We asked Media Life readers to evaluate the first month of the new season in a poll last week, and judging by those results media folks are most impressed by what they’ve seen from the Disney network.

   ABC gets the nod for the biggest surprise of the season, the strongest start to the season, and for the two top new shows of the season. 

   Readers used words like “fresh,” “sexy” and “innovative” to describe the long-struggling network. They were relieved to see that new hit shows can prosper without a) crime scenes and b) any resemblance to reality (unless you consider big hairy monsters real).

   Perhaps most of all, they were surprised by ABC’s sharp rise in contrast to NBC’s sudden fall.

   We asked, “What’s the biggest surprise of the young season?” Two-thirds responded, “ABC’s strong performance among adults 18-49, especially on Sunday nights” while 12.9 percent chose, “NBC’s weak performance among 18-49s, especially on Thursday nights.” 

   Far fewer were impressed by CBS's gains this season, as impressive as they have also been,  with 6.3 percent checking off “CBS’s overall strength in every demo.” The same number chose the  “Overall weakness of broadcast and the continued drain to cable.”
   Just 4.9 percent picked, “Fox’s overall weakness in every demo.” Nearly 4 percent chose “other,” with responses including “no surprises” and “Reality shows finally going down the tubes (thank you).”

   We asked readers to explain their choice, and most of the responses centered on ABC.

   “Their track record indicates they'd have a better chance of finding ants in a tar pit than a program that could generate good buzz and real ratings,” said one.

   “Who knew people would actually tune in to watch shows like ‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives?’ What critics like and what middle America seems to like never seems to meet. Great for ABC,” answered another.

   “ ‘Desperate Housewives’ had lots of buzz, but it's the first show in the last few years to live up to the buzz,” pointed out one respondent.

   Some people were surprised at NBC’s fall combined with ABC’s rise.

   “The leader goes down,” observed one respondent.

   “I had expected ABC to grow, ‘cause I had seen most of the pilots before their official launch, but that NBC would be the one that suffered the most was unexpected,” observed another.
   “My surprise is with how quickly ABC took advantage of NBC's fall ... however, after seeing their fall previews I knew they had a few shows that could do damage,” said one.

   “Although NBC has been trending downward, I never expected them to fall off so quickly this year,” answered another.

 “‘Joey’ needs some friends,” suggested yet another.

   We asked, “Which network is off to the best start of the season?” and no surprise, ABC also dominated with 62.7 percent of the vote. 
   CBS came second at 34.5 percent, followed by the WB (1.6 percent), UPN (0.8 percent), NBC (0.4 percent) and Fox (0 percent).

   As for who’s off to the worst start, NBC was far ahead at 55.1 percent with baseball-laden Fox just behind at 33.1 percent. UPN was third at 7.5 percent, the WB fourth at 2.4 percent, CBS fifth at 1.2 percent and ABC sixth at 0.8 percent.

    We asked, “What’s the best new show of the season?” and two ABC shows dominated. “Desperate Housewives” edged “Lost” with 42.4 percent of the vote to 35.3 percent. Far behind came CBS’s “CSI: New York” at 7.5 percent, followed by the WB’s “Jack & Bobby” at 5.5 percent, UPN’s “Kevin Hill” at 2.7 percent and NBC’s “Joey” at 1.2 percent. 

   More than 5 percent chose “other,” with ABC’s “Boston Legal” leading the write-ins.

   We also asked, “What’s the worst new show of the season?” and NBC’s high-priced adult cartoon “Father of the Pride” got the nod with 35.1 percent of the vote.

   Another NBC clunker, “Hawaii,” which is now on hiatus, placed second with 23.9 percent, followed by CBS’s “dr. vegas” (13.1 percent), CBS’s “Listen Up” (8.8 percent), the WB’s “The Mountain” (8 percent) and ABC’s “Rodney” (4 percent).

   “Other” received 7.2 percent, with “Joey” and all of the above getting the most mentions.

   We asked which show will be canceled first, and you tabbed CBS’s “vegas” with 39.7 percent of the vote. Thirty-one percent picked “Pride,” followed by ABC’s “Complete Savages” (11.5 percent), the WB’s “The Mountain” (7.9 percent) and UPN’s “Veronica Mars” (3.6 percent). 

Just over 6 percent chose “other,” with several suggesting “Hawaii.”

   We wanted to know what deserving show should get a second chance with a new time slot. Forty-two percent chose Sunday's struggling “Jack & Bobby” with ABC’s “life as we know it” just edging “Veronica” for second, 26.9-23.5 percent. “Other” received 7.6 percent, with several saying NBC’s Tuesday 9:30 p.m. “Scrubs,” in its fourth year, deserved a new slot.

   We asked, “Which returning show have you been most impressed by?” and 25.3 percent chose “Without a Trace,” which has pulled ahead of time slot competitor “ER” in households. Twenty percent tabbed ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” followed by WB’s “Gilmore Girls” (16.3 percent), CBS’s “CSI” (15.5 percent) and NBC’s “ER” (10.2 percent), which tied with “other.”

   NBC’s “Apprentice” took least impressive returning show by a wide margin, getting 38.4 percent. Tied for second were Fox’s “That ‘70s Show” and NBC’s “Law & Order” at 16.8 percent, fourth was ABC’s “8 Simple Rules” at 15.2 percent, and fifth was UPN’s “Star Trek: Enterprise” at 4.4 percent. “Other” received 8.8 percent.

   Finally, we figured as long as we had your attention, we’d get an opinion on the Dan Rather situation. 
   We asked, “Right now, gut feeling, should Dan Rather stay or go?”
   An overwhelming majority, 73.8 percent, said, “Stay – He got fed bad information by a source. C’mon, after 30-plus years isn’t a guy entitled to a break?” 
   Only 26.2 percent answered, “Go – That pinko. He was trying to smear Bush. Goodbye and good riddance.”