10:02, "Desperate Housewives: Sorting Out the Dirty Laundry" (10.0 rating/23 share in adults 18-49, 23.7 million viewers overall) came within 10% of its recent averages for original episodes, beating CBS, NBC and Fox combined in adults 18-49. And "Grey's Anatomy" followed (roughly 8.0/20 in adults 18-49, 18 million viewers overall) with what could be series highs in adults 18-49 as well as adults 18-34 (7.6/21).

The Alphabet also rolled again at 8 with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (6.7/17 in adults 18-49, 16.7 million viewers overall).

Elsewhere, CBS did well with "Cold Case" at 8 (3.7/10 in adults 18-49, 16.5 million viewers overall) and was above average with original movie "Locusts" (3.8/9, 12.7 million viewers overall).

Fox bombed with music spec "American Top 40 Awards" from 8 to 10 (1.6/4 in adults 18-49, 4 million viewers overall), helping open the door for decent results for a pair of "The Contender" episodes on NBC (2.5/7 in adults 18-49, 5.5 million viewers overall at 8 and 3.3/7 in adults 18-49, 6.4 million viewers overall). At 10, the Peacock's "Crossing Jordan" (3.3/8 in adults 18-49, 8.8 million viewers overall) ran third behind "Grey's Anatomy" and "Locusts."

Preliminary adults 18-49 averages for the night: ABC, 6.9/18; CBS, 3.5/9; NBC, 2.7/7; Fox, 2.1/6; WB, 1.2/4.

In total viewers: ABC, 16.7 million; CBS, 13.6 million; NBC, 6.6 million; Fox, 5.0 million; WB, 2.8 million.