Day After

Well, ABC rolled the dice on "Daybreak," and it's looking like they crapped out.

Based on the overnight ratings, the debut for the show that replaced "Lost" on Wednesdays performed badly.

ABC had a huge night in the 8 p.m. hour with the "Dancing with the Stars" finale that landed a 17.5 rating and 27 share, easily the most-watched show of the night. But despite that lead-in, "Daybreak's" audience dropped by more than half, mustering just an 8 rating and a 12 share.

That "Daybreak" did badly is bad enough for ABC, but the fact that "Lost" has been in a ratings battle with "Criminal Minds" may damage ABC in the time slot when "Lost" returns in February. "Minds" pulled in a solid 10.4/16 last night.

I know networks are loathe to put on repeats these days, but pulling one of your three top-rated shows after just six episodes to introduce a new so-so show is just mind-boggling to say the least.

One might point out that this was the game plan Fox used with "Prison Break" last season, going with a long hiatus between fall and spring. The difference is, A) Fox aired half a season of "Prison Break," not six episodes, and B) Fox was pairing "PB" with the similarly paced and themed "24" when the shows came back for the winter.

No doubt, ABC was hoping for similar success from this same experiment they pulled two years ago, when a decently rated show in "Boston Legal" was pulled in favor of "Grey's Anatomy," which became a phenomenal success for the network. No such luck here.

If "Day Break" doesn't pick up the slack (and considering the confusing, serialized nature of the show, it probably won't), here's hoping ABC gets its act together and brings back "Lost" earlier than announced.

HIRO WORSHIP: "Heroes" breakout star Masi Oka will return to "Scrubs" for a guest appearance some time this year. Oka got one of his key acting breaks as a semi-recurring character on the NBC sitcom.

The twist, and only "Scrubs" could pull this off, is that even though Oka is reprising his "Scrubs" role, he will have Hiro's time-altering powers. God, I've missed "Scrubs."

Speaking of "Heroes," I've come up with a wild theory on who Syler is. I don't check other fan sites, so I don't know if anyone else has come up with this, but I think it's cool and plausible. I don't want to post it if it turns out to be a spoiler, but if you want it, feel free to e-mail me at pramati@macontel.com.

THURSDAY'S BEST BET: If you read the book "Desperate Networks" like I told you last week, you'll learn how NBC came up with the supersize strategy as a band-aid to combat the popularity of "Survivor" rather than developing quality new shows.

The network returns to the strategy tonight for one week with supersized "My Name is Earl" (8 p.m.), followed by "The Office" and "30 Rock." I've only seen "The Office" so far, but it's a good episode with the two branches of Dunder-Mifflin merging.

Steve Carell's Michael Scott continues to be painfully funny tonight as the Stamford employees meet their new boss.

Also, for comic book fans, there's a rumor that the Martian Manhunter, aka J'onn J'onzz, makes a guest appearance on "Smallville" (CW, 8 p.m.) tonight.