'Muppets' scores for NBC; CBS tops Wednesday

CBS won a fairly uneventful Wednesday night in the ratings, with most shows holding steady or down a couple notches from last week as the winter holidays approach.

CBS aired "The New Adventures of Old Christine" (7.5 million, 2.0 preliminary adults 18-49 rating and 6 share) and "Gary Unmarried" (7.5 million, 2.3/7) "Criminal Minds" (15 million, 3.9/11) and "CSI: NY" (13.3 million, 3.6/10) were roughly on par.

NBC was second, with special "Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa" (7.4 million, 2.4/7) performing well at 8 p.m. edging out rivals to win the hour in the adult demo and giving NBC its best number in the slot in 11 weeks. Despite a better lead-in this week, however, "Life" (5.2 million, 1.7/5) and "Law & Order" (6.9 million, 1.9/5) slipped slightly.

ABC and Fox tied for third in the demo, with the former running originals of "Pushing Daisies" (4.8 million, 1.6/5), "Private Practice" (6.7 million, 2.3/6) and "Dirty Sexy Money" (5.2 million, 1.7/5).

Against NBC's "Muppets," Fox's "Secret Millionaire" (2.2 million, 2.2/7) fell 21% from last week's episode in the slot, though was up slightly from Thursday's edition, followed by a repeat. The CW aired a repeat and the finale of "Stylista" (1.4 million, 0.6/2).