After nice starts, comedies await 'Idol'

In the season that has seen the half-hour comedy dominate primetime, two more half-several hours opened up as much as promising amounts the other day. But keeping that early momentum may prove difficult. CBS' Make the most of Schneider comedy "Make the most ofInch and NBC's Chelsea Handler skein "Are You Currently Presently There, Chelsea," because both versions exceeded anticipation utilizing their premieres, will have to do fight with Fox's "The The American Idol Show Show,Inch that's set to disrupt viewing designs appreciate it does every year at this time around around. After they scheduled their midseason comedies a year ago, both CBS and NBC thought their shows may have 2 days to find out themselves before "Idol" bowed, but Fox elevated the start date of the megahit with this week -- meaning the completely new comedies will have to make an effort to carry onto audiences. Still, neither CBS nor NBC may have asked for better bows for laffers. On Wednesday, according to Nielsen, "Are You Currently Presently There, Chelsea" averaged a few.3 rating/6 participate grownups 18-49 and 6.18 million audiences overall inside the 8:30 p.m. half-hour -- building on its lead-in from "Whitney" on its new evening (2./6, 5.79m) and giving NBC its best regular, in-season score inside the timeslot within yearly. Although not a significant number, the 2.3 demo score might be the the 2nd better of NBC's six comedies the other day (behind "WorkInch) and offers the network something to build up. For "Whitney," it outpeformed the ultimate five cases of "Up With The Evening" to air in Wednesday's leadoff hour. One evening later, CBS opened up in the evening with large sums for "The Big Bang Theory" (5.3/15 in 18-49, 16.13m), which will finish since the week's No. 1 live-action type in 18-49. And "Make the most ofInch maintained an excellent 77% slice of adding-in (4.1/11, 13.47m), rating since the night's No. 2 type in 18-49 and faring a lot better than any show being launched of "Large Bang" since it gone after Thursday in September 2010 ("Bleep My Dad States," "Rules of Engagement" and "How to be a Gentleman"). Fox's Thursday drama "The Finder," meanwhile, should benefit from the return of "Idol," therefore it follows. Within the bow the other day, the "Bones" spinoff settled for just about any 1.7/4 in 18-49 and 5.5 million audiences inside the 9 o'clock hour -- last among the Large Four and well behind dramas "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC (3.8/10, 10.71m) and "Person of great interestInch on CBS (series-best 3.2/8, 14.86m). Inside the same hour, NBC's "Up With The Evening" stood a sluggish come from the 9:30 slot (2./5, 4.24m) behind "WorkInch (2.9/7, 5.90m). Earlier, the returning "30 Rock" started the evening half way decent (1.8/5, 4.47m), faring slightly a lot better than "Community" inside the timeslot.And shutting the evening, it absolutely was slow choosing for that Peacock's "The Firm" (1./3, 4.23m), which placed fifth in 18-49 among British-language systems and exercised no a lot better than recent slot occupant "Prime Suspect," that's been canceled. Contact Ron Kissell at ron.kissell@variety.com