Harper’s Island not only exceeded many expectations in its late-season premiere, but even took on John Wells … and won.

The weekly murder mystery about a wedding on an island gone bad earned a 6.7 rating/12 share Thursday, according to Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research. That was enough to win the hour, and even best the series premiere of “Southland” on NBC.

Harper’s Island got a good boost from its CSI lead-in, but lost 32 percent of its lead-in audience. Also, despite a smaller audience, “Southland” attracted more people in the key advertising audience demographic of adults 18 to 49, but only by a slim margin.

The ratings, however, were in line with the most recent episode of “Eleventh Hour” in the same time slot a week before, losing only a small percentage of that audience, meanig it held the timeslot down well.

“Harper’s Island” will not end up being the highest-rated genre show this week, however. That honor remains with “Fringe,” which picked up a 6.9/10 Tuesday night.

For the night, CBS won easily with a 7.8/13.

Source: Airlock Alpha