'Rider' running on empty

September 26, 2008 NBC's "Knight Rider" had starter trouble in the ratings race Wednesday night while CBS continued its premiere week victory lap of year-over-year gains. Despite having the highest level of viewer awareness of NBC's new fall shows, the series premiere of "Rider" (7.4 million viewers and a 2.5 rating/7 share in preliminary adults 18-49) opened in third place in the 8 p.m. hour — slightly less than "Deal or No Deal" in the slot last year and half the rating the "Rider" movie pulled down in February. NBC and CBS faced heavy competition in the hour from ABC, which came in second place for the night and won at 8 p.m. by stretching its "Dancing With the Stars" (15.9 million, 3.6/10) legs to Wednesday this week.

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