James Marsters

Thursday

Who is faster than Seth Cohen? More powerful than Sydney Bristow and about to leap Chris Rock in a single bound? That would be Thursday’s newest and unlikeliest superhero, Smallville (pictured), which against all odds (high school graduation is green kryptonite to TV shows) and prognostications (this is a fifth-year show in its third time slot), has emerged unbloodied on TV’s most competitive night. Credit the creative team, which ditched the freak-of-the-week fest, added cult favorites Brainiac (the peerless James Marsters) and Aquaman (the peerlessly chiseled Alan Ritchson), and refocused on retelling the legend we all know. ’’This is the year that the boy becomes a man,’’ says WB Entertainment’s Janollari. That’s figuratively as well as literally, with a slew of seminal adult moments for our hero: clashes with Lex, sex with Lana, creation of the Fortress of Solitude, and - spoiler alert! - the death of a major character for the 100th episode in February. ’’We came into the season knowing we were going to be able to turn over some big cards,’’ says executive producer Gough. ’’Everything you’ve been waiting to see is now going to happen.’’

Viewers - and competitors - are taking notice: Smallville (No. 83) has increased the year-to-year time-slot performance by 88 percent and boosted its audience (now at 5.8 million) by 1.5 million over last season’s average. Unexpectedly, it’s right on the tail of other networks’ big guns: Fox’s The O.C. (No. 76), UPN’s buzzy Everybody Hates Chris (No. 78), and even NBC’s Joey (No. 66). ’’Thursday’s a much more difficult night because you’ve got The WB in there now,’’ admits Fox’s Beckman.

Gough and fellow executive producer Miles Millar have been rewarded for their efforts with a possible spin-off for Aquaman, whose appearance brought in the show’s highest ratings in two years. ’’Smallville is puberty with superpowers. This will be about adulthood - you have this power, so what are you going to do with your life?’’ says Gough of his yet-to-be-cast pilot. Would Thursday night be big enough to hold two superheroes? The big guy himself thinks his series is reinvigorated for the long haul. ’’As long as we stick to what the show was about originally - the mythology of these characters and where we all know they’re going to be in the future,’’ says Superman Tom Welling, ’’there’s no way of knowing how far it can go.’’

OTHER THURSDAY WINNERS CBS’ CSI (No. 1) and Without a Trace (No. 3) are so dominant they’ve made Thursday a battle for their leftovers.

THURSDAY LOSERS ABC’s Night Stalker (No. 89). The network nixed the ’70s horror remake after a lavish promotional campaign failed.