Prime Time Preliminary Wednesday Ratings

CBS won the night among viewers ages 18-49, posting a 3.2 rating/9 share, as well as total viewers with 11.9 million. NBC's new holiday special "A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa" won the 8 p.m. hour, giving the network its first win in that block in 11 weeks. New episodes on ABC were all down from their season averages, giving the network a third-place tie with Fox for the night (both 1.8/5). A new episode of "Secret Millionaire" dropped 21% from its last Wednesday night showing.

	8	8:30	9	10
1.8 / 5	Pushing Daisies 1.6 / 5 4.8 mil		Private Practice 2.3 / 6 6.7 mil	Dirty Sexy Money 1.7 / 5 5.2 mil
3.2 / 9	The New Adventures of Old Christine 2.0 / 6 7.5 mil	Gary Unmarried 2.3 / 7 7.5 mil	Criminal Minds 3.9 / 11 15 mil	CSI: NY 3.6 / 10 13.3 mil
1.8 / 5	Secret Millionaire 2.2 / 7 6.6 mil		Bones 1.4 / 4 4.2 mil	No Programming
2.0 / 6	A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa 2.4 / 7 7.4 mil		Life 1.7 / 5 5.2 mil	Law & Order 1.9 / 5 6.9 mil
0.7 / 2	The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 0.9 / 3 2.4 mil		Stylista 0.6 / 2 1.4 mil	No Programming

Source: Nielsen Media Research

*Ratings are specified in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic and viewership in P2+.

A note about ratings: Ratings are expressed as percentages of Nielsen's estimated 112.8 million U.S. television households. The first number, the rating, is a percentage of households tuned into a specific program at a specific time.

The second number, the share, is a percentage of households with televisions in use tuned into that same program. For example, if a show obtains a 10.2/16, this means that 10.2% of all U.S. households tuned into the program at some point during the broadcast. Meanwhile, 16% of all households watching television during the time period viewed the program at some point. Ratings are broken down further by demographic, as networks sell advertising time based on the makeup of the audience.