The season finale of ABC's "Oprah's Big Give" (10 million viewers, 3.2 rating among adults 18-49 and a 9 share) won its time period and concluded on a solid note.

ABC is trying to avoid making any more series pickup announcements until its upfront presentation to advertisers next month, but feel free to consider "Big Give" a likely contender for the return list.

ABC won the night with the top three shows, yet had some disappointing numbers by comparison to earlier this year. "Desperate Housewives" dropped 7% to post another series low (15.6 million, 5.5/13). With the weaker lead-in, return of "Brothers & Sisters" to originals was down 18% from its prior average (10.5 million, 3.6/10).

Fox was second with six animated comedy repeats (averaging 4.3 million, 2.0/6). CBS was third with "60 Minutes" (10.6 million, 1.5/5), "Big Brother" (6.8 million, 2.3/6) and the original movie "Sweet Nothing in My Ear" (8.2 million, 1.5/4). NBC had "Dateline" (1.2/4) and repeats, including USA Network repurposed shows (averaging 1.2/4). The CW was on par (averaging 0.5/1).

'Oprah's Big Give' finale pays off

By James Hibberd

April 21, 2008,