A ‘Model’ night for the new CW

The CW network got off to a fine start Wednesday night, with the season premiere of “America’s Next Top Model” tied as the most-watched episode in the Tyra Banks-hosted series’ history.

An average of 5.3 million viewers tuned in for “Model’s” two-hour debut, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research. That’s the same number as showed up for the sixth-season premiere in March, and it represented a 10% spike from last fall’s rollout.

The performance is especially significant because last season “Model” was on the now-defunct UPN, which merged with the WB Network to form CW. In roughly two-thirds of the nation, CW programming is carried on a different station than carried UPN, so fans had to adjust their viewing habits accordingly. CW started this week with low-rated specials; its full schedule doesn’t begin until next week.

CBS also had a good night, with the new drama “Jericho” (11.4 million viewers) running a strong No. 2 to ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” results show (14.9 million). But the news wasn’t good for NBC’s new thriller “Kidnapped” (7.5 million), which got blasted by the season premiere of CBS’ “CSI: NY” (14.3 million) and a repeat of ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” (10.5 million).