Sex on the beach: 'O.C.' steams up the Thursday ratings race

0 Comments | USA TODAY, November, 2004 | by Robert Bianco

The O.C.

Fox, tonight, 8 ET/PT

* * * 1/2 out of four

---

Thursday's ratings race just got racier.

After a six-month absence, Fox's wild, witty, sexy melodrama The O.C. is about to discover whether it can pull its young fans back to the beach and away from NBC and CBS, which have had a lock on Thursday nights the past few seasons. Well, if any show can pick that lock, it's The O.C.

Look at it this way: NBC's disappointing Joey keeps telling variations on the same dull story, and CBS' Survivor has tribal-counciled itself down to its dullest group. Say what you will about The O.C. , but no one has accused the show of being dull. If anything, it's too interesting, like a soap on speed.

Consider the cliffhanger corner the show left...