Thursday's new-show showdown: "Life on Mars" vs. "Eleventh Hour"

Here's life in RatingsWorld: Ratings for the debuts of ABC's "Life on Mars" and CBS's "Eleventh Hour" were separated by a slender 100,000 viewers, and yet MediaWeek's ratings guru Marc Berman declares that one got "solid sampling" while decreeing the other a "loser."

As you might imagine, it's complicated.

For context, you have to examine each show's lead-in. CBS had the ninth-season premiere of "CSI," which not only remains a juggernaut but actually built significantly on its viewership last season. Nearly 23 million tuned in, up 3 million from last year. By contrast, ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" took a bit of a plunge, with 14.5 million viewers, down 4.5 million from last season.

So: "Life on Mars" lured 11.6 million viewers, while "Eleventh Hour" garnered 11.59 million. The problem for "Eleventh Hour" is that it lost a whopping 50% of its lead-in audience, which is dismaying, to say the least. "Life on Mars," on the other hand, retained 80% of its lead-in audience, which is respectable, though its retention of only 69% in that 18-49 demographic could be considered worrying. In fact, to muck things up further, over on NBC, "ER" only had 9.3 million viewers, but it actually won the hour in Viewers 18-49 ("Life on Mars" was not close behind and "Eleventh Hour" trailed the pack).

(Ratings are measured using this supercomputer concealed deep in the mountains of Wyoming.)

Hence, Berman's knocking "Eleventh Hour" as a "loser." It's the rare Jerry Bruckheimer production that gets saddled with that moniker, but unless its ratings tumble in subsequent weeks, CBS can probably live with its numbers.

Elsewhere in the evening: "Kath & Kim" had 7.46 million viewers, more than its lead-in "My Name is Earl," so, again, barring viewer attrition in subsequent weeks, NBC will declare itself pleased. And Thursday's "SNL" special actually did best for NBC on the night, with 10.6 million viewers.

Of course, in the upcoming tide of hoboes, only AIG executives will have TVs, so ratings will become moot.