SyFy Portal Reports:

“Lost” has seen better days. But how bad is it?

“Lost” earned a 7.1 rating/12 share Wednesday — identical to what it did last week — according to Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research. However, when compared to the rest of television Wednesday night, “Lost” didn’t do half bad in the overnight numbers.

In fact, having Jack (Matthew Fox) return to the beach for the first time this season made “Lost” the fourth most-watched program of the night, behind the “American Idol” results show on Fox (which earned a 16.2/25) and a new episode of “CSI: NY,” which had an 8.5/14 in the same hour as “Lost” and “Criminal Minds” — both on CBS — which had an 8.3/13. The closest any other show came to “Lost’s” ratings was “Jericho” on CBS, which won the 8 p.m. hour with a 5.3/9, Zap2it reported.

“Lost” also apparently is on late enough to where people prefer to have the DVR record it and watch it later. TV Squad reports that when Nielsen includes 7-day time shifted ratings numbers, “Lost” actually gains 2 million viewers, virtually more than any other show on television (with “Heroes” close behind).

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