After its long hiatus, "Lost" was found by fans on Thursday night, as pent up demand drew pretty good numbers for reintroduction of the series, giving hungry viewers something new to look at, in a season dominated by repeats and reality shows.
This is of course in anticipation of the return of the series. This episode was a collage of former episodes to catch viewers up on the plot line, so the first new show will make sense to them.
The show averaged a 6.7 rating/17 share in the key 18-49 demo, while enjoying a decent 16.14 overall viewers. Those numbers were better than all of last years 16 shows.
Even with the long wait and build up, it still wasn't able to draw anywhere near the numbers of the 2007 premiere, which ended with a 7.7/19 in the 18-49 group. That's 13 percent above the Thursday night entry. Even so, it was timely and a good win for Disney (NYSE:DIS).
The new drama by ABC, "Eli Stone," performed decently, as its premiere episode drew a 4.0 rating/11 share, with 11.15 million viewers tuning in. It tried to generate controversy throught its show on autism and an alleged connection to thimerosal. With the loss of 2 shares in its last half-hour, it evidently didn't capture the interest or imagination of the audience.
"Stone" could drop like a rock in water, as it wasn't able to keep up with "Apprentice" from NBC (NYSE:GE), which had a larger audience in the second half of the show. Apprentice finished with a 3.2/8 and 7.82 million viewers.
Comment Preview