Okay, this writer’s contact information is at the end of the article if you want to complain or give him a list of George Michael’s hits: Dave on Demand: George Michael visions

The show certainly represents an image upgrade for George Michael. The last time we saw him in prime time, in the series finale of Extras on HBO, he was playing himself, cruising a park in London for anonymous gay sex.

In Eli Stone he gets to play his old pop-star self. But I can’t help but wonder: If they use one of Michael’s songs each week, won’t they run out of hits pretty fast? By next month, I’m afraid there will be episodes of Eli Stone set to claptrap like “The Strangest Thing” and “Flawless (Go to the City).”

Not even the streets of San Francisco can redeem that.

“Eli Stone” kept most of the “Lost” audience, according to Nielsen Ratings.  It’s interesting that in the following article, George Michael is being credited as being a draw for “Eli Stone.”

Nielsen Ratings – Jan 31, 2008: ABC Gets LOST

More surprising to me was the performance of the premiere of ABC’s Eli Stone following the Lost premiere.  The results for the first half hour will likely change some as Lost technically ran past 10pm, but Eli averaged ~12.5 million for the first half hour and 10.75 million in the second half hour.  This is not dramatically great performance, but given the George Michael tie-in, many more gave it a chance than I would’ve thought. 

E! Online has a new poll for Eli Stone.  You can Save It or Sink It: Eli Stone.

 At this moment, here are the results:

• 67.3% Save it
• 9.3% Sink it
• 23.4% Haven’t seen it yet