This past Friday, the networks didn’t give the viewers much to choose from. (That will, thankfully, change in just a few short weeks.) The tight race ended with an ABC win in the demos and a CBS victory with the viewers.

8pm

• Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (5.9 million, 1.3/5 in 18-49) plummeted by 1 million.
• America’s Funniest Home Videos* (1.5/6) averaged 5.5 million over two hours.
• Ghost Whisperer* (5.3 million, 1.4/5) shed 400,000.
• Friday Night Smackdown (4.4 million, 1.4/5) was up by 200,000.
• America’s Toughest Jobs (3.3 million, 1.1/4) did about the same as last week.

9pm

• Numb3rs (1.3/4 in 18-49) collected 6.1 million.
• Dateline (5.31 million, 1.4/5) was down a notch.
• Don’t Forget the Lyrics (5.25 million, 1.5/5) gave up nearly a 1/2 million.

10pm

• A second hour of Numb3rs (6.3 million, 1.5/5 in 18-49) did better than the first.
• Approximately 5.7 million watched Alec Baldwin’s slam Kim Basinger on 20/20 (1.6/5).

*denotes repeat

(You can review last Friday’s ratings here.)