BREAKING IN BREAKS IN

Fox used a 90-minute edition of American Idol Wednesday night to usher in a new comedy series, Breaking In, starring Christian Slater and Bret Harrison. But while the new show placed second in its time period at 9:30, a reading of the phone book might have garnered similar numbers. The 9:00-9:30 segment of Idol attracted 24.23 million viewers, while Breaking In retained only 9.88 million — a 60-percent loss of viewers. [The new show received mixed reviews. David Hinkley in the New York Daily News said it had numerous problems: “The plot doesn’t offer a lot of possibilities. The jokes are predictable even when the delivery is hip, and none of the characters is especially likable, nor do we care that much which of them mix-and-match with which others.” Matt Roush of TV Guide judged it to be “fairly clever without really being funny or all that amusing.” But David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle said that the series has “an agreeable cast and clever writing, and perhaps enough of both qualities to go the distance.” And Mike Hale in the New York Times remarked that the show “isn’t memorable in any way, but it’s fast-paced and easy to watch.”] CBS won the 9:30 p.m. time period with its hit, CrimInal Minds, which averaged13.9 million viewers.