Bad news for the fanboys

The first night of the new season didn't have much that was surprising. "Dancing with the Stars" dominated, averaging 21.12 million viewers and clocking in at No. 1 in the 18-49 demographic advertisers and network executives care about so much, as well as the demo of people who enjoy watching Cloris Leachman lose her mind.

CBS's comedies did reasonably well, though the new "Worst Week" piddled away nearly 4 million viewers provided it by "Two and a Half Men" (and now that viewers have been treated to a glimpse of its cartoonishness, I predict even worse weeks to come for the show). Nearly 17 million celebrated David Caruso Day by watching Horatio fake his own death on "CSI: Miami."

But the bad news comes for the fanboy crowd - your shows disappointed if not outright tanked last night. "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" and "Prison Break" managed fewer than 6 million viewers apiece and came in fourth in the 18-49 demographic. In "Sarah's" case, the show's so expensive to produce that they're paying $1 for every 2 or 3 viewers.

"Heroes"' two-hour season premiere averaged just under 10 million viewers, which doesn't sound so bad - until you consider that its season debut last year attracted nearly 17 million fans. That's an awful lot of viewer attrition for one season, and in fact, there was significant viewer attrition over the course of the episode itself:

9:00 p.m. - Viewers: 10.15 million (#3)
9:30 p.m. - Viewers: 10.28 million (#3)
10:00 p.m. - Viewers: 9.61 million (#3)
10:30 p.m. - Viewers: 9.52 million (#2)

Its recap show tanked, too.

And The CW managed more than three million viewers last night and I'm sure they'll be crowing about it all day.