CBS gained an easy ratings victory for the week ending Jan. 23, due to Sunday’s AFC Championship Game (44.3 million viewers) followed by the impressive debut of its new crime drama “Numb3rs.” Though “Numb3rs” lost about half the game’s audience, its 24.9 million viewers made the drama the most-watched freshman series premiere this season.

Fox took second place among total viewers and adults 18 to 49 with the first two episodes of the fourth season of “American Idol,” providing a much-needed ratings bump. At 33.6 million viewers, the “Idol” premiere improved on last year’s audience (which garnered 29 million) and is the season’s most-watched entertainment broadcast.

Fox used Wednesday’s “Idol” broadcast to lead into a preview of its new drama series, “Point Pleasant,” which was seen by 11.3 million viewers. But those figures shrunk to 5.5 million when “Point” was launched in its official time slot Thursday.

ABC’s scored the week’s fourth highest-rated program with “Desperate Housewives” (26 million viewers), while “Lost” enjoyed its third-largest audience ever (19.7 million) despite running up against “Idol.”