Thursdays are back! After nearly every Thursday show took last week off to side-step the viewership nosedive that comes with Thanksgiving (people are too busy in tryptophan trances!), last night was filled with new episodes on ABC, CBS, and NBC.
But before I talk Grey’s, The Office, and Survivor, let’s get to Barbara Walters, who premiered her annual 10 Most Fascinating People special on ABC. The hour drew 13.2 million viewers to win the 10 p.m. timeslot and increased viewership by 17 percent over last year’s outing. It’s no surprise that her buzzy picks — Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Tina Fey, and Miley Cyrus, to name a few — helped Walters pull in the third-best viewership of the evening behind Grey’s Anatomy and CSI.
CBS’s Survivor easily won the 8 p.m. hour with an episode that topped last week’s recap episode by 4.3 million viewers. See what I mean about Thanksgiving killing off viewers? The rest of the hour was rather typical: ABC’s Ugly Betty nabbed 8.5 million viewers, a 200K bump from the previous new episode; NBC’s My Name Is Earl (6.1 million) and Kath & Kim (4.9 million) held steady compared to previous weeks; and Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares (3.7 million) and the CW’s Smallville (2.3 million) were in repeats.
Thursday night’s big battle-zone hour of 9 p.m. saw CBS’s CSI
trounce the competition by pulling in an evening-winning 17.3 million
viewers, which is 2.1 million more viewers than the sagging Grey’s Anatomy managed
(15.2 million). Maybe viewers aren’t loving the return
of Denny as much as ABC execs thought? Over on NBC, The Office hit the same mark — 8.3 million viewers — as it did two weeks ago with its last new episode and — what do you know? — so did 30 Rock,
which drew 7.1 million viewers. Talk about a devoted, but not so
growing, audience. Another double-whammy of repeats on Fox and the CW — Kitchen Nightmares again (4.1 million) and Supernatural (2 million) — naturally did not wow.
As for the rest of the competition against Barbara at 10 p.m., CBS’s Eleventh Hour topped its previous outing by 300K, pulling a solid 10.9 million viewers. And the soon-to-end ER actually dropped by 700K viewers from two weeks ago, drawing just 8.2 million gawkers.
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Thursday night’s big battle-zone hour of 9 p.m. saw CBS’s CSItrounce the competition by pulling in an evening-winning 17.3 millionviewers, which is 2.1 million more viewers than the sagging Grey’s Anatomy managed(15.2 million). Maybe viewers aren’t loving the returnof Denny as much as ABC execs thought? Over on NBC, The Office hit the same mark — 8.3 million viewers — as it did two weeks ago with its last new episode and — what do you know? — so did 30 Rock,which drew 7.1 million viewers. Talk about a devoted, but not sogrowing, audience. Another double-whammy of repeats on Fox and the CW — Kitchen Nightmares again (4.1 million) and Supernatural (2 million) — naturally did not wow.
As for the rest of the competition against Barbara at 10 p.m., CBS’s Eleventh Hour topped its previous outing by 300K, pulling a solid 10.9 million viewers. And the soon-to-end ER actually dropped by 700K viewers from two weeks ago, drawing just 8.2 million gawkers.
More TV News:
TV Recaps: Thursday’s best
Ausiello Files: A Very Brady Samantha Who?
TV’s Most (and Least) Stylish Characters of 2008
25 Smartest People in Television
Ugly Betty Bites: Christina quips!
Comments (1-13) of 13 Add your comment
Sure. Talk about Barbara’s special but don’t tell us who was on her list.
ER rules! It does not get a lead-in like EH and Barbara Walters (with Mr. Cruise!) do but it still delivers solid numbers. ER has bigger numbers than many recent TV shows. That said, give the show a break.
Most of the top ten were easy to pick and justified. I mean, did anybody not think Obama was number 1?? There was someone however that I thought should have made that list. That someone died early in the year and was in the highest grossing film of the year…a little film called the Dark Knight. Heath Ledgers performance and his tragic death were far more fascinating than Tom Cruises coach jumping and mis hits at the box office. Come on Barbara!! I’ve had enough of Tommy’s publicity troubles. Heaths story deserves to be told and his work needs to be appreciated.
people forget that season one of without a trace didn’t do well in there first episode and then it grew…SO I have high hopes that Eleventh Hour could rise up.
I’m shocked Robert Downey Jr. didn’t make Barbara’s Walters top ten list. He had a huge year with 2 of the blockbuster movies of the summer and possibly another waiting to be released in early 2009.
I figured it was Obama. But I really thought it would be his whole family. Like we have never seen a black family before make it big.
Viewership for prime time television shows is always low on Thanksgiving. People want to have Thanksgiving dinner with their families the most.
Robert Downey Jr. should have replaced Tom Cruise on Barbara Walters 10 Most Fascinating List. Tom didn’t have a leading role in a motion picture this year. He had a minor acting role in Tropic Thunder, but that’s it. Robert had two box office hits this summer in Iron Man and Tropic Thunder and you mean that Barbara passed on him? Tom took most of 2008 off acting and preparing for some 2009 movies. Robert’s acting has gotten better and sharper and he was very good as well as funny in Tropic Thunder. Did Barbara watch her favorite Tom Cruise movie DVDs 76 times too much before she did that interview? Robert deserved more recognitition than Tom.
Completely agree about Downey. And he should’ve done the whole interview in his Tropic Thunder character voice, like he did with the DVD commentary. lol.
Unrelated, so glad to see 30 Rock’s numbers holding. It’ll be nice to not have to worry about it getting canceled like I’ve had to in the past.
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