With a strong debut for “Brothers & Sisters,” the troubled new drama that took the plum post-“Desperate Housewives” spot on Sunday night, ABC won its fourth night of the young season.

“Sisters” averaged a 6.2 in adults 18-49, according to Nielsen overnights, becoming the highest-rated new show of the season. Though it did drop 18 percent, from a 6.8 to a 5.6, from its first to its second half hour, it still finished comfortably ahead of CBS’s relocated “Without a Trace” and NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” in the 10 p.m. timeslot.

That helped ABC to a 6.4 rating and 16 share for the evening, well ahead of second-place NBC’s 4.6. ABC also won Saturday and Thursday nights last week and tied for first on Tuesday.

“Sisters” lost 35 percent of lead-in “Housewives’” 9.5 rating. The show received somewhat cool reviews, praising its cast but complaining the pilot was too cluttered. The big test will be how much of that audience will return next Sunday.

“Housewives,” which received lots of buzz for its rumored creative revival this fall, was up 4 percent over last season’s 9.1 average, and it dominated its timeslot with 23.86 million total viewers, though that was down more than 4 million from last year’s second-season premiere.

CBS’s “Trace” averaged a 4.8 18-49 rating in its new 10 p.m. timeslot, down 16 percent from last season’s 5.7. But that came airing out of “CSI” on Thursdays. Comparatively, “Trace” more than doubled CBS’s opening-Sunday average in the timeslot last year for a movie about Martha Stewart.

And “Trace” did better “Sisters” among total viewers, 17.36 million to the latter’s 16.1 million.

Meanwhile, for the night, Fox took third among 18-49s with a 4.4/11, followed by CBS at 3.6/9, the CW at 1.1/3, and Univision at 0.9/2.

At 7 p.m., Fox’s NFL runover and “The OT” were first with a 4.5 average, followed by ABC at 3.4 for the first half of the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” premiere, NBC’s 2.5 for “Football Night in America,” CBS’s 2.4 for “60 Minutes,” CW’s 1.1 for “Everybody Hates Chris” repeats, and Univision at 0.9 for “Hora Pico.”

At 8 p.m., ABC moved into first with a 6.3 for “Home Edition.” NBC took over second with a 5.0 for the last 15 minutes of “America” and the start of “SNF’s” Denver-New England game. As a reminder, fast nationals measure timeslot data and not actual program data, and so they may change significantly when final ratings are issued tomorrow.

Fox took third at 8 with a 4.5 for “The Simpsons” (4.8) and “American Dad” (4.3), followed by CBS with a 3.5 for “Amazing Race,” CW with a 1.1 for an “America’s Next Top Model” repeat and Univision at 0.8 for the first hour of “Cantando por un Sueno.”

At 9 p.m., “Housewives” led at 9.5, followed by “SNF” at 5.7. Fox’s “Family Guy” (4.7) and “War at Home” (3.2) tied at a 4.0 with CBS’s “Cold Case” debut, followed by “Top Model” at 1.2 and “Cantando” at 1.0.

At 10 p.m., “Sisters” led with a 6.2, followed by “SNF” at 5.3, “Trace” at 4.8, and “Cantando” at 1.0.

Among households, ABC was tops with a 10.2/16, followed by CBS at 8.9/14, NBC at 7.9/12, Fox at 5.8/9, CW at 1.7/3, and Univision at 1.4/2.