Strong 'Alias' gives Wednesday to ABC
   For the second straight week ABC's “Alias” scored impressive ratings, in large part thanks to a big lead-in from “Lost.” Wednesday night’s episode in the 9 p.m. time slot averaged a 6.1 adults 18-49 rating according to Nielsen overnights.
   That nearly matched last week’s 6.6 average for the show’s two-hour season premiere, and it was well above the 3.5 rating the show averaged last season in the Sunday 9 p.m. timeslot.
   That boosted ABC to an easy victory Wednesday night. The network averaged a 6.1 rating, a 75 percent advantage over runners-up CBS and NBC. 
   They tied for second Wednesday night among 18-49s at 3.5/9, with Fox fourth at 3.4/8, UPN fifth at 1.1/3, and the WB sixth at 0.9/2.
   At 8 p.m. ABC led with “Lost’s” 7.8 average, followed by Fox’s 2.7 average for “That ‘70s Show” (3.0) and “Quintuplets” (2.4). The second episode of NBC’s limited series “Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Model Search” finished third during the hour with a 2.4 average and 18-49 rating. Still, that’s better than the 2.2 averaged by “Hawaii” and “LAX” this year in that time slot.
   UPN’s new “Road to Stardom” with Missy Elliott barely beat a rerun of the WB’s “Smallville,” averaging a 1.3 to the latter’s 1.2.
   ABC led again during the 9 p.m. hour with “Alias’s” 6.1 average. Fox finished second with a 4.0 average for “Nanny 911,” followed by a 3.7 average for CBS for the comedies “The King of Queens” (4.1) and “Center of the Universe” (3.3).
   At 10 p.m. CBS averaged a 4.7 rating for “CSI: NY,” tying it for first place with NBC’s “Law & Order.” ABC finished third with a 4.2 average for “Wife Swap.”
   Among households, ABC finished the night No. 1 with a 9.5/15. CBS was second at 7.8/12, NBC third at 7.3/11, Fox fourth at 4.9/7, UPN fifth at 1.9/3, and the WB sixth at 1.6/2.

Rather's staying, but is '60 Minutes Wednesday?'
It seems as though, with the release of Monday’s independent panel findings on Dan Rather’s “60 Minutes Wednesday” Bush national guard report, that furor directed at the veteran newsman has increased rather than decreased. Media Life found as much when comparing poll results from October, when readers were inclined to forgive Dan, and this week, when they thought he got off too easy, and it looks as if people feel the same within the CBS family. There’s buzz that CBS News staffers are miffed over the light wrist slap Rather received. And “60 Minutes Wednesday,” never a ratings gem to begin with, may be in danger of not returning next season based in part on the blunder, according to some reports. The show has slipped from an average of 10.3 million viewers last season to 8.5 million this season, a 17 percent decline. Rather was to stay with the show after he steps down as “Evening News” anchor in March, but the enmity surrounding him and the report may put that in jeopardy as well. Rather, who still will work with the Sunday edition of “60 Minutes” either way, has a contract with CBS through November 2006.

Infinity COO Hollander rises to top job
The executive shuffle at Viacom continued yesterday as Joel Hollander, the 48-year-old chief operating officer at Infinity, was promoted to chief executive. Hollander takes over for the exiting John Sykes, 49, who is moving over to Viacom’s MTV Networks. Hollander has a tough job ahead of him. Infinity’s revenues have fallen off as the radio industry as a whole took a hit the past few years. It also weathered the embarrassment this fall of longtime star Howard Stern announcing his jump to satellite radio next year. Now Infinity is considering selling up to a third of its more than 180 radio stations. Viacom wants to keep only the stations in the nation’s top 100 radio markets, hoping to sell off some 65 stations for several billion dollars. Hollander has served as COO since 2003. Sykes, primarily a programming guy, took over as CEO in 2002. Viacom has been playing executive musical chairs since president Mel Karmazin exited last summer, putting new co-president Leslie Moonves in charge of the radio unit.

