An encouraging start for the new “Sharon Osbourne” is fast giving way to a renewed sense that the syndicated talk show might be in trouble.

   After premiering to a 1.8 household rating on Monday, the show's rating dipped to a 1.5 on Tuesday, based on metered market ratings from Nielsen Media Research. That suggests the curious tuned in the first day, but many of them didn't find a compelling reason to come back.

   “Sharon's” rating on Tuesday was low enough to eventually get it canceled or, more likely, get it demoted to late-night time slots by midseason.

   One thing that could save it, though – besides getting better ratings – is the fact that it's still doing better than the shows that were previously in its time slots. In fact, “Sharon's” average rating is up about 21 percent.

    Perhaps of equal importance to Warner Bros., the show's distributor, is that “Sharon” isn't the mess it was reported to be only a few weeks ago.

     The show has a polished look, with Osbourne's set reminiscent of a living room with dogs running around. She is also getting fairly big name guests, like N'Sync's Lance Bass on yesterday's episode.

    Media buyers who saw test runs of “Sharon” said at the time that Osbourne was uncomfortable as a host – something mostly unnoticeable in this week's episodes – and, more troubling, the show's format was still up in the air.

   Various reports had Osbourne, who is known to be confrontational, at odds with the show's producers over its direction. There were also reports of staff firings and Osbourne refusing to show up on the set for a few days.

    That, of course, came on top of declining interest in the show that made Osbourne a celebrity.

    The audience for MTV's “The Osbournes” fell 48 percent from the first half to the second half of its second season. About 6.6 million people watched the premiere, but only 3.4 million people were watching by the time the season resumed after a break.

    Still, “Sharon” is doing better than a lot of people were expecting.

    “I think ‘Sharon' had a very good start, given the fact that there was a lot of speculation as to what the show was going to be,” says Bill Carroll, vice president and director of programming at the Katz Television Group.

    “Once the show got on the air, it proved the audience was interested in seeing what she would do.”

    It needs to do better, though.

    “Sharon's” 1.8 rating on Monday, though up 29 percent over the same time slots last year, puts it in line with programs well past their prime, like “Ricki Lake,” and others, like “Jenny Jones,” that have been canceled. “Jones,” also from Warner Brothers, averaged a 1.7 rating last season.

    Part of “Sharon's” problem may be a matter of distribution.

    While the new “Ellen DeGeneres” is running mostly during the day on NBC stations, “Sharon” is typically on smaller stations, like the WB affiliates WPIX in New York and KTLA in Los Angeles .

    In contrast to “Sharon,” “Ellen” averaged a 2.1 household rating in its first week and a 2.1 for the first two days of this week.

    Moreover, syndication's biggest talk shows, “Oprah” and “Dr. Phil,” premiered to an 8 and a 5.8 rating on Monday. “Oprah” had its best premiere rating in five years with Arnold Schwarzenegger as guest, while “Dr. Phil” was up five-tenths of a point from its first-season premiere last year.