Thursday premieres; McCain vs. late-night; Web ratings

>> Fox yanked ailing comedy "Do Not Disturb" off its schedule after its third episode, replacing it next week with a second episode of "Til Death" to fill the hour.

>> Friday's televised debate is still up in the air. "The debate that matters most right now is taking place in the nation's capital," John McCain said. Barack Obama said, "The American people I believe deserve to hear directly from myself and Sen. McCain about how we intend to lead our country."  ... Man, these two. They can’t even agree to argue ... Meanwhile, stakes are high for the debate, as one poll suggests 18% are still undecided. Really? If you can’t choose between idealogical and stylistic opposites like McCain and Obama, it’s not that you don’t know the candidates, it’s that you don’t know yourself.

>> Meanwhile, David Letterman mocks McCain for suspending his campaign, while Craig Ferguson sees Letterman's ratings-driving headlines and says "Me Too-Me Too."

>>  From what some critics are saying, ABC’s two-hour “Grey’s Anatomy” premiere tonight is creatively back on track. Also up: the two-hour HD-finally premiere of “Survivor.” Should be interesting to see of CBS’ premiere week streak of ratings gains extends to its veteran reality hit, which has ebbed in the Nielsens in recent years. Here’s Jeff Probst chatting about the Gabon edition. Pet peeve: It seems like every cycle Probst talks up the unique dangers of the new setting’s local wildlife, which then only serves to populate confusingly metaphoric cutaway shots between watching the survivors argue and run around (hey, a shot of a spider catching an insect -- does that mean Janice finally has Maxine caught in her web of deception, or that there are a lot of spiders nearby, or  the director thought it looked creepy, or that Raid is a CBS sponsor?). Just once I want a survivor’s whiny confessional interrupted by a Bengal tiger.

Some admittedly dull late night and network Web site traffic ratings buried after the jump.

>> The 2007-08 broadcast year concluded last week and "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" finished its 13th year in a row as the No. 1 late-night program among adults 18 to 49, and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" wrapped up its 14th straight season at No. 1 in its time period. Leno averaged 1.8 million viewers in the demo (up 23% from key rival CBS's "Late Show With David Letterman") and O'Brien had 984,000 (up 39% in the demo from CBS' "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson")

>> Web site traffic: NBC.com continues to lead the broadcast networks in online traffic, with the site receiving a 15% market share of visits, according to Hitwise for the week ending Sept. 20. As usual, reality show dominated the top 10 most-visited series sites, with NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” in the top spot, followed by CBS’ “Big Brother,” ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and NBC’s “Deal or No Deal.” Among cable networks, Comedy Central’s “South Park” has the most-visited site.

Broadcast Prime:

1    NBC    America's Got Talent    14.93%
2    CBS    Big Brother    8.77%
3    ABC    Dancing with the Stars    6.07%
4    NBC    Deal or No Deal    5.81%
5    NBC    The Biggest Loser    3.44%
6    FOX    America's Most Wanted    3.41%
7    FOX    Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles    3.07%
8    FOX    American Idol    2.56%
9    CBS    NCIS    2.21%
10    NBC    Heroes    2.07%

Broadcast Nets:

1    NBC    www.nbc.com    35.56%
2    CBS    www.cbs.com    22.51%
3    ABC    abc.go.com    17.64%
4    *FOX Aggregation    *FOX Aggregation    15.57%
5    The CW Television Network    www.cwtv.com    7.73%

Cable shows:

1    Comedy Central    South Park    4.17%
2    Food Network    Paula's Home Cooking    3.92%
3    Comedy Central    The Daily Show    3.80%
4    Fox News    O'Reilly Factor    3.48%
5    MTV    The Hills    3.31%
6    BET    106 & Park    3.20%
7    CNN    Lou Dobbs Tonight    2.64%
8    Fox News    Hannity & Colmes    2.43%
9    Food Network     30 Minute Meals    2.31%
10    Bravo    Project Runway    2.15%