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Strongest start of new show this season!

The performance of "American Galdiators" for NBC (GE) with its season premiere surprised a lot of people, as it delivered some big numbers for the network on Sunday. The question will be whether they will continue to do that when it changes to its regular spot on Monday at 8 p.m.

Competition on Monday will include a spinoff from "Dancing with the Stars" - "Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann," along with Fox's (NWS-A) "Prison Break." Prison Break may not be a competitor too long as they will run out of new episodes fairly soon because of the writers' strike.

For the Sunday night premiere, Gladiator finished with a 5.9 rating for the key 18-49 demo. Even better, their ratings increased as the night went on.

Even so, it did get trounced by "Desperate Housewives" in the 9 p.m. slot, although it soundly beat the premiere of "Cashmere Mafia" at 10 p.m., beating them by 6.0 to 3.8 as the night went on. Cashmere did unsurprisingly do better among women in the 18-49 and 25-54 demos, but among younger women in the 18-34 category, Gladiator won there.