'David Blaine's Dive of Death' disappoints in ratings

While it was slightly delayed due to President Bush's address on the current financial crisis, ABC's much-hyped two-hour David Blaine special still proved to be a dud with only 7.7 million viewers, according to overnight ratings. David Blaine's Dive of Death (pictured) lost more than half of its Dancing With the Stars lead-in audience (15.6 million). The illusionist could not compete with CBS' Criminal Minds which won the 9-10 p.m. hour with 15.1 million, up 19 percent from last year's premiere of 12.7 million. NBC's America's Got Talent also dipped in viewership with 10.3 million, down from last week's 12 million. But the biggest ratings bomb of the night would have to be Fox's 'Til Death which only saw about 4.1 million viewers.

At 10 p.m., CSI: NY was also up from last year's premiere (12.7 million) with a quite impressive 15.6 million viewers, building slightly on Minds' audience. NBC's Lipstick Jungle season 2 premiere only earned 6.1 million viewers, down from its 7.5 million debut last February.

Earlier in the evening, CBS' new comedy block of The New Adventures of Old Christine and rooke series Gary Unmarried were not met with much laughter, rating just 6.7 million and 6.8 million, respectively. NBC's flashy reboot of Knight Rider also bombed with a sorry 7.3 million, a big drop from the 12.7 million people that watched the network's February TV movie. Elsewhere, Fox's Bones continued to perform solidly with 9.6 million while The CW's America's Next Top Model reached 4.1 million eyes.

addCredit("Donna Svennevik/ABC")