No suspense: ‘24’ thrills more viewers than ‘Alias’

It was spy versus spy on TV Monday night. One’s coming back next year, the other isn’t.

Fox won the last Monday of the 2005-06 season in the key “adults ages 18 to 49” demographic with the two-hour, fifth-season finale of “24.” The drama starring Kiefer Sutherland as a gruff counterterrorism agent delivered a 5.4 rating/14 share in the demo, with 13.5 million total viewers, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research. Overall, “24” climbed 14% in viewers this season, turning the once-struggling show into a solid hit and proving that Fox’s rating success these days is about more than just the mighty numbers for “American Idol.”

But Monday also saw the end of another spy thriller that never caught on. ABC bid buh-bye to the ever-low-rated “Alias” -- the show that made Jennifer Garner a star -- with a two-hour series wrap-up that rounded up just 6.6 million total viewers (2.7 rating/6 share in 18-to-49). The network had high hopes for the show, but it never, ah, garnered much attention beyond its lead actor, and the Monday finale lost more than a third of its young-adult audience compared with last season’s closer.

“Alias” dropped considerably compared with its lead-in, the special “Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Ball” (11.5 million viewers), which was bumped last week to make way for President Bush’s immigration speech.

Incidentally, “24” and “Alias” drew attention as TV’s first post-9/11 spy dramas, although both were shot and ordered as series long before the terrorist attacks. “Alias” premiered in September 2001, and the Fox series followed that November.

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