Fox tops Wednesday with 'Dance'

NBC, ABC reality fare also delivers solid numbers

By RICK KISSELL

Katie Homes discusses her upcoming performance on Fox's 'So You Think You Can Dance.'

Fox has captured the primetime ratings race for young adults on the first Wednesday of July thanks to its two-hour installment of "So You Think You Can Dance." NBC was also solid thanks to "America's Got Talent," while ABC was propped up by "Wipeout."

According to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, "So You Think You Can Dance" (2.9 rating/10 share in adults 18-49, 7.7 million viewers overall) won the two-hour block from 8 to 10 p.m. despite tough competition in the night's opening hour from ABC's "Wipeout" (2.6/9 in 18-49, 7.8 million viewers overall) and during the 9 o'clock hour from NBC's "America's Got Talent" (2.9/9 in 18-49, 11.3 million viewers overall). The NBC entry was the night's most-watched program overall.

Elsewhere, ABC's fortunes faded following "Wipeout," as second-year alternative series "I Survived a Japanese Gameshow" (1.4/4 in 18-49, 3.8 million viewers overall) settled for fourth-place numbers at 9 o'clock, and the season premiere of newsmag "Primetime: Crime" (1.4/4 in 18-49, 4.7 million viewers overall) put up similar ratings at 10 o'clock.

NBC's strong hour of "America's Got Talent" was sandwiched by OK numbers for an encore telecast of the show at 8 p.m. (1.4/5 in 18-49, 6.0 million viewers overall) and nothing-special scores at 10 p.m. for firstrun drama "The Philanthropist" (1.5/5 in 18-49, 5.7 million viewers overall), which slipped some after a solid-enough bow the previous week.

CBS started sluggishly with repeats of comedies "The New Adventures of Old Christine" (1.1/4 in 18-49, 4.6 million viewers overall) and "Gary Unmarried" (1.3/4 in 18-49, 4.4 million viewers overall) before becoming more competitive at 9 p.m. with a repeat of "Criminal Minds" (1.8/6 in 18-49, 7.9 million viewers overall). The Eye net then moved to the lead at 10 p.m. with a rebroadcast of "CSI: NY" (1.7/5 in 18-49, 8.1 million viewers overall), which beat out original fare on ABC and NBC.

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 2.9/10; NBC, 1.9/6; ABC, 1.8/6; CBS, 1.6/5.

In total viewers: NBC and Fox, 7.7 million; CBS, 6.8 million; ABC, 5.4 million.