The effects of the writers strike are starting to show up in year-to-year ratings comparisons: In a week when Fox dominated thanks to "American Idol" and to a good start for lie-detector reality series "Moment of Truth," the broadcast industry as a whole limped across the finish line.
This week makes for a clean year-to-year comparison, since it features no football. Also, the same frame from 2007 featured original episodes of such shows as "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives" and "CSI" that exhausted their final fresh episodes for this season earlier this month.