"Lost" is certainly in no imminent danger, but "Veronica Mars" did all right in its new home Wednesday night.

The critically adored UPN series began its second season in front of its largest audience ever -- 3.3 million viewers -- Wednesday (Sept. 28), despite airing in a cutthroat time period dominated by ABC's "Lost." The episode also scored its highest-ever rating among the network's target audience of young women.

Elsewhere Wednesday, "Invasion" suffered a drop in its second week as CBS' "CSI: NY" returned to the air, but the ABC series still won its hour among adults 18-49, setting up what may be a highly competitive 10 p.m. hour this season.

The 3.3 million viewers for the "Veronica Mars" premiere top even the audiences for reruns that aired on CBS this summer. Following "America's Next Top Model," the show also scored a 1.8 rating among adults 18-34 (beating NBC for the hour) and a 2.5 rating among women 18-34. Both are improvements over the spring numbers for previous timeslot occupant "Kevin Hill."

"Lost," meanwhile, lost hardly any steam from its record-setting season premiere. Wednesday's episode drew 23.2 million viewers and a 9.7 rating among adults 18-49, both of which are the show's second-best totals -- behind only last week's premiere.

"Invasion," however, didn't do quite as good a job of holding the "Lost" audience as it did last week. The second episode of the series brought in 12.3 million viewers, down from 16.4 million last week. Some of those people moved over to "CSI: NY," which drew 13.3 million people but was itself down significantly from last year's premiere, which more than 19 million watched.

"Law & Order" (15.1 million viewers) won the overall battle at 10 p.m. with the conclusion of a crossover story that began Tuesday on "SVU." "Invasion" managed to capture the 18-49 lead for the hour with a 5.1 rating, but the three shows were separated by less than one point in the key ad-sales demographic.