“Cavemen” extinction watch

“Cavemen,” as expected, chased away about two million viewers from last week’s debut Tuesday night, with 7 million Neanderthals still tuning in. “Carpoolers” fell off, too, though not as sharply; it even had a few more viewers despite the “Cavemen” lead-in.

At this rate, “Cavemen” looks to be drawing a negative number of viewers within a month’s time.

Meanwhile, The CW’s “Reaper” is now drawing lower viewership than “Veronica Mars” (of course, “VM” lasted three seasons, so maybe that’s the key to success at The CW). Lousier lead-in, but still. Of course, given The CW has already picked the disappointing “Gossip Girl" for the full season, it’s just a matter of time before they do the same with “Reaper.”

And “Cane’s” a real coin flip for CBS: Holding steady at 9 million viewers, but that’s kind of a dinky number for the timeslot and it’s trailing two aging shows, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Boston Legal,” badly. Of course, in this season of diminished expectations (and even more diminished results), that might be enough to get it an early renewal for 2008-09.