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[Phoenix]

LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Fresh off its upset Emmy win for best drama Sunday, "Lost" went off the chart Wednesday with eye-popping, series-high ratings delivered by its sophomore-season debut.

"Lost" and its 8 p.m. recap special, "Destination: Lost," sucked up so much of the available audience that ABC's rivals had a hard time getting any traction on the night. NBC in particular suffered through weak turnouts for the 8 p.m. bow of "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" and 9 p.m.'s "E-Ring."

Fox took such a drubbing at 9 p.m. with the second outing of "Head Cases" that the drama about a pair of oddball lawyers became the new season's first official cancellation by Thursday afternoon.

Of the six broadcast networks, UPN was the most competitive, relatively speaking, with solid numbers from its two-hour premiere of "America's Next Top Model." ABC capped a stellar night with a strong showing from the 10 p.m. debut of the drama "Invasion," which proved a worthy companion to "Lost."

"Lost" opened its second season with 23.4 million viewers and a 10.2 rating/25 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, according to Nielsen Media Research. That marked all-time high ratings for the series, even higher than its first-season finale, a two-hour cliffhanger that brought in 20.7 million viewers and a 7.8/19 in adults 18-49 in May even as it went mano a mano with the final round of competition on Fox's "American Idol." ("Lost" proved it was going to be a major player for ABC right out of the box this time last year, when it premiered to an impressive 18.7 million viewers and a 6.8/20 in adults 18-49.)

Not that I'm a fan of the show, but damn.... after only 2 showings?

 

[human5892]

God, talk about a knee-jerk reaction (not that I'm interested in the show, but still). Doesn't Fox realize that many long-running lucrative shows were initially panned by audiences? Seinfeld did very poorly at first, and look at where it ended up!

Shows need time to grow, but Fox often seems far too obsessed with the immediate present. I hope they don't get this reckless with Arrested Development.

 

[Kai Dracon]

Fox has long been insane. They really don't care about content or the programs themselves - it's purely ratings war. If a show doesn't post XX numbers they desire for that week upon premiere they figure it won't go anywhere and usually cancel it 2-8 episodes later.

That's what happened to Joss Whedon's Firefly - they didn't even bother to air the last three episodes of it.

 

[Iceman]

They put up a new show against Lost and cancel after two shows? At least wait until the buzz around Lost wans a bit.. you know, 2 months into the season before assessing whether people are interested in seeing anything else (other than Lost) in that time slot.

 

[DMczaf]

"Lost" opened its second season with 23.4 million viewers and a 10.2 rating/25 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, according to Nielsen Media Research.

DAMN!

Lost is a beast!....is "Lost" the monster on the show?! :O

 

[LakeEarth]

:lol at two episodes. At least Firefly got to show 9 of them, even if Fox in their infinite wisdom showed them out of order.

Fox just doesn't care about its shows. Seinfeld had low ratings at the start. So did Cheers. So did All In The Family and countless other now classic television shows. They need to learn how to have some patience.

 

[Shig]

That's what happened to Joss Whedon's Firefly - they didn't even bother to air the last three episodes of it.

A bit OT; Why do people say "Joss Whedon's Firefly" so often? Is there another popular show called Firefly that people could confuse it with? Just call it Firefly, sheezus.

Fox just doesn't care about its shows. Seinfeld had low ratings at the start. So did Cheers. So did All In The Family and countless other now classic television shows. They need to learn how to have some patience.

Arrested Development, if judged solely by ratings, should have been cancelled a long time ago. So obviously someone cares.

 

[quin]

I don't watch lost but i did watch this so now there is nothing to watch at that time

 

[jobber]

perhaps if we bought the entire season on DVD Fox would bring it back

 

[Cerebral Palsy]

Don't watch Lost. Never even heard of Head Cases...

 

[BuddyC]

I caught bits of the first two episodes and uh, well, good call Fox.

 

[Guzim]

I was listening to the radio a few days ago, and the DJs had a TV critic. They all praised Arrested Development, said it's the best show on TV. And the critic was saying Fox is being very careful with it because they don't want it to end up like Family Guy.

 

[pj]

The people puzzled by this announcement clearly have never even seen an ad for this show. It's one of the dumbest shows I've ever seen. The real question should be, how the hell did it get green lit in the first place?

 

[Drensch]

Fox did the same thing to Wonderfalls. 2eps and out.

 

[Archaix]

The people puzzled by this announcement clearly have never even seen an ad for this show. It's one of the dumbest shows I've ever seen. The real question should be, how the hell did it get green lit in the first place?

I saw the first show, it wasn't as bad as the ads made it out to be. Oh, it was pretty bad, but it could have been watchable at times.

Apparently it was something of a spinoff of the Practice(O'Donnell had guested on the show a few times, but it was a different character...someone who killed his wife and tried to get his daughter to admit doing it herself, if I recall) insofar as that the creator/head writer was a writer on the Practice, so maybe it was given a chance just based on how good Boston Legal was. Of course, that's actually a David E. Kelly show and it involves William Shatner and James Spader, which sort of trumps what this show had going for it.

 

[android]

Good. I can't stand Adam Goldberg or Chris O'Donnell.

 

[CloudNL]

It was a wise decision.
The series premiere got very bad ratings. Around 6 million viewers.
Episode two got 3 million viewers. That's 50% decline. 50% decline means: cancell it! pretent it didn't exist.

 

[shoplifter]

this is typical fox MO.

Put all your new/quirky shows up against the highest rated shows on TV, then cancel them right away. They've been doing it for years. No different that putting stuff for the 18-35 group on Friday at 9pm, the show WILL fail since no one is there to watch it.

I still refuse to watch Comedy Central since they put UCB up against RAW (when it was a ratings MONSTER) and pulled the plug soon after.