Fox's "American Idol" showed improvements over last week while the second episode of "Lost" beat "Lie to Me" to take the number two spot for the night.

"Idol" posted a 3% rating gain among adults 18-49 and a 4% increase in total viewers from its performance last week, according to preliminary Nielsen Media Research information. Last night's episode also matched the same audition episode from this time last year in the demographic. "Lie" to me was down 10% from its debut last week and came in as the night's No. 3 show, but still edged out a new "Lost" in total viewers for the 9 p.m. hour. Fox averaged a 7.2/18 (19.5 million) for the night.

ABC finished the night second with a 2.9/7 (7.6 million). A "Lost" repeat opened the night at 8 p.m. A new episode at 9 p.m. dipped 4% from its two-hour season premiere last week. At 10 p.m., the time-period debut of "Life on Mars" pulled in the lowest rating for the series ever, yet matched the debut of "Cashmere Mafia" this time last year. Wednesday's "Mars" was down 15% from its season-to-date average during its Thursday-night run.

In third place was NBC with an average 2.1/5 (7.2 million) for the night. A "Law & Order: SVU" repeat aired between new episodes of "Knight Rider" and "Law & Order," both which posted 27% and 8% increases, respectively, from last week.

CBS finished fourth with a night of scripted series repeats. A Katie Couric news special at 8 p.m. scored a 1.2/3 (6.5 million) for its half hour.

The CW aired repeats of "Privileged" and "90210," averaging a 0.4/1 (1 million) in the demographic and a 0.6 rating among women 18-34.

	8	8:30	9	9:30	10	10:30
2.9 / 7	Lost 1.7 / 4 5.3 million		Lost 4.8 / 11 11.1 mil		Life on Mars 2.3 / 6 6.5 million
2.0 / 5	Katie Couric News Special 1.2 / 3 6.5 mil	The New Adventures of Old Christine 1.1 / 3 5 mil	Criminal Minds 2.5 / 6 10.6 mil		CSI: NY 2.4 / 6 9.5 mil
7.2 / 18	American Idol 10.1 / 25 27 mil		Lie to Me 4.4 / 10 12.1 mil		No Programming
2.1 / 5	Knight Rider 1.9 / 5 6.1 mil		Law & Order: SVU 1.9 / 4 6.4 mil		Law & Order 2.6 / 7 8.9 mil
0.4 / 1	Privileged 0.4 / 1 1.1 mil		90210 0.4/ 1 1 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 114.5 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.