Angel

 Yesterday’s Winners: Country Music Association Awards (CBS), Smallville (WB), The Bachelor (ABC), The West Wing (NBC), Law & Order (NBC)

 Honorable Mention: The O.C. (Fox)

 Yesterday’s Losers: A Minute With Stan Hooper (Fox), Jake 2.0 (UPN), Karen Sisco (ABC)

 Ratings Breakdown: In an unexpected victory, a healthy 10.6/16 for the 37th Annual Country Music Association Awards in primetime fueled CBS to a tie with NBC for first for the evening. Comparably, this was the highest overnight rating for the CMA Awards since 1996. Once the nationals are released, look for a considerable (and rare) Wednesday win for CBS among adults 18-49.

On NBC, it was Wednesday metered market business as usual —and that is certainly not a bad thing — with its combination of Ed (#3: 6.4/10), The West Wing (#2: 11.2/15) and Law & Order (#1 for the night: 14.9/23).

On ABC, new comedy It’s All Relative sunk to a series low 6.2/ 9 at 8:30 p.m. (tied for #3 in the time period) — 21 percent below lead-in My Wife and Kids (#2: 7.8/12). Among adults 18-49 (and based on the fast nationals), It’s All Relative was off by only 10 percent (4.0/11 to 3.6/ 9). At 9 p.m., although demographically driven The Bachelor perked up to a 9.2/13 in the overnights, it won’t win the hour among adults 18-49 opposite CBS’s CMA Awards. What these women see in bachelor Bob is a mystery to me.

Given ABC’s Karen Sisco is their only new series not picked up for the full season, a series low 5.7/ 9 at 10 p.m. (38 percent below lead-in The Bachelor with a loss of 25 percent at 10:30 p.m. — 6.5/10 to 4.9/ 8) does not bode well for its future. Before the axe swings, personally I would flip the sexy Karen with the potentially promising 10-8 on Sunday.

Over at Fox, week two of A Minute With Stan Hooper dipped to a mere 4.3/ 6 at 8:30 p.m. — 22 percent below its already modest week-ago debut (5.5/ 8 on Oct. 29) and 29 percent behind lead-in That’70s Show (6.1/ 9). Erosion among adults 18-49 was even worse with a fifth place 2.5/ 7 in the fast nationals 32 percent below That’70s Show (#3: 3.7/11). Luckily, Fred Willard has his ongoing appearances on Everybody Loves Raymond to fall back on. The McDougals —wouldn’t that make a great spin-off from Raymond?

At 9 p.m., and in better news for Fox, the teen/young adult driven The O.C. perked up to a 6.0/ 9 — 40 percent above Stan Hooper in both the overnights and adults 18-49 (Stan Hooper: 2.5/ 7, The O.C.: 3.5/ 9).

In the battle of the WB versus UPN, the frog net’s combination of Smallville (5.8/ 9) and Angel (4.1/ 6) bested UPN’s fading Enterprise (3.9/ 6) and struggling Jake 2.0 (2.4/ 3) by an average 61 percent. Despite the early non-success of Jake 2.0, UPN is being patient and has re-upped the freshman sci-fi drama for the remainder of the season.