‘Lost’ gets stiff competition

Despite the promotional push for the episode, ratings for Wednesday’s “Lost” slipped 11% (to 20 million total viewers) compared with the show’s previous average this season, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research.

Although ABC’s island thriller still handily won the 9 p.m. time slot, it faced stronger-than-expected competition from CBS’ procedural “Criminal Minds” (15.1 million) and Fox’s reality series “Trading Spouses” (8.2 million).

-- Scott Collins