'Big Brother' does OK; 'Meteor' crashes

CBS' Sunday time-period debut of "Big Brother" was down a tick from last year, but was nonetheless the highest-rated non-animated program on broadcast TV on Sunday night.

"Brother" (6.8 million viewers, 2.0 preliminary adults 18-49 rating) was down a tenth from last year and 13% from Thursday's premiere, which was still enough to put the reality competition into second place for the night behind Fox's "Family Guy" repeat (4.4 million, 2.1). Due to some golf overrun, "Brother" numbers are expected to shift in the nationals.

NBC's "Merlin" (3.6 million, 0.9) was low, as was the debut of two-part movie "Meteor" (5.1 million, 1.1). Pretty much an all-round clunker night for broadcast. Ratings for HBO's "Entourage" should be in Tuesday unless the cable network special ordered some overnights ...