‘Wives’ slip may be showing

Even though it remains one of TV’s most-watched shows, ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” has had a tough sophomore year, with ratings slipping and many fans complaining that the series has lost its sense of fun and become silly and overwrought.

Sunday’s two-hour season “Housewives” finale dominated the night, with an average of 24 million total viewers (9.8 rating/23 share among adults 18-49), according to early figures from Nielsen Media Research. It was easily the night’s most-watched program, dispatching such rivals as the first part of NBC’s miniseries “10.5: Apocalypse,” which emerged from the rubble with a disastrous 8.3 million total viewers (2.6 rating/6 share among 18-49) -- part 2 airs tonight.

But the “Housewives” finale sank 27% among young-adult viewers compared with last year’s season closer. And many fans carped on Internet message boards that the Sunday wrap-up was confusing and relied too heavily on multiple flashbacks tracing the back stories of the families on Wisteria Lane.

“The show went backward and forward in time so much I thought I was watching the series finale of ‘Charmed’ again,” wrote one poster on the website TV Squad.

That viewpoint was hardly unanimous though. A poster on Television Without Pity raved, “I have only been watching the show off and on all year but I have to give credit where it is due. That was an awesome season finale. It wrapped up this year and did a great job of setting up next year.”

Next year, of course, will be a major test for “Housewives.” Creator Marc Cherry is in the midst of hiring some new writers for the series. And with “Grey’s Anatomy” moving to Thursdays, some viewers might be more easily tempted to sample fare on other networks.

Channel Island is a blog about the television industry. For the latest posting, go to latimes.com/channelisland. Contact reporter Scott Collins at channelisland@latimes.com