It's a sea change, but will we see change?

In TV news (as in "news about TV," not "news on TV"), the ratings for the big premiere week are in. Yadda yadda "CSI" blah blah "Law & Order" this and that "The Apprentice"; here's the part I want to comment on:

But the struggling ABC network boasted a stunning success of its own on Wednesday with the debut of the castaway thriller "Lost," easily dominating the 8 o'clock hour with 18.7 million viewers overall and a No. 1 showing in ratings among young adults, according to early Nielsen Media Research figures.



[...]



What made the robust debut of "Lost" so surprising, especially in light of ABC's recent difficulties launching dramas, was that it seemingly came out of nowhere—lacking a potent "lead-in" show or ties to an already established hit.

Yeah, all it had going for it was a unanimously positive critical response and everything from "Entertainment Weekly" and "TV Guide" to the New York Times and NPR saying it was the best new show of the season. What, you mean putting on a—gasp!—good show can actually get you good ratings?* This changes everything! What on earth will TV executives do now?!†



*I know, it usually doesn't work; see "Freaks & Geeks," "Arrested Development," et multi alii. But it still ought to be more of an expectation than an exception.



†I stand by my use of the "?!" combination at the end of this sentence. In fact, if I really trusted all browsers' Unicode, I'd have used the interrobang character: ‽ [If you can see that, you're not using Internet (H)explorer.]