"Anatomy" of a "CSI" Takedown

[stu]

By Joal Ryan

Fri Sep 22, 10:22 PM ET

 

 

 

Meredith Grey can't make up her mind. Imagine how torn TV viewers felt.

 

With a choice between the season premieres of Grey's Anatomy and CSI Thursday night, channel surfers, by and large, chose the ABC doctor drama.

 

 

Per final numbers from Nielsen Media Research, Grey's Anatomy won the 9-10 p.m. time slot with 25.4 million viewers; CSI trailed with 22.6 million.

 

 

The victory is a huge one for ABC, which gambled by moving Grey's Anatomy from Sundays, where it was ensconced after Desperate Housewives, to a historically blighted night for the network.

 

 

Instead of becoming a Wasteland or a Push, Nevada, two latter-day ABC Thursday-night bombs, Grey's Anatomy became a giant-slayer.

 

 

CSI has ruled Thursdays since moving there in 2001, mid-way through its first season. More than that, Gil Grissom's forensic gang has ruled prime time as TV's most watched scripted show since the 2002-03 TV year.

 

 

Up against Grey's Anatomy, CSI saw its audience shrink 22 percent from last fall's premiere. (Grey's Anatomy, by comparison, was up 32 percent.) CSI got beat in total viewers, it got beat in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic, and it got beat in the 18-to-34-year-old demographic. According to ABC, the defeats were the first for CSI in five years, excluding a handful of times it lost out to supersized finales, a la the 2004 Friends farewell.

 

 

In the drama department, CSI countered Grey's Anatomy's man troubles (Will Meredith choose Dr. McDreamy or Chris O'Donnell-y Finn?) with the apparent date rape of Catherine ( Marg Helgenberger).

 

 

Thursday marked the first time both science-minded shows went blood lab to blood lab with new episodes. Grey's Anatomy rolled out its third-season premiere; CSI, its seventh.

 

 

By the end of the night, Grey's Anatomy had its third most watched episode ever. Only the two hours that aired after last February's Super Bowl attracted more viewers.

 

 

Looking for a bright side, CBS found it by crunching the numbers for its entire Thursday lineup--including the latest episode of Survivior: Cook Islands (17.4 million) and the series premiere of James Woods' Shark (14.7 million)--and declaring itself the most watched network of TV's most watched night.

 

 

Usually a non-player on Thursdays, ABC kept things close by managing 13.7 million for a Grey's Anatomy clip show that aired from 8-9 p.m., and 12.6 million for the series premiere of Six Degrees in the 10-11 p.m. hour.

 

 

Though its numbers weren't as scarce as, say, Kidnapped's, and marked a big improvement for ABC in the time period, Six Degrees needs to work on relationship-building. In the course of an hour, the J.J. Abrams soap lost fully 50 percent of the audience ABC assembled for Grey's Anatomy. (Shark lost 35 percent of its CSI lead-in.)

 

 

Still, with CBS moving hit Without a Trace to Sundays, the 10 p.m. Thursday hour is up for grabs. NBC's aged ER, now 13 seasons old, eked out a win there with an estimated 15.6 million viewers.

 

 

NBC couldn't eke out much else on the competitive night.

 

 

Fresh out of footballs, the Peacock made do with the season premieres of My Name Is Earl (estimated 9.9 million), The Office (estimated 9.1 million) and another Deal or No Deal (10.1 million). Earl's Emmy win last month translated into an opener that was 29 percent down from last fall's; The Office's was good for a whopping 1 percent gain.

 

 

Fox, meanwhile, presumably would like to be left alone with its thoughts after viewers left it alone with three new episodes of 'Til Death (estimated 5.7 million), Happy Hour (estimated 4.4 million) and Celebrity Duets (estimated 3.3 million).