TELEVISION Networks sort out winners and losers of new season

Reruns of 'Lost' pulled in more viewers than 'Apprentice: Martha Stewart.'
By BETH GILLIN
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
Every fall the broadcast networks throw a big handful of new shows against the wall, hoping most will stick, but knowing that many an overcooked noodle will slide to the floor.
After three weeks of the new season, the linguine's already dropping. Losers are being discarded, moved, or shelved. Winners -- "My Name Is Earl" on NBC and "Everybody Hates Chris" on UPN -- have been given full-season commitments. And network hopes are high for Fox's death-row drama "Prison Break, ABC's alien series "Invasion," and the WB's ghostly "Supernatural.
The only newbie besides "Invasion" to crack Nielsen's season-to-date Top 20 is also from ABC. "Commander in Chief," a huge heaping of political cheese, stars Geena Davis as the multitasking wife/mom/president of the United States and Donald Sutherland as the House Speaker serpent in her garden.
But "Commander" is worrisome to its network because it appeals mostly to older women, whereas young men are the preferred demographic of advertisers.
Bowing out
And now, to the losers. First in the dump was Fox's "Head Cases," starring Adam Goldberg and Chris O'Donnell as mismatched law partners and former mental patients. It died after two outings.
Fox yanked, but didn't officially cancel, "Kitchen Confidential," a restaurant comedy that viewers didn't find tasty, perhaps because it launched with an episode about a fingertip in somebody's food.
Denise Richards, who broke up in mid-pregnancy with scamp Charlie Sheen and dashed from stirrups to Stairmaster to shape up for "Sex, Love & amp; Secrets," may soon be gone from UPN. "Sex" has seven episodes in the can and could linger awhile, but production of the California soaper shut down after last week's disastrous debut. (Meanwhile, Sheen's "Two and a Half Men" on CBS is 13th in the young season's ratings, according to Nielsen Media Research.)
NBC pulled "Inconceivable" from the Friday lineup after only 4.5 million viewers tuned in, proving it takes more than Angie Harmon to make infertility entertaining.
Rescheduling
And NBC shuffled its Wednesday schedule this week, sending Martha Stewart into battle against ABC juggernaut "Lost" -- not as warrior princess, but as sacrificial lamb. The first two broadcasts of "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" drew fewer eyeballs than reruns of "Lost" on Wednesdays at 8.
The season premiere of "Lost" at 9 pulled 23 million viewers, swamping both CBS' new "Criminal Minds" (11 million) and the NBC debut of Jerry Bruckheimer's Pentagon drama "E-Ring" (7.7 million).
NBC, with little to brag about but "Earl," decided to rescue "E-Ring" from "Lost"'s line of fire by moving it to 8 and sending "Apprentice: Martha" to the front lines at 9 -- at least until another spot opens up for her.
No prime-time show has generated anything like last year's buzz about "Lost" and its ABC mate, "Desperate Housewives." Fans are still swapping theories about hatches, numbers and odd coincidences on the castaway drama. They're also speculating about new housewife Alfre Woodard and the man she keeps chained in her basement, and savoring Shirley Knight's delicious turn as the mother-in-law you want to smack -- which is just what Bree did Sunday in front of 27 million "Desperate" fans.
Top shows
Mirroring last year, "Desperate" is the country's second most popular show, after "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" on CBS.
The "CSI" franchise, along with standbys "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race," helps make CBS the network with the most viewers. It's also the network that's winning Fridays, with two spooky new dramas -- Jennifer Love Hewitt's "Ghost Whisperer" and "Threshold" -- and the returning math-geek mystery "Numb3rs."
ABC is in second place, but it's hotter than CBS because its audiences skew younger, which pleases advertisers. ABC rules Sundays with its sophomore combo of "Desperate" and "Grey's Anatomy," and wins Wednesdays by pairing "Lost" with "Invasion."
NBC is stuck in third place -- and may slip once again to fourth in January when "24" and "American Idol" return to Fox.