Nellie Andreeva

Four days before the official start of the fall season, the CW has already launched three of its four new series. The latest, The Secret Circle, opened last night with 3 million viewers and a 1.3/4 in adults 18-34. It was even with last fall’s premiere in the time slot of Nikita among adults 18-34 but down 16% in total viewers and a tenth in adults 18-49 as Nikita is a little broader and older-skewing. Secret Circle edged the Nikita premeire in women 18-34 (1.9/5) by 6% to post the network’s all-time high in the slot in that demo. The Secret Circle‘s lead-in, the third-season premiere of CW’s flagship drama The Vampire Diaries (3 million, 1.6/5), was down 11% in total viewers and 16% in 18-34 from last fall’s premiere but built on the May finale. Secret Circle and Vampire Diaries — which share Kevin Williamson as executive producer and Alloy books by L.J. Smith as source material — showed good compatibility, with Secret Circle retaining 100% of the Vampire Diaries audience. But the real test for the two shows will come next week, when they will face all-new competition, including Fox’s The X Factor. The only original offering on the Big 4 last night was the two-hour finale of ABC’s Wipeout (2.2/6 in adults 18-49), which was down 19% from last September’s two-hour closer. It finished tied for second place for the night in 18-49 with a Big Bang Theory repeat, with another Big Bang rerun (2.6/8) topping the rankings. ABC (1.8/5, 5.6 million total viewers) finished tied with CBS (1.8/5, 8.1 million) for the night in 18-49, while CBS was No. 1 in total viewers.

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