Ratings: '30 Rock' rolls to a big premiere as CBS wins again

Maybe absence (and a spot-on Sarah Palin impression) does make the heart grow fonder. Emmy-winner 30 Rock’s late-in-the-season premiere didn't win its 9:30 p.m. time slot on Thursday, but the sitcom starring Tina Fey (pictured, left, with Megan Mullally) did nab 8.5 million viewers (up a million from last year’s opener) on a yet another Thursday night on which CBS claimed victory. 30 Rock’s NBC lead-in, 9 p.m.’s The Office, had a similarly good night. The show’s Halloween episode attracted 9.3 million watchers, the most this season since its Sept. 25 premiere. ER also scored for the third-place Peacock network. The return of Shane West’s double amputee Dr. Ray Barnett to County General drew 9.1 million viewers at 10 p.m. (16 percent more than tuned in for the show's season debut), placing ER just above its ABC opponent, Life on Mars.

But don’t cry for Life on Mars. The freshman drama was finally up after two weeks of steady decline: 8.4 million tuned in, a 6 percent increase from the previous episode. Elsewhere on the alphabet network, Ugly Betty secured 8.6 million watchers, slightly below last week's tally (Ralph Macchio’s guest spot didn’t do it for you?), and Grey’s Anatomy earned its highest ratings since September, taking in 15.1 million viewers and earning the night’s No. 1 spot among adults 18 to 49.

Nevertheless, CBS was the night's top net, winning every time slot between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. and collecting an average 14.4 million viewers. At 8 p.m., Survivor: Gabon drew 13.3 million watchers (still a bit below Survivor: China’s 14.2 million average). At 9 p.m., Thursday’s highest-rated show for four weeks in a row, CSI, attracted 18.6 million (a decline form last week’s 19.5 million, but well above last season’s 16 million average). And at 10 p.m. the freshman procedural Eleventh Hour held on to 60 percent of CSI’s viewers, rounding out the night for the Eye with 11.5 million.

Fox’s double shot of Kitchen Nightmares (a rerun at 8 p.m. and a new episode at 9 p.m.) brought in an average 3.8 million viewers for the network. While over at the usually neglected CW, Smallville held steady at 4.2 million and Supernatural earned 3.5 million (a 40 percent increase from last season’s average).

More TV News:
30 Rock recap
Survivor: Gabon recap
Grey's Anatomy recap
The Office recap
Life on Mars recap
CSI recap