HBO's highly praised 'Wire' act may end
Is HBO finished with “The Wire?” A decision won’t be made for several weeks, but poor ratings for the highly rated show may have finally gotten to HBO. Yesterday, during the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, HBO chairman Chris Albrecht jokingly said he had received a telegram from all 250 of “The Wire’s” viewers. The return of the show isn't entirely in doubt, however, since the network picked up a second season of the average-performing “Entourage” before the first season even began. A decision will be made within the next month or so. Programs that HBO definitely will be showing: “The Comeback,” starring Lisa Kudrow, starting this summer; “Big Love,’ starring Bill Paxton as a Utah polygamist, starts production soon; “Real Time with Bill Maher” returns Feb. 18; “Deadwood” starts again on March 6; and “Six Feet Under” returns in June. Elsewhere, A&E has plans for a couple new reality shows this year: “Inked,” about a Las Vegas tattoo parlor, and “Roller Girls,” about female roller derby in Austin, Texas. The network also has plans for “Criss Angel,” which follows a street illusionist. SOAPnet announced five projects: “I Love Lucci,” a Susan Lucci marathon, “Skin,” the former Fox drama, “The Monroes,” a kind of “Dynasty” or “Dallas” set in Washington, D.C., “Knots Landing,” the classic primetime soap, and “I Wanna Be a Soap Star,” a reality contest with a role on “All My Children” as its grand prize. Bravo is planning “Kathy Griffin: D List Special,” about the always-struggling actress/comedienne; “Million Dollar Recipe,” a documentary about the Pillsbury Bake-Off; “Project Greenlight,” the third season of the former HBO show; and “Showdog Mom & Dad,” about people who enter their pets into shows and competitions. Lastly, Discovery and its networks have planned: “Deadliest Catch,” which follows the Alaskan Crab Wranglers on Discovery; “Sheer Dallas,” about the Dallas social scene, and “Moving Up,” a home makeover show, both on TLC; “Buggin' with Ruud,” on Animal Planet and hosted by entomologist Ruud Kleinpaste; and new episodes of “Dr. G: Medical Examiner” on Discovery Health Channel.

FCC weathers 12K Williams complaints
The year is barely two weeks old and already the Federal Communications Commission, has a full plate. After dealing with a slew of indecency controversies in 2004, the FCC has received a request to look into whether commentator Armstrong Williams broke the law when he pushed the Bush administration’s education plan on TV and radio without disclosing he had been paid $240,000 to do so. Free Press, an anti-big media group, says it alone has sent 12,500 complaints. FCC rules require people to disclose if they have been paid to broadcast information. The FCC will review complaints and determine if a full investigation is necessary. Williams maintains that he voiced a legitimate opinion, but wrote he used poor judgment in not disclosing the payments in a Jan. 10 column. Elsewhere, the FCC may also have to look into complaints from the Parents Television Council about an episode of CBS’s “Without a Trace” the group says included scenes of a teen orgy. The Dec. 31 episode was actually a rerun, but the PTC’s complaint the first time around wasn’t addressed because it fell under CBS parent Viacom’s $3.5 million deal with the FCC to clear up all indecency fines. The PTC’s latest complaint is on behalf of viewers in the Central and Mountain time zones, because on the East Coast the show aired at 10 p.m., within the FCC’s 10 p.m.-6 a.m. window of relaxed indecency standards.

Muslim groups protest depiction on Fox's '24' 
It took a little more than 24 hours for Fox’s hit series “24” to hit its first controversy. A group has complained that this season’s plot stereotypes Muslims as dangerous terrorists. The show’s first two episodes Sunday and Monday depicted a seemingly safe Muslim family as terrorists, including the mother killing the son’s non-Muslim girlfriend out of fear she’ll ruin the plan. That drew the complaint from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and now Fox is doing what it can to smooth things out. Yesterday the network said it would supply public service announcements sponsored by the Council, but is leaving if and when the spots run up to the local TV stations themselves. The Council doesn’t expect Fox to get rid of the storyline but is hoping to end a trend of negative Muslim portrayals on TV.