They didn’t have much competition, but Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles took out the competition handily last night, according to The Programming Insider:

Led by the prime-time portion of the Giants versus the Cowboys on the NFL Playoffs (which was beneficial to the series-premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Fox steamrolled past the Sunday competition. …the debut of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles at a hefty 18.29 million viewers and a 7.6/18 in the demo from 8-9 p.m. Needless to say, Fox dominated from 7-9 p.m.

On the one hand, I’m not surprised at the ratings. What were they really up against? They’ve also had a really heavy advertising push.

But at the same time, this project has been dogged by naysayers. The internet is full of people who wanted it to fail, so I wasn’t sure that the show would actually make a splash at all. But I do find that “fanboys” have a tendency to spend hours nitpicking and insulting something, only to still tune in when the day comes. So I wonder what the critical reception will be once the second half airs tonight.