Criminal Minds

According to SyFyPortal, the premiere of Bionic Woman beat out Criminal Minds in the ratings Wednesday night. First was Dancing with the Stars, then Private Practice. Criminal Minds came in a surprising (to me) fourth place. Overall, CBS finished second for the night, behind ABC and ahead of NBC.
Michael Hinman of SyFyPortal writes:

In terms of audience demographics… “Bionic Woman” was a big winner, according to Variety. In the key demographic of adults 18 to 49, “Bionic” was a big winner with a whopping 5.5/14, the best rating in that timeslot since the premiere of “The West Wing” in 1999.
“Bionic Woman” clearly won the night in the key demo categories, even beating out “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff “Private Practice,” and was able to build on a poor lead-in from “Deal or No Deal,” which has seen better days.

Criminal Minds faced tough competition Wednesday.
Dancing With the Stars has been insanely popular with viewers worldwide. There are a bunch of different versions based on the English Strictly Come Dancing, and the format was the most popular type of programming in the world in 2006. It is shown in countries such as the US, Australia, Austria, Chile, South Africa, Sweden, Poland, India, Israel, Japan….and many more. I had no idea it was this popular - I have never seen an episode and I’ve never heard of any of the celebrities they have on this year. Kind of takes the fun out of Dancing with the Stars when you don’t know the stars.

Private Practice is also a highly anticipated show as it’s a spinoff of popular Grey’s Anatomy.

Criminal Minds is one of those shows that just quietly does its business. I think it has a loyal following and will attract new viewers with the Mandy Patinkin-leaving drama and the addition of Joe Mantegna. Hopefully, as the newness factor fades for Bionic Woman and Private Practice, more people will tune into CM. This season is off to a good start, and it looks like it’ll be as exciting and dramatic as usual. E!Online reports that the 2007 premiere of Criminal Minds was down three million viewers from the season two premiere. And CSI:NY, while the most watched show of the ten o’clock hour, was down 3.5 million viewers. Maybe they’re stronger in reruns? But these shows do have an advantage - you don’t really need to see the premiere to watch the show. Both are pretty self-contained, and viewers who missed the premieres can definately catch up next week.