News

ABC was hot Sunday with a two-hour dose of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that sapped some of the strength out of CBS and NBC's premieres. At 10 p.m., ABC offered a sneak preview of its much-talked-about reality series Wife Swap, which won its time period but took a big dive from its Makeover lead-in. Still, ABC took the first official Sunday night of the new season by a comfortable margin with an average of 12.6 million viewers and a 5.2 rating/14 share in the adults 18-49 demo, according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research. Makeover smoked from 8-10 p.m., posting series highs in total viewers and all key demographics and climbing every hour to finish with an average of 14.1 million viewers and a 5.6/15 in the key demo at 8 p.m. and 18.6 million viewers and an 8.1/19 in 18-49 at 9 p.m. The reality show, which posted the highest 18-49 mark for any series on Sunday since January, peaked from 9:30-10 p.m. (19.6 million, 8.6/20), which made it a long drop at 10 p.m. for Wife Swap (11.3 million, 5.3/13). Despite its lead-in windfall, Wife Swap was beaten in viewers by the second hour of CBS' first original made-for of the season, the 9-11 p.m. Christine Lahti starrer Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman (14 million, 3.0/8